# Design Systems Lead

**Company:** [Imprint](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/imprint)
**Location:** New York, NY, San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Product Design
**Salary:** $190k – $210k/yr
**Experience:** 8+ years
**Skills:** Design Systems, Product Design, Component Architecture, Design Tokens, Accessibility, Figma, Storybook, Frontend Engineering, Ai-Assisted Design, Code Generation
**Posted:** 2026-06-16

> Own strategy, evolution, and execution of Imprint's design system. Partner with Product Design, Engineering, and AI teams to build scalable systems that accelerate product development in an AI-native environment.

## Job Description

## What You'll Do

### Own the Design System Strategy
- Define and drive the long-term vision for Imprint's design system
- Create and maintain a roadmap that balances immediate product needs with long-term platform investments
- Establish governance, contribution models, and decision-making frameworks
- Ensure the system evolves in response to both business needs and emerging technologies

### Lead and Develop the Team
- Mentor a small team of design systems designers and partner with developers
- Raise the bar on decision-making, prioritization, and systems thinking across the team
- Create clear ownership and accountability structures that increase efficiency
- Define success and report on progress, as well as any shifts on strategy
- Advocate for and educate on design systems across the org

### Drive Cross-Functional Execution
- Partner deeply with Product Design to understand customer and business needs
- Collaborate closely with Engineering to ensure system components are scalable, maintainable, and production-ready
- Align design and engineering roadmaps around shared priorities
- Serve as the primary point of contact for design system strategy and adoption

### Build for the Future
- Help define how AI transforms the way products are designed and built
- Explore new workflows that connect design systems, design tooling, code generation, and AI-assisted development
- Evolve our system beyond traditional Figma libraries and Storybook documentation toward machine-readable, AI-consumable foundations
- Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities to increase leverage across the product development lifecycle

### Stay Hands-On
- Contribute directly to design system work as needed
- Review and improve component architecture, documentation, patterns, and guidelines
- Lead complex initiatives from strategy through execution

## What We're Looking For

### Required
- 8+ years of product design experience, including significant design systems ownership
- Experience leading or managing design systems teams
- Demonstrated success building and scaling systems used across multiple product teams
- Strong product judgment and ability to prioritize high-impact work
- Deep understanding of design systems, component architecture, tokens, accessibility, and design-to-development workflows
- Experience partnering closely with frontend engineers and engineering leadership
- Excellent communication skills and ability to influence across functions

### Nice to Have
- Experience with modern frontend technologies and component-based development
- Familiarity with Storybook, design tokens, and design system tooling
- Experience with AI-assisted design, code generation, or agent-driven workflows
- Background in design engineering or highly technical product environments
- Experience building systems in high-growth startup environments

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