--- title: "Hire a Freelance or Contract Designer | Utkarsh Panwar" description: "Hire a freelance or contract product designer for SaaS and AI startups. IIT Roorkee, Framer Expert, founding designer at CodeAnt AI (YC W24). Remote." url: https://www.utkarshdesign.com/hire author: Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar updated: 2026-10-08 --- # Hire a product designer: freelance, contract or full-time Service · Updated 8 Oct 2026 ![CodeAnt AI attack surface dashboard on a desktop monitor, showing a security score of 674 out of 950, a risks-by-severity donut and a Fix These First list](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/codeant-hero-mockup.webp) **I'm Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar, an IIT Roorkee graduate, official Framer Expert and founding designer at CodeAnt AI (YC W24). Startups hire me for freelance product design, fractional work and Framer websites. I'm also open to full-time or contract roles as a founding product designer or design engineer, working remotely from India.** ## Ways to work with me | Format | What it's for | Rough length | | --- | --- | --- | | Design sprint | One problem with a clear edge, like a repo-connection step, a pricing page or a dashboard nobody opens. You get designed, tested screens your engineers can build. | 2 to 4 weeks | | Fractional / part-time | A product that changes every sprint and has no designer on staff. I own design decisions for a fixed share of each week, month to month. | Ongoing | | Framer website | A SaaS or startup site that I design and build in Framer, from page structure to launch. Your team can edit it afterwards. | 3 to 6 weeks | | Full-time or contract role | You're hiring a founding product designer or design engineer and want someone who has done the job at a YC startup. | Permanent, or contract-to-hire | The lengths are typical, and the written scope decides the real ones. Starting prices are on the pricing page (product design starts from $4,500/month), and final quotes depend on scope. [Graphic and marketing design](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/services/marketing-design): Campaign graphics, posters, event collateral and decks that match the product and site, quoted per project. ## Hiring full-time or on contract? I'm open to full-time and contract roles: founding product designer, product designer or design engineer, remote. The open-to-roles page lists the titles, how I work across time zones and what I'd need from you. At CodeAnt I've designed the product, the Framer website, the brand and the design system as the only designer, while the company went from $0 to a $60M valuation. I design and build websites in Framer myself and build working prototypes and small tools with AI coding tools. I don't write production app code, so if a role needs a front-end engineer, I'm not that person. One way to test the fit is a paid freelance project first, with a full-time role on the table from day one. You see real work and how I deal with your engineers, and I see how your team makes decisions. ## Who I work with Mostly B2B SaaS, AI products and developer tools. The best fit is a live product with real sign-ups and a visible gap in the data between signing up and getting value. Before CodeAnt I did freelance work for xPay (YC W24), HelpNow (YC W20), Entvin (YC S22), OceanFriends and Zania, and interned at FamPay, Sportskeeda and Bold Finance. That comes to 15+ brands, from a teen payments app to live-score pages read by 20M+ people a month. - ![Zania Website](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/zelc0Tx9X9vimGsSYWQMkHtzE.webp)[Zania Website](https://zania.ai/): Designed and developed entire website in Framer, from structure to final production deployment - ![Entvin Website](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/YcM5MFZ07POipRe6EWEbqMapVTY.webp)[Entvin Website](https://entvin.com/): Designed and shipped SaaS website with clear positioning, product storytelling and conversion-focused flows - ![Fampay - YC S19](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/3v4SQHWPQlGJ4IsrLPOcvf2iL0.webp)[Fampay - YC S19](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/work/fampay): Improved voucher UX by making one-time-use rules clear and smoothing Cashback Store experience - ![Sportskeeda IPL Pages](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/srkJMFgyQ1Z09mOGDhDYFgQlss.webp)[Sportskeeda IPL Pages](https://www.sportskeeda.com/go/ipl): Designed high-traffic IPL pages optimized for live match updates and large-scale user engagement Plenty of teams look for a UI/UX designer in India because the rates look lower. That's a fair reason to start a conversation and a bad reason to hire anyone. Judge me on the CodeAnt case study. ## Time zones I'm in India (IST, UTC+5:30). Teams in the UK, EU, Middle East and APAC get live overlap most days. With US teams I work mostly async: recorded walkthroughs, written decisions and one or two fixed calls a week. My guide to working with a product designer in India covers overlap hours by region, payments and contracts. ## Proof - **2×** Trial-to-paid conversion at CodeAnt AI - **40,000+** Developers using my UX weekly - **80%** Fewer voucher support tickets at FamPay [CodeAnt AI (YC W24): founding designer](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/work/codeant-ai): Product, Framer website, brand and design system for a code health platform used by 800+ companies. The case study covers the onboarding fix that doubled trial-to-paid. [FamPay (YC S19): Cashback Store](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/work/fampay): One-time vouchers lost users money when they were partly spent. Explaining the rule before purchase and again at redemption cut related tickets by 80%. ![FamPay ₹200 Amazon voucher purchase screen in a phone frame with a 'One time use only' pill directly above the Buy Now button](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/images/TJIycZhtS2Zy07Aa7k7a7aN3JyA.webp) _FamPay: the one-time-use rule, shown before anyone pays._ Smaller ones: at xPay a checkout design for live demos cut sales walkthrough time by 30%, and Entvin's SaaS website, from positioning to conversion flows, is live at entvin.com. ## What founders say > Working with Utkarsh is like compressing five years of design into a single month. His speed, taste, and craft consistently push our brand to new heights. > (Amartya Jha, Co-founder, CodeAnt AI (YC W24)) > Utkarsh iterates fast, asks the right questions, and delivers polished results in days. The final output exceeded expectations. > (Pranav Karthik Nagesh, Co-Founder, DawnBreak AI, ex-Google, Amazon) ## When I'm not the right fit - You need a team: a researcher, a PM and three designers. That's an agency. - You want screens restyled but the flow is off limits. Most of my results came from changing the flow. - The role is mostly production front-end engineering. I design, build in Framer and prototype with AI coding tools, but I don't ship app code. - You need a designer live on calls through the whole US Pacific working day. ## How to start 1. **Send a short email**: Write to work@utkarshdesign.com with a link to the product, what isn't working and how you know (a funnel screenshot says more than a brief). For a role, send the job description. 2. **I reply with questions**: Usually three or four, plus a suggestion for which format fits. Sometimes the answer is that you don't need a designer yet. 3. **One call, then a written scope**: After one call I send the scope: the problem, what you'll get, rough timing and how time zones will work. You can also book a 30-minute call at cal.com/utkarsh-design/30min. WhatsApp and LinkedIn are on the contact page if you prefer them. ## Questions people ask ### How much do you charge? Starting prices are on the pricing page. Product design starts from $4,500/month, and the final quote depends on scope, which I confirm in writing after one call. ### Are you open to a full-time job? Yes. I'm open to full-time and contract roles as a founding product designer, product designer or design engineer, working remotely. The open-to-roles page has the details. ### Can I hire you on a contract basis? Yes. I take fixed-scope contracts (a design sprint, a website, an audit) and longer contract roles where I work as part of your team for a set term. I invoice in USD, GBP or EUR, charge $50 an hour for hourly work, and can start immediately. ### How soon can you start? Freelance and contract projects can start immediately. For a full-time role my notice period is 30 days. ### Who owns the designs, and will you sign an NDA? By default I own the designs I make. If you need to own them, I'm happy to sign an NDA and agree ownership in writing before work starts. ### Do you work hourly? Yes. My hourly rate is $50. Most projects are quoted as a fixed price or a monthly rate instead, so you know the total up front. ### Which tools will you work in? Any tool your team uses. Tools are never the problem: I design in Figma, build sites in Framer and work in whatever chat, tracker and docs you already have. ### Do you work remotely? Always. I'm based in Roorkee, India, and work with teams in the US, UK, Europe, the Gulf and Singapore, with a few hours of overlap each day for calls and reviews. ### Can you design and build the website too? Yes. I'm an official Framer Expert. I designed and built zania.ai in Framer end to end and designed the codeant.ai site. ### Do you write code? No programming languages. I build working prototypes and small tools with AI coding tools, and I ship production websites in Framer. App code stays with your engineers, and I review the build with them before release. ## Sources 1. [CodeAnt AI: Autonomous offensive and defensive cybersecurity platform](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/codeant-ai), Y Combinator 2. [Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar (@utkarsh-dhairya-panwar)](https://www.framer.com/@utkarsh-dhairya-panwar/), Framer Community ## Start a project Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck: [book a 30-minute call](https://cal.com/utkarsh-design/30min), email [work@utkarshdesign.com](mailto:work@utkarshdesign.com) or [send a brief](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/contact). ## Related - [Pricing for Framer websites, product design and branding](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/pricing) - [Founding product designer, open to new roles](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/open-to-roles) - [Fractional product designer for early-stage startups](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/services/fractional-product-designer) - [Working with a product designer in India](https://www.utkarshdesign.com/guides/working-with-a-product-designer-in-india) --- Utkarsh Dhairya Panwar, Founding Product Designer and Design Engineer (IIT Roorkee; Founding Designer at CodeAnt AI, YC W24). Email: work@utkarshdesign.com · Book a call: https://cal.com/utkarsh-design/30min · Hire: https://www.utkarshdesign.com/hire · About: https://www.utkarshdesign.com/llms.txt