Design Systems Lead

Apply; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Apply is seeking a Design Systems Lead who will bootstrap a semantic token system supporting design and product teams across platforms. You’ll own the repo in GitHub while staying fluent in Figma to keep design and engineering aligned.

You’ll set high visual quality standards, encode UI best practices for mobile, web, and React, and drive adoption through robust documentation and governance.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations.
• Ability to operate as a 50/50 design‑engineer with strong visual craft and code skills.
• Excellent eye for visual design and consistency across platforms.
• Deep understanding of mobile, web, and React UI nuances.

Responsibilities

• Bootstrap and own semantic token system across multiple platforms and frameworks.
• Own the design system repo on GitHub as source of truth including versioning and changelog.
• Set a high bar for visual design quality across surfaces the system touches.
• Encode mobile/web/React UI best practices into the system.
• Define and govern contribution model, reviewing inbound contributions with quality and consistency.
• Bridge Figma and code to keep design and engineering in sync.
• Own clear documentation to help teams adopt components and tokens and drive onboarding.
• Bake in accessibility (WCAG) and theming defaults (dark mode).
• Maintain a system roadmap balancing new work, migrations, and deprecations.
• Incorporate AI tooling into the design systems workflow for AI-native design.
• Operate with autonomy in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment.

Skills

Design systems ownership

Design-engineer balance

Figma proficiency

GitHub proficiency

Semantic design tokens

Component API design

Documentation excellence

WCAG accessibility knowledge

AI tooling familiarity

Ambiguity tolerance

Tools

GitHub

Figma

Storybook

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