Design Systems Lead

Perplexity; California (MO); On-site; USD 220,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a Design Systems Lead to own and bootstrap a semantic token system across platforms. You’ll live in GitHub and stay fluent in Figma to keep design and engineering aligned.

This 50/50 role emphasizes visual quality, component APIs, accessibility (WCAG), and documentation to drive adoption across product teams, with governance for contributions and a roadmap that balances innovation with stability.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations.
• 50/50 design‑engineer, equally credible in visuals and in code.
• Impeccable eye for visual design.
• Fluency in Figma, but primarily living in GitHub.
• Experience designing and maintaining semantic design tokens and scalable component APIs.
• Strong documentation and cross‑functional partnership.

Responsibilities

• Bootstrap and own a semantic token system across platforms and frameworks.
• Own the design system repo on GitHub: source of truth, versioning, releases, changelog.
• Set and uphold a high bar for visual design quality across surfaces.
• Encode mobile, web, and React UI differences into the system.
• Define and run the contribution model and governance for inbound contributions.
• Keep design and engineering in sync, bridging Figma and code end‑to‑end.
• Own clear documentation to drive adoption with onboarding and office hours.
• Bake in accessibility (WCAG) and theming (dark mode) by default.
• Maintain a system roadmap balancing net‑new work, migrations, and deprecations.
• Bring AI tooling into the design systems workflow.
• Operate with autonomy in a fast‑moving, ambiguous environment.

Skills

Design systems ownership

Design‑engineer mix

Figma proficiency

GitHub ownership

Accessibility standards (WCAG)

Documentation & onboarding

Component APIs design

AI tooling integration

Ambiguity tolerance

Tools

GitHub

Figma

Storybook

React UI

Job description

About The Role

We're seeking a Design Systems Lead with extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations. You'll bootstrap an intuitive semantic token system that supports design and product teams across multiple platforms and frameworks - the foundation that keeps Perplexity's product coherent as we scale.

This is a true 50/50 design-engineer role. You'll live primarily in GitHub, where you own the system's repo, while staying fluent in Figma so design and engineering never drift apart. You'll set the bar for visual quality and the technical standards that let feature teams move fast without fragmenting the experience.

You'll work at the intersection of design and engineering, partnering with product feature teams across mobile, web, and React surfaces.

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

Compensation Range: $220K - $280K