Design Systems Lead

What you'll do

• Bootstrap and own an intuitive semantic token system that works across multiple platforms and frameworks
• Own the design system repo on GitHub: the source of truth for components, tokens, and standards, including versioning, release management, and a clear changelog
• Set and uphold a high bar for visual design quality across every surface the system touches
• Navigate the nuanced differences between mobile, web, and React UI best practices, and encode them into the system
• Define and run the contribution model and governance: review and shepherd inbound contributions from product feature teams, keeping quality and consistency high as the system grows
• Keep design and engineering in sync, bridging Figma and code so the system stays coherent end-to-end
• Own clear, first-class documentation so teams can adopt components and tokens on their own, and drive adoption across the org through onboarding, office hours, and hands-on support
• Bake in accessibility (WCAG) and theming (including dark mode) as defaults, not afterthoughts
• Maintain a system roadmap, balancing net-new work, migrations, and deprecations against feature-team needs
• Bring new AI tooling into the design systems workflow and help shape how we build systems in an AI-native way
• Operate with autonomy in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment

What we're looking for

• Extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations
• A true 50/50 design-engineer, equally credible in visual craft and in code
• An impeccable eye for visual design
• Deep understanding of the nuanced differences between mobile, web, and React UI best practices
• Strong product sensibilities to help evaluate and integrate contributions from various product feature teams
• Fluency in Figma, but primarily living in GitHub where you own the repo
• Experience designing and maintaining semantic design tokens and scalable component APIs
• A track record of driving adoption through excellent documentation and cross-functional partnership
• Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and how to build them into a system
• Readiness to work with new AI tooling and genuine comfort with ambiguity

Nice to have

• Experience building a semantic token system from scratch across multiple platforms
• A track record scaling a design system through a period of fast org growth
• Experience defining contribution models and governance for multi-team design systems
• Familiarity with component tooling and documentation platforms (e.g., Storybook)
• Experience mentoring designers and engineers and growing a design systems practice