Design Engineer, Design Systems

Dialpad,Inc.; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading communications platform company is seeking a Design Engineer to innovate and develop experimental interfaces, focusing on AI-powered communications. The role requires strong technical fluency and design sensibility, driving the design strategy across teams. The ideal candidate has a portfolio showcasing exceptional design engineering work and experience in modern product environments. This position is a critical contributor to design and prototyping practices, engaging in continuous improvement and collaboration across departments.

Benefits

Competitive benefits and perks

Robust training program

Inclusive office environment

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of design engineering experience in product environments.
• Portfolio demonstrating impactful design-focused engineering work.
• Experience working on AI-powered or data-intensive products.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop experimental interfaces and internal tools.
• Prototype production-quality interfaces with real interactivity.
• Contribute to a design-focused prototyping practice.

Skills

Proficiency in front-end stack (Vue/React/Angular)

Design-focused passion

Strong understanding of UX principles

Exceptional communication skills

Experience with front-end build systems

Job description

We're looking for a Design Engineer who thrives at the intersection of design, front-end engineering AI, and rapid experimentation. You will play a critical role in supporting our Design System (Dialtone). You'll help define how Dialpad explores and prototypes the future of AI-powered communications, designing, building, and iterating on tools and experiences that make our research and product vision tangible. This role sits within the Design organization and partners closely with AI, Research, and Product teams. You'll design and develop experimental interfaces, internal tools, and proof-of-concept experiences that help teams test hypotheses, evaluate AI interactions, and uncover new product opportunities. This is a individual contributor role, ideal for someone with strong design sensibilities and hands‑on technical fluency, someone who can move seamlessly between Figma, the browser, and AI tooling. You'll prototype production‑quality prototypes with real interactivity, data, and states; using modern front‑end frameworks and our design system Dialtone; integrate real AI systems into user flows; and build scalable frameworks that accelerate design solutions with technical exploration across teams. This position reports to our Design Engineering Manager.

• You'll play a key role in the front-end design strategy of our Design System - style, components, and patterns by bringing your experience in front-end design and engineering. Your front-end engineering experience may be characterized as "front of the front-end."
• Advocate for Design. Though Dialtone serves both designers and engineers, it all starts with the end user's experience. You'll focus on being the bridge between design and engineering. You'll assist the design system team in maturing to take on large, high‑visibility initiatives, as well as how other designers and engineers contribute.
• Contribute and execute upon a growing design‑focused prototyping practice that explores feasibility, evaluates emerging AI capabilities, and AI design patterns. You will rapidly build functional prototypes that inform product direction.
• Design and build tooling that supports product designers, researchers, and engineers—such as internal utilities, plugins, and scripts that accelerate iteration and experimentation.
• Prototype and validate new interaction models for AI‑powered workflows, experience integrating AI into prototypes, and experimenting with AI‑driven UI patterns.
• Ensure quality and performance in everything you build with rigor, optimizing for accessibility, maintainability, and performance as first‑class concerns in the design process.
• Act as a guardian of consistency, championing reusable components, ensuring designers and developers adhere to a unified system, and evolving Dialtone, our design system.
• Navigate defined problems with autonomy, helping cross‑functional teams clarify ideas and move toward impactful solutions quickly and iteratively.
• Invest in the growth of the Design organization by sharing best practices, mentoring peers in design‑engineering methods, and building community around creative prototyping. An online portfolio demonstrating design‑focused technical expertise across multiple projects, showcasing thoughtful, high‑quality work that drives innovation. 3‑5 years of experience demonstrating exceptional design engineering fluency across modern product environments, including 1‑2+ years contributing to design systems.
• Proficiency and design‑focused passion in the front‑end stack like Vue/React/Angular/etc, HTML, CSS, Design Tokens, and JavaScript/Typescript.
• Track record of designing, documenting, and evolving styles, Design Tokens, component libraries, and UI patterns that scale product development.
• Interest or experience in the design and build of tooling, plugins, or internal utilities that streamline workflows between design and engineering teams.
• Experience building AI/ML‑driven features, prototypes, experimental systems, or research tools, ideally leveraging frameworks like Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar.
• Demonstrated skill in optimizing and refactoring existing UIs for performance, accessibility, and maintainability.
• Proficiency in state management and component‑based architecture.
• A systemic approach, thinking in patterns and frameworks.
• Strong understanding of foundational UX principles, design heuristics, information architecture, usability, accessibility, and inclusive design practices.
• Commitment to building inclusive, accessible experiences that elevate usability for all users.
• Experience with front‑end build systems, bundlers, and package management (e.g. Webpack, Vite, Rollup, npm, Yarn, nx).
• Deep interest in mentoring and collaborating with designers and engineers to raise the craft and technical quality of their work.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and storytelling skills, able to present complex ideas clearly and build alignment with stakeholders.
• Demonstrate the ability to articulate design rationale to developers, and technical constraints to designers.
• Deep curiosity about emerging design trends, AI tooling, and evolving front‑end practices, with a continuous drive to learn and improve.
• Experience working on AI‑powered or data‑intensive products in a SaaS environment.
• Experience building design tools, plugins, or creative‑tech prototypes that accelerate research or design iteration.
• Experience with creative and technical execution of animations, transitions, or micro‑interactions, delivering refined motion that is consistent and performant.
• Engagement in the design and front‑end community through open‑source contributions, writing, mentoring, or public speaking.
• A track record of connecting design craft, technical depth, and experimentation to push the boundaries of what's possible in digital product experiences.

All applicants must provide a portfolio that showcases examples of design‑focused engineering approaches that demonstrate impact and the ability to deliver work effectively and collaboratively. Can share tangible examples of interactive prototypes, creative coding experiments, design systems work, or similar high‑craft work. You'll thrive here if you love solving real problems for real people and are energized by learning and improving every day.

Dialpad is the leading AI‑powered customer communications platform, transforming how businesses communicate with their customers. More than 50,000 companies around the globe—including Netflix, RE/MAX, Uber, Randstad, and Tractor Supply—rely on Dialpad to build stronger customer connections using real‑time, AI‑driven insights. Visit dialpad.com to learn more. Being a Dialer at Dialpad, you'll be part of a collaborative team working toward our shared mission of making our customers and their employees wildly successful. We believe that every conversation matters, and we're elevating each one with a platform that drives real‑time insights and automation for our customers. We thrive on continuous evolution, where every employee leverages industry‑leading AI to constantly refine our platform and our own skills. We seek individuals who not only meet our high standards but go beyond them. Our ambition is significant, and achieving it requires a team that operates at the highest level. We look for individuals who are not just ambitious but who also possess the traits that are fundamental to our success: Scrappy, Curious, Optimistic, Persistent, and Empathetic.

Dialpad is an equal‑opportunity employer. We are dedicated to creating a community of inclusion and an environment free from discrimination or harassment.

We believe in investing in our people. Dialpad offers competitive benefits and perks, alongside a robust training program that helps you reach your full potential. We have designed our offices to be inclusive, offering a vibrant environment to cultivate collaboration and connection. Our exceptional culture, recognized repeatedly as a certified Great Place to Work, ensures every employee feels valued and empowered to contribute to our collective success.