Founding Design Systems Lead — AI‑Ready

Render; United States; Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

4 weeks paid vacation

Parental leave (14 weeks)

Medical coverage (100% employee)

Commuter benefits (Bay Area)

Job summary

Render is hiring a Staff/Principal Founding Design Systems Lead to build and scale Render's design system from the ground up. You will work hands-on initially, define architecture, and later lead a team responsible for system governance, tokens, and guidance that are usable by humans and AI agents.

You will collaborate with the Head of Design to align strategy with product goals, drive quality, and ensure accessibility and brand consistency across web platforms.

Qualifications

• Experience leading or developing designers/design engineers.
• Exceptional visual and interaction design skills.
• Strong technical fluency and front-end prototype ability.

Responsibilities

• Set the system's vision and direction for Render's design system foundations.
• Build the foundations hands-on, shipping components, guidance, and quality bar.
• Build and lead the team that owns the design system and scales adoption.
• Elevate Render's visual and interaction design across typography, hierarchy, density, motion, and accessibility.
• Make the system legible to AI with machine-readable docs and agent-facing guidance.
• Guide technical architecture with engineering, balancing flexibility and coherence.
• Define and measure quality, including AI output against system standards.
• Earn adoption by collaborating with product teams and providing practical examples.
• Keep moving as the landscape shifts, experimenting with evolving tools and models.

Skills

Design leadership

Design systems

Frontend prototyping

Figma

Tools

Figma

Job description

Render is hiring a Staff/Principal Founding Design Systems Lead to build and scale Render's design system from the ground up. You will work hands-on initially, define architecture, and later lead a team responsible for system governance, tokens, and guidance that are usable by humans and AI agents.

You will collaborate with the Head of Design to align strategy with product goals, drive quality, and ensure accessibility and brand consistency across web platforms.