Principal Product Designer

Creative People; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Creative People in Mountain View, CA is seeking a visionary Principal Design System Designer to shape the visual and interactive DNA of our product platform. You will lead architecture from 0 to 1 or major revamps, reporting to the Head of Design, and influence design and engineering teams across the organization.

This role requires 8–10 years building large-scale design systems, deep accessibility expertise, and a proven ability to drive AI-driven design ops and cross-functional collaboration

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of experience as a system designer with a track record building 0–1 design systems or overhauling large-scale systems.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives in a fast-paced tech environment.
• Strong visual craft linked to scalable, systematic thinking.
• Experience across Web, iOS, Android with native interaction patterns.
• Deep accessibility expertise and commitment to inclusive design.
• Ability to prioritize, make trade-offs, and drive adoption across teams.
• Hands-on experience with AI-driven design ops and engineering handoffs.

Responsibilities

• Architect the Company's Future: define long-term trajectory of the product design system.
• Speed & Bias for Action: drive rapid iteration while maintaining architectural integrity.
• Establish System Governance: create contribution models, docs standards, and version control.
• Exceptional Execution & Craft: maintain high visual quality and consistency.
• Drive & Measure Adoption: collaborate with engineering/product to quantify impact.
• Bridge Design, Code, & AI: integrate Figma environments into production code.
• Strategic Collaboration & Trade-offs: balance autonomy with cross-functional alignment.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

Design system

System design

Cross-functional leadership

Accessibility

AI design ops

Tools

Figma

Frontend handoff

AI MCP servers

Job description

Our client empowers people to improve and prevent chronic metabolic diseases, like type 2 diabetes and obesity, with a new standard of care. They are the only company applying AI technology exclusively toward metabolic health.

The firm starts by building a dynamic model of each person's metabolism — drawing on thousands of data points from CGMs, smartwatches, and meal logs — that maps their personal path to better health. Guided by a dedicated clinical care team, their members have lowered their A1C below the diabetes range, achieved lasting weight loss, and reduced or even eliminated medications, all while living healthier, happier lives.

Working here

The client's team is passionate, talented, and united by a shared purpose: to improve the metabolic health and happiness of their members. They believe in empowering everyone to make a meaningful impact for their members, their clients, and each other, while enjoying a supportive, collaborative work environment.

They've been recognized not only for their innovation but also for their culture, including: Innovator of the Year by the Employer Health Innovation Roundtable (EHIR), selected to CB Insights' Digital Health 150, and named one of Newsweek's Top Most Loved Workplace®.

With more than $100 million raised in recent funding, including a $53 million Series E round in 2025, and a $50 million investment in 2023, they are scaling rapidly across the U.S. and globally. Backed by leading venture firms like ICONIQ Growth, Sequoia, Sofina, Temasek, and Peak XV, they are building the most impactful digital health company in the world.

Join them as they reinvent the standard of care in metabolic health.

They are on a mission to leverage the power of AI and advanced technology for the ultimate good: fundamentally transforming human health and well-being. To scale this monumental impact, they need a visionary Principal Design System Designer to write the visual and interactive DNA of their future.

This is not a maintenance role—this is a defining new era for their company, and you are arriving at the inflection point. Reporting directly to the Head of Design, you will lay the architectural bedrock that dictates how fast they move, how beautifully they build, and how deeply they impact lives for years to come.

They operate in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment where speed, execution, and responsible innovation are paramount. You won't just be managing a library; you will be making rapid decisions and putting them to work immediately. By building a world-class, future-proof design system, you will empower their entire product and engineering organization to deliver life-changing experiences to the people who need them most. Whether you are building from 0 to 1 or architecting a massive 1 to 10 revamp, you will take the lead in driving the strategy that powers their mission.

Responsibilities

• Architect the Company's Future: Play a critical role in defining the long-term trajectory of their product design system. You aren't just building a system for today; you are creating the strategic blueprint that will support their next decade of growth.
• Speed & Bias for Action: In their fast-paced environment, you will drive rapid iteration and deployment, expertly balancing high-velocity execution with long-term architectural integrity.
• Establish System Governance: Define and maintain clear contribution models, documentation standards, and version control processes so the broader design team can easily adopt, contribute to, and scale the system at a rapid pace without creating fragmentation.
• Exceptional Execution & Craft: Uphold an uncompromisingly high bar for visual design. You know exactly how design patterns impact the broader UX, ensuring that their system is as beautiful, accessible, and inclusive as it is functional. You can independently generate and land on a compelling visual direction from scratch.
• Drive & Measure Adoption: Partner with engineering and product leaders to champion system adoption across the organization. You will be responsible for metrics to measure the system's impact on product quality, engineering velocity, and overall user experience to ensure design translates to real-world results.
• Bridge Design, Code, & AI: Seize the chance to reinvent the bridge between their design and engineering teams. You will be empowered to forge entirely new operational flows, standing at the forefront of industry innovation by safely leveraging AI and Model Context Protocols (MCP) to automate and translate Figma environments directly into production code.
• Strategic Collaboration & Trade-offs: Be a relentlessly open and communicative partner. While you are highly autonomous in driving visual direction and moving quickly, you also know how to collaborate deeply, when to pull back, and how to make the necessary architectural trade-offs to keep cross-functional projects moving forward.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• 8-10 years of experience as a system designer.
• Experience: A proven track record as a Principal Designer who has successfully built a 0–1 design system or led a massive overhaul of an existing one at scale within a top-tier, fast-paced tech environment.
• Visual & Systems Excellence: An outstanding portfolio that demonstrates exceptional execution and visual craft, inextricably linked with deep, scalable, and systematic thinking.
• Multi-Platform Architecture: Experience designing scalable systems that translate seamlessly across Web desktop, native iOS and Android, understanding the unique technical constraints and native interaction patterns of each.
• Deep Accessibility Expertise: Thorough knowledge of WCAG standards and a proven track record of baking accessibility and inclusive design principles into the core of a design system from day one—because building for the good of human beings means building for everyone.
• Rapid Prioritization & Decisiveness: The ability to navigate ambiguity, weigh complex architectural trade-offs quickly, and prioritize roadmap items that deliver the most immediate, scalable value to the broader team without slowing down momentum.
• Technical Fluency: Deep understanding of front-end constraints and modern tooling. You have developed seamless handoff flows with engineering and have hands-on experience using AI-driven design ops (like Figma MCP servers or AI IDEs) to tweak code, manage variables, and automate documentation directly.
• Mission-Driven Leadership: A history of proactively taking the lead on complex initiatives, making the team around you stronger, and guiding projects across the finish line with speed, low ego, and a passion for building technology that genuinely helps people.