Design Systems Lead: Cross-Platform Tokens & GitHub Mastery

Perplexity; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a Design Systems Lead who can bootstrap an intuitive semantic token system across platforms and frameworks, forming the foundation that keeps our product coherent as we scale.

The role sits at the intersection of design and engineering: you’ll own the design system repo in GitHub, stay fluent in Figma, set high visual standards, encode mobile/web/React UI nuances, and drive adoption through documentation and onboarding.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations.
• Balanced design and engineering perspective (50/50).
• Impeccable eye for visual design.
• Understanding of mobile, web, and React UI nuances.
• Strong product sensibilities for evaluating contributions.

Responsibilities

• Bootstrap and own a semantic token system that works across platforms and frameworks.
• Own the design system repo on GitHub: source of truth for components, tokens, and standards, including versioning and changelog.
• Set and uphold a high bar for visual design quality across surfaces.
• Encode mobile/web/React UI best practices into the system.
• Define and govern contributions from product feature teams to maintain quality and consistency.

Skills

Design systems ownership

Design‑engineer balance

Visual design

Mobile/web/React UI understanding

Product sense

Tools

GitHub

Figma

Storybook

Job description

Perplexity is seeking a Design Systems Lead who can bootstrap an intuitive semantic token system across platforms and frameworks, forming the foundation that keeps our product coherent as we scale.

The role sits at the intersection of design and engineering: you’ll own the design system repo in GitHub, stay fluent in Figma, set high visual standards, encode mobile/web/React UI nuances, and drive adoption through documentation and onboarding.