Lead Design Engineer

Ladders; United States; Remote; USD 137,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Professional development stipend

Health and parental leave

Bonuses and equity

Job summary

Ladders is seeking a Lead Design Engineer to join a leader in the Enterprise Technology space, shaping design systems and AI-assisted design workflows. You will partner with designers and engineers to translate system decisions into scalable, maintainable code.

The role focuses on governance, accessibility, responsiveness, and performance while helping balance speed with quality in evolving design systems. Remote US-based opportunity with equity options.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in design engineering, design systems, product design, or front-end engineering for web and mobile apps.
• Proven track record of shipping design systems or component libraries.
• Strong interaction and visual design skills with the ability to discern when to reuse patterns vs create new ones.
• Experience with design tokens, theming, and accessibility standards.
• Familiarity with AI tools in design practice and connected to a design system.

Responsibilities

• Develop core system components and feedback loops to improve AI design and code generation.
• Establish governance structures to maintain high-quality standards in AI outputs.
• Translate system decisions into clean, maintainable code.
• Integrate accessibility, responsiveness, and performance into the system by default.
• Set clear models for contribution and governance that balance speed with integrity.
• Collaborate with designers and engineers to incorporate feedback into future builds.
• Share effective AI tools and workflows with the broader design and engineering teams.

Skills

Design systems

Frontend engineering

Accessibility

AI design tools

Tools

Design tokens

Theming

Job description

For our client, we are seeking a Lead Design Engineer to join the team of a leader in the Enterprise Technology space.

This role will shape the foundations of design systems and AI-assisted design workflows, partnering closely with designers and engineers to turn system decisions into scalable, maintainable code.

The Lead Design Engineer will focus on governance, accessibility, responsiveness, and performance while helping the organization balance speed with quality in how design systems evolve.

This is an opportunity to influence how a high-growth technology organization builds, scales, and operationalizes its design and code generation practices.

Location: Remote - US based candidates only, no visa sponsorship available

Compensation: $137,445 – $231,000 annually

Responsibilities

• Develop core system components and feedback loops to improve AI design and code generation.
• Establish governance structures to maintain high-quality standards in AI outputs.
• Ensure system decisions are translated into clean, maintainable code.
• Integrate accessibility, responsiveness, and performance into the system by default.
• Set clear models for contribution and governance that balance speed with integrity.
• Collaborate regularly with designers and engineers to incorporate feedback into future builds.
• Share effective AI tools and workflows with the broader design and engineering teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in design engineering, design systems, product design, or front-end engineering for web and mobile applications.
• Proven track record of shipping design systems or component libraries, with a portfolio showcasing your work and decision-making process.
• Strong interaction and visual design skills, with the ability to discern when to use established patterns versus creating new ones.
• Experience with design tokens, theming, and accessibility standards.
• Familiarity with AI tools in design practice, with demonstrable work connected to a design system.

Benefits

• Flexible, employee-led remote work model.
• Professional development stipend for continuous learning.
• Comprehensive health and parental leave plans.
• Performance-based bonuses and equity opportunities in a high-growth public company.

Our client is an equal opportunity employer.