Design system manager

Job description

ABOUT PENNYLANE OUR VISION We aim to become the most beloved financial Operating System of French SMEs and Accounting Firms (and soon, European ones). We help entrepreneurs rid themselves of time-consuming tasks related to accounting and finance while providing them with access to key financial information to assist in making the best decisions for their business. About Us Pennylane is one of the fastest growing Fintechs in France (and soon to be in Europe!) In 6 years of existence, we've managed to: - 💻 Make ourselves known as a groundbreaking accounting and financial software for small businesses and their accountants - 💰 Raise a total of €225 millions, including from Sequoia, the famous fund from the Silicon Valley who invested early in companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, Paypal and much more... - 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Grow from 7 cofounders to 650+ happy Pennylaners: we're now recognized as one of the greatest places to work in France (and also remotely), with a 4.6/5 rating on Glassdoor. - 🌍 Build an international environment with more than 25 nationalities, with a strong remote-friendly culture, where 30% of the employees are already working from all parts of Europe - 🤝 Earn the trust of thousands of customers and accounting firms and obtain outstanding ratings - 🚀 Already more than 400,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and over 4,500 accounting firms use Pennylane in France! DESIGN AT PENNYLANE Design sits at the centre of this mission and its purpose is to deliver a seamless, accessible and enjoyable experience for our users. Our team of 40+ product designers work across different tracks that are divided into cross-functional squads each consisting of Engineering, Product and Design. Autonomy, trust and transparency are the key values upon which our culture is built, this is directly reflected in how our designers operate on a day-to-day basis. At Pennylane, designers are expected to actively contribute all the way from defining the problem space, to research and testing. We are seeking a Design System Manager to own Purse, our design system, as a product: its vision, roadmap, governance, and quality bar. As we grow from 40 to 60+ designers across web, mobile, and tablet in multiple languages, you'll set the long-term direction of the system while staying hands-on and building it yourself, providing craft leadership to our Design System Designers and tapering direct production as the team grows. You'll partner with the Design Ops Manager on shared priorities and with engineering on design–code parity. You'll be accountable for how the system scales, how it's adopted, and how it evolves toward an AI-ready future. If you think about a design system as a product — with users, a roadmap, a quality bar, and adoption metrics — and you love balancing long-term vision with pragmatic, milestone-driven delivery, you'll thrive at Pennylane. WHAT YOU'LL BRING DESIGN SYSTEM STRATEGY & VISION - Experience owning the vision and roadmap of a design system at scale, supporting 40+ designers and engineers across web, mobile, and tablet - Ability to balance an ambitious long-term vision with pragmatic, milestone-driven delivery that creates value at every step - Strong product sense applied to a design system — treating it as a product with users, adoption metrics, and a roadmap GOVERNANCE & OPERATING MODEL - Experience defining and evolving design system governance and contribution models that balance autonomy and consistency - A track record of setting and holding a quality bar for components, tokens, patterns, and accessibility as contribution volume grows - Comfort making tooling and infrastructure decisions that affect the system, in partnership with design ops and engineering CRAFT & TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP - A genuine maker who is hands-on today, with a small team you personally author components, tokens, and patterns and maintain the Figma library rather than only directing the work, tapering direct production toward review and orchestration as the team grows - Deep design-system craft, components, APIs, token systems, semantic naming, theming / multi-brand, with the ability to provide craft direction and mentorship to IC designers - Strong technical acumen and a clear understanding of how design systems are implemented in code, comfortable in a production-first environment where code is the source of truth - Expertise in what makes a design system interpretable by AI: structured, machine-readable, AI-ready documentation, and how LLMs and codegen agents consume a system (MCP, token automation) ENABLEMENT, ADOPTION & COMMUNICATION - Demonstrated ability to drive system adoption through evangelism, clear narratives, and presentations to diverse audiences including leadership - Experience defining system-health and adoption metrics and reporting system value and ROI to leadership - Strong partnership skills with design, engineering, and product leadership NICE TO HAVE - Experience with B2B SaaS products or fintech environments - Familiarity with multi-language / internationalization design challenges - Experience contributing to or owning a tokens pipeline (Style Dictionary, Tokens Studio, MCP-based pipelines) - Background in accessibility standards and inclusive design practices - Experience working in fast-growing scale-ups - Experience growing into people management of a design system team — note that this role currently focuses on system and craft leadership, with people management handled separately and introduced as the team grows YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Own the vision, roadmap, and governance of Purse, evolving the system as a product toward an ambitious, AI-ready future through high-value, milestone-driven releases - Set and uphold the quality bar for components, tokens, patterns, and accessibility — building system work hands-on today and providing craft leadership and direction to the Design System Designer(s), tapering direct production as the team grows - Drive adoption and measure system value, partnering with the Design Ops Manager on shared priorities and with engineering on design–code parity, and reporting impact to leadership - Language requirement: You are able to communicate well in both English and French. WHAT DO WE DO TO MAKE YOUR WORK LIFE EASIER - 🏢 You'll be able to work remotely from your country of residence, as long as it is in Europe and within a maximum time difference of two hours from the CET time zone - 🌴 Wherever you are based, you will get 25 vacations days paid by Pennylane - 💵 You'll have a competitive compensation package - 📈 You'll get company shares to enjoy a piece of the success story you're building with us - 🏡 You'll have a budget to turn your home into a more comfortable workspace, as well as a monthly allowance to work from a coworking space whenever you feel like it - ⛹️ Through our partner Gymlib, you'll have access to 8000 fitness spaces in Europe and more than 300 activities related to wellness - 🇬🇧 You'll have access to Busuu to perfect your English or your French - 💻 You'll get the latest Apple equipment - 🎉 We are committed to regularly coming together for company events such as Tech Days (which bring remote Pennylaners together every 3 months) or our annual company seminar, fostering significant moments of cohesion for everyone. - If you are based in France, you will have a French contract following French regulation on top of the additional perks: 6 to 12 RTT, 5 weeks PTOs, lunch credits (Swile), Alan Blue healthcare cover and regular events in cities where Pennylaners are mostly presents (Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes…) We're working on providing those last advantages to our people based outside of France as well, but it can be quite more complex depending on different countries. WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? To thrive at Pennylane, you need: - To speak English (level is assessed and appreciated according to the department you're applying to) - To be energized by an ever-shifting work environment - To be highly collaborative (within your team or other stakeholders) - Sufficiently experienced to prioritize business-led actions on your day to day activity - We know that some people are less likely to apply than others, if they don't feel like they meet the full list of criteria. - If you're hesitating, we encourage you to apply: who knows, it might be the start of a meaningful and long-lasting collaboration. - We also want to emphasize that we fully embrace diversity, equity and inclusion and that we're doing our best to create a safe and inclusive environment. - We are committed to providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of gender, sexual orientation, origin, disabilities, or any other traits that make you who you are. If anything, diversity makes us a more fun place to work at. 🇫🇷 Données personnelles Pennylane traite vos données pour gérer votre candidature et évaluer votre adéquation au poste. Si votre candidature n’aboutit pas, vos données peuvent être conservées 2 ans à compter de notre dernier échange ou de la clôture du recrutement afin de constituer & gérer un vivier de candidats. Vous pouvez vous opposer à tout moment et demander la suppression de vos données en écrivant à : dpo@pennylane.com. dpo@pennylane.com Notre data policy https://www.pennylane.com/fr/vos-donnees-personnelles-recrutement 🇬🇧 Personal Data Pennylane processes your data to manage your application and assess your suitability for the position. If your application is unsuccessful, your data may be retained for 2 years from our last exchange or the closing of the recruitment process, in order to build and manage a candidate pool. You may object at any time and request the deletion of your data by writing to dpo@pennylane.com. Learn more https://www.pennylane.com/fr/vos-donnees-personnelles-recrutement 🇩🇪 Personenbezogene Daten Pennylane verarbeitet Ihre Daten, um Ihre Bewerbung zu bearbeiten und Ihre Eignung für die Stelle zu beurteilen. Sollte Ihre Bewerbung nicht erfolgreich sein, können Ihre Daten bis zu 2 Jahre ab unserem letzten Austausch oder dem Abschluss des Rekrutierungsverfahrens gespeichert werden, um einen Kandidatenpool aufzubauen und zu verwalten. Sie können jederzeit Widerspruch einlegen und die Löschung Ihrer Daten beantragen, indem Sie an dpo@pennylane.com schreiben. Mehr erfahren https://www.pennylane.com/fr/vos-donnees-personnelles-recrutement 🇪🇸 Datos personales Pennylane trata sus datos para gestionar su candidatura y evaluar su idoneidad para el puesto. En caso de que su candidatura no sea seleccionada, sus datos podrán conservarse hasta 2 años a partir de nuestro último contacto o de la finalización del proceso de selección, con el fin de constituir y gestionar una reserva de candidatos. Puede oponerse en cualquier momento y solicitar la eliminación de sus datos escribiendo a dpo@pennylane.com. Más información https://www.pennylane.com/fr/vos-donnees-personnelles-recrutement