Design Systems Lead (San Francisco)

About the roleWe're seeking a Design Systems Lead with extensive experience owning design systems at large organizations. You'll bootstrap an intuitive semantic token system that supports design and product teams across multiple platforms and frameworks - the foundation that keeps Perplexity's product coherent as we scale.This is a true 50/50 design-engineer role. You'll live primarily in GitHub, where you own the system's repo, while staying fluent in Figma so design and engineering never drift apart. You'll set the bar for visual quality and the technical standards that let feature teams move fast without fragmenting the experience.You'll work at the intersection of design and engineering, partnering with product feature teams across mobile, web, and React surfaces.What you'll doBootstrap and own an intuitive semantic token system that works across multiple platforms and frameworksOwn the design system repo on GitHub: the source of truth for components, tokens, and standards, including versioning, release management, and a clear changelogSet and uphold a high bar for visual design quality across every surface the system touchesNavigate the nuanced differences between mobile, web, and React UI best practices, and encode them into the systemDefine and run the contribution model and governance: review and shepherd inbound contributions from product feature teams, keeping quality and consistency high as the system growsKeep design and engineering in sync, bridging Figma and code so the system stays coherent end-to-endOwn clear, first-class documentation so teams can adopt components and tokens on their own, and drive adoption across the org through onboarding, office hours, and hands-on supportBake in accessibility (WCAG) and theming (including dark mode) as defaults, not afterthoughtsMaintain a system roadmap, balancing net-new work, migrations, and deprecations against feature-team needsBring new AI tooling into the design systems workflow and help shape how we build systems in an AI-native wayOperate with autonomy in a fast-moving, ambiguous environmentWhat we're looking forExtensive experience owning design systems at large organizationsA true 50/50 design-engineer, equally credible in visual craft and in codeAn impeccable eye for visual designDeep understanding of the nuanced differences between mobile, web, and React UI best practicesStrong product sensibilities to help evaluate and integrate contributions from various product feature teamsFluency in Figma, but primarily living in GitHub where you own the repoExperience designing and maintaining semantic design tokens and scalable component APIsA track record of driving adoption through excellent documentation and cross-functional partnershipWorking knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and how to build them into a systemReadiness to work with new AI tooling and genuine comfort with ambiguityNice to haveExperience building a semantic token system from scratch across multiple platformsA track record scaling a design system through a period of fast org growthExperience defining contribution models and governance for multi-team design systemsFamiliarity with component tooling and documentation platforms (e.g., Storybook)Experience mentoring designers and engineers and growing a design systems practiceCompensation Range: $220K - $280KLocationSan Francisco; New York City; Remote (United States)Employment TypeFull timeLocation TypeHybridDepartmentDesignCompensation$220K – $280K • Offers EquityU.S. BenefitsFull-time U.S. employees enjoy a comprehensive benefits program including equity, health, dental, vision, retirement, fitness, commuter and dependent care accounts, and more.International BenefitsFull-time employees outside the U.S. enjoy a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region of residence.USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions. International salaries are set based on the local market. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.