Product Design Lead, Design Systems

About the company

Our client is a workforce software company bringing HR, IT and finance into one unified platform. Its 40+ products help businesses manage everything from payroll and hiring to devices and expenses. The company invests heavily in design systems so these products feel like one connected experience.

The role / why it matters

As Product Design Lead, Design Systems, you will shape the patterns and design language used across the entire platform. This is a hands-on Staff/Principal-level individual contributor role with broad strategic ownership. You will partner with approximately 18 dedicated engineers and help define an AI-native approach to design quality, prototyping and implementation.

What you'll do

• Design scalable, repeatable interaction patterns, UX flows and frameworks that go beyond component and token libraries.

• Build patterns that work across dense product experiences and the growing mobile design system.

• Develop AI-driven systems that define, measure and check design quality against shared standards.

• Create AI prototyping tools and code-based checks that help teams produce high-quality implementations.

• Own platform-wide initiatives from identifying a problem and setting strategy through hands-on prototyping and delivery.

• Work closely with engineers, product managers and designers to improve craft and the platform's design language.

• Raise the quality of work across teams while remaining an active practitioner.

What we're looking for

• 8-20 years of product design or design systems experience, with approximately 12 years a strong fit for the role's scope.

• Prior Staff, Principal or Lead-level responsibility and the ability to combine vision and strategy with hands-on individual contributor work.

• Experience designing systems, repeatable interaction patterns and UX frameworks for complex B2B platforms, horizontal architectures or developer tools.

• Practical use of AI-assisted coding and prototyping tools such as Cursor, Claude Code or Codex; comfort working close to code rather than relying only on static design files.

• Strong visual, interaction and user experience craft, including accessibility expertise.

• A portfolio showing pattern-level work beyond basic component or token libraries, with clear ownership, trade-offs and outcomes.

• Autonomy, pace and the ability to identify problems, bring partners together and drive solutions without heavy process.

Bonus points

• Experience at companies known for strong consumer or mobile design.

• Ownership of a complex design system within a large organization.

• Experience building AI-native design systems or tools that automate design-quality evaluation.

• Strong mobile interaction craft alongside experience with dense enterprise products.

Compensation and benefits

• $200,000-$280,000 annual base salary, plus competitive equity with four-year vesting.

• Compensation depends on location, experience and level. The source also lists broader US location bands of $174,000-$280,000 for Tier 1, $156,600-$261,000 for Tier 2 and $147,900-$246,500 for Tier 3; confirm the applicable package during hiring.

• Staff/Principal scope with significant platform-wide ownership and dedicated engineering support.

Location / work model

Full-time and remote-friendly for candidates based in the United States, Canada or United Kingdom. Candidates living near the San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Toronto or London offices are expected to attend three days each week. Location preference is New York (hybrid), Toronto, the US East Coast (remote), London, San Francisco or Seattle (hybrid), then other US remote locations. Existing visa transfers, including OPT or H1B transfers, may be considered.