How it started
Remote work promised freedom. The tools built around it, not so much.
Most job platforms send you everywhere. One listing redirects to a company site. Another requires a new account. Another disappears into an inbox. Before you know it the process is twenty tabs, three resumes, one spreadsheet, and a mild identity crisis.
And that’s just the job seeker side. Employers aren’t having a great time either. Posting a role, vetting candidates, managing applications — it all happens across disconnected tools that were never designed to talk to each other.
So I started asking a different question. What if the whole thing lived in one place?
The research
Before designing anything, I mapped the landscape.
I ran a competitive analysis across platforms: LinkedIn, Remote.com, Indeed, Remotive, FlexJobs, Upwork, NoDesk, and more. Not to copy them. To find where they all quietly gave up on the user.
Four patterns kept showing up:
Redirect off-platform
Job boards collect the listing but send you somewhere else to actually apply. The platform gets the traffic. You get a broken trail.
Employer-centric by default
Most platforms are designed with employers in mind first. Job seekers get a clunkier, more fragmented version of the same experience.
Charging the wrong side
Some subscription platforms charge job seekers to access listings. That’s a strange way to build a tool that’s supposed to help people find work.
Commission-based friction
Marketplace platforms require paid credits and take cuts that add cost and complexity to an already stressful process.
These gaps became Liberra’s design brief: keep users on-platform, serve both sides intentionally, and build for structure, transparency, and trust.
The bet
Remote hiring doesn’t need another job board. It needs a workspace.
One that helps job seekers find roles, apply, track progress, and manage their search without rebuilding the process from scratch every time. And one that gives employers a clean way to post, review candidates, and make hiring decisions without jumping between five tools.
Who it’s for
Two very different users. One platform that has to work for both.
Tired of tracking applications through messy inboxes, frustrated with uploading the same resume over and over, and not interested in paying just to apply for a job. He wants remote-first roles with flexible schedules and a process that doesn’t make him feel like he’s applying into a void.
Needs a simple way to track and manage candidates, wants to post jobs without hitting a paywall on day one, and prefers cost-effective solutions that don’t require an enterprise contract to get started.
How I approached it
The main challenge wasn’t adding features. It was deciding when to reveal complexity.
Browse first. Commit later. Track everything after.
Both user journeys had to feel connected without becoming confusing. So the structure was built around one rule: the system earns the user’s commitment before it asks for it.
What I designed
One account, two clear paths
One email, one account. After signing up, users choose whether they’re looking for work or looking to hire. That single decision shapes everything that follows without making the first screen do too much.
Create Account is tucked under the relevant dropdowns instead of living in the navbar. Because people typically create accounts after they’ve browsed, not before.
Search that feels powerful without being overwhelming
Filters for category, location, salary, work type, schedule, and job level. Real-time suggestions and search history. Remote-first logic baked in — Worldwide always comes first. Salary filters that adapt by currency and timeframe.
Powerful enough to be useful. Simple enough that you don’t need a tutorial to start.
Job tiles as decision units
Each tile answers one question fast: is this worth opening?
Title, company, tags, key details, save action, and application path all visible at a glance. Featured jobs get stronger visual treatment. Regular jobs stay consistent. No noise, no buried information.
Smart Apply
This is where Liberra redefines the remote job application flow.
Instead of redirecting users off-platform, Smart Apply keeps everything in one place. Application method, login or account creation, resume selection or building, confirmation, submission, and tracking. No email black holes. No fragmented trails. Just one end-to-end experience.
Mirrored dashboards for both sides
Job seekers get application tracking, saved roles, resume management, and profile strength. Employers get active post overview, candidate management, company profile, and plan management.
Same structure, different workflows. The product feels cohesive because the system logic underneath it is the same. Just tailored for who’s sitting on which side of the hiring table.
Resume builder
Not just a form. A guided tool that meets users wherever they are in their job search. Prompts remove the guesswork of what to include. Multiple resume versions for different roles. Cover letter support. And if you’re in a rush, just upload what you already have.
Pricing built for entry, not gatekeeping
Employers can post for free. Paid tiers unlock longer listing time, company logo display, and homepage highlights. Optional boost upgrades give extra visibility without forcing a full plan upgrade.
The free plan exists because a platform that makes it hard to post a job is working against itself.
What I’d test next
Whether Smart Apply reduces friction without creating too much platform dependency. Some job seekers might still prefer applying directly. That preference is worth understanding.
And whether employers grasp the value of candidate snapshots quickly enough, or if they default to opening full resumes first. The tile design was built to prevent that, but it needs real user behavior to validate it.