Design Systems Lead: 50/50 Role (Code, Tokens, Coherence)

Perplexity

San Francisco (CA)

On-site

USD 220,000 - 280,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a Design Systems Lead to own and scale a semantic token system across mobile, web, and React surfaces. You’ll manage the system repo in GitHub while staying fluent in Figma to keep design and engineering in sync.

You’ll set high visual quality standards, define governance for contributions, and drive adoption through documentation, onboarding, and support. Expect an autonomous, fast-moving environment with AI tooling integration.

Qualifications

Extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations.
Experience balancing visual design and code across platforms (mobile, web, React).
Proven ability to ship tokens, components APIs, and governance models.

Responsibilities

Bootstrap and own semantic token system across platforms and frameworks.
Own design system repo on GitHub with versioning, releases, and changelog.
Set high visual design standards across all surfaces touched by the system.
Bridge Figma and code to maintain end-to-end coherence.
Develop clear, first-class documentation and drive adoption through onboarding and office hours.
Maintain accessibility (WCAG) and theming (dark mode) as defaults.
Maintain a system roadmap balancing new work, migrations, and deprecations.
Collaborate with product teams across mobile, web, and React surfaces.