Staff Software Engineer

Quick Facts

• Role: Staff Software Engineer (Design System)

• Focus: Theme system, design tokens, and tooling for safe, accessible adoption

Description

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Design System team, you will build and evolve the engineering surface of the design system—theme system, design tokens, and tooling that helps engineers, designers, and product teams apply it correctly. Your decisions will impact internal product teams and external customers, requiring systems thinking and a working command of accessibility. You will also build automated guardrails (WCAG 2.2 Level AA) and AI-enabled workflows so prototypes and production code generate on-system by default.

Responsibilities

• Evolve the theme system and design token architecture (taxonomy, platform transforms, theming APIs, and accessibility guardrails)

• Engineer adoption tooling (theme builders, linting/audit rules, codemods, Figma-to-code workflows, local development aids)

• Build AI skills and tooling so engineers and designers generate on-system code by default

• Partner with design and product on design intent, customer needs, and engineering tradeoffs

• Trace downstream impact, manage versioning/deprecation, and communicate breaking changes

• Ensure WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance (contrast, forced colors, focus visibility, reflow) with automated regression checks

• Collaborate with component authors and the component engine team on API contracts and release sequencing

• Maintain enablement assets (API documentation, usage guidance, migration paths)

• Support adopters by triaging issues and unblocking teams; feed recurring friction back into the roadmap

• Raise the bar through technical design review, code review, and mentorship across teams

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional front-end engineering experience including significant design system work used by multiple teams

• Advanced TypeScript and modern JavaScript with deep browser platform knowledge (DOM, events, Custom Elements, Shadow DOM)

• Hands-on design token experience: schema design, transform pipelines (e.g., Style Dictionary), and multi-platform/multi-brand distribution

• Expert CSS for theming at scale: custom properties, cascade layers, modern layout, container queries, and forced colors mode

• Working knowledge of WCAG 2.2 Level AA with hands-on screen reader and keyboard testing

• Fluency applying AI tooling with judgment on where generated output needs human review

• Strong build/release/versioning skills using Vite, Rollup, or Webpack plus semantic versioning in a monorepo

• Demonstrated systems thinking for cascading impact and planned migrations

• Proven peer collaboration with designers and product managers and influence without direct authority

• Clear technical writing and experience documenting APIs and guiding adoption

Benefits

• Base pay range: $149,800–$262,200 (plus equity when applicable, variable/incentive compensation, and benefits)

• Health plans including flexible spending accounts

• 401(k) plan with company match and ESPP

• Matching donations

• Flexible time away plan and family leave programs