Design Systems Engineer

Job description

PermitFlow is redefining how America builds. We’re an applied AI company serving the nation’s builders, tackling one of the largest information challenges in the economy: understanding what can be built, where, and how. Our AI agent workforce helps the fastest-growing construction companies navigate everything from permitting and licensing to inspections and project closeouts – accelerating housing, clean-energy, and infrastructure development across the country. Despite being a $1.6T industry, construction still suffers from massive delays, wasted capital, and lost opportunity. PermitFlow has already delivered unprecedented speed, accuracy, and visibility to over $20B in development, helping contractors reduce compliance time, de-risk projects, and scale with confidence. As the U.S. enters a new capex supercycle across data centers, factories, housing, and renewables, joining PermitFlow means building the AI infrastructure at the core of every construction project driving the next wave of reindustrialization. We’ve raised over $90M, most recently completing our Series B, https://www.permitflow.com/blog/permitflow-series-b from top-tier investors including Accel, Kleiner Perkins https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401703305569275904/, Initialized, Y Combinator, Felicis, and Altos Ventures, with backing from leaders at OpenAI, Google, Procore, ServiceTitan, Zillow, PlanGrid, and Uber. Our HQ is in New York City with a hybrid schedule (3 in-office days per week). We prefer NYC-based candidates or those open to relocation. ROLE OVERVIEW As a Design System Engineer, you’ll be the technical steward of the component library that every product engineer at PermitFlow builds on top of. You'll work at the intersection of design and engineering, partnering closely with our Design Systems lead to define and ship the atoms, molecules, and organisms that keep our product consistent, fast to build, and delightful to use. This isn't a supporting role. You'll set the standards, own the roadmap, review PRs into the library, and be the go-to person when teams hit the edges of what our design system supports. You'll also lead the federated model we've established — working with team champions across our product squads to drive adoption, surface gaps, and maintain quality across a fast-moving codebase. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own the day-to-day development and evolution of PermitFlow's React component library - Build and maintain components across all levels of the Atomic Design hierarchy — atoms, molecules, organisms, and templates — ensuring each is robust, accessible, and documented in Storybook - Define and enforce component standards: API contracts, design token usage, prop interfaces, and variant patterns - Review PRs into the component library, maintaining quality bar and ensuring consistency - Partner with designers using Figma to translate design specs into production-grade components with fidelity - Manage the library's roadmap, balancing new component development with migration work as we bring the broader application into alignment - Work with Chromatic for visual regression testing and manage the Storybook instance as the source of truth for component documentation - Lead the Design Systems Guild — a cross-team working group of engineering champions — sharing updates, aligning on patterns, and reviewing proposals before implementation - Reduce overall frontend complexity: our migration work has already yielded thousands of lines of consolidation, and there's more to go WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Strong React and TypeScript fundamentals — you think in components, not just in pages - Demonstrated experience building and maintaining a production design system or component library, not just consuming one — a portfolio, GitHub profile, or Storybook instance you can share carries more weight than a resume line - A sharp eye for visual and interaction design — you notice when something is off and can articulate why clearly - Experience working in close partnership with product designers: giving and receiving feedback on specs, negotiating tradeoffs, and aligning on the right abstraction before something gets built - Familiarity with design tooling (Figma) and developer experience tooling (Storybook, Chromatic, or equivalents) - Strong written communication — you'll be setting standards that product engineers read and follow, and documenting decisions that outlast you - Experience with Tailwind CSS is a strong plus - Experience with ShadCN or Radix UI primitives is a strong plus - Familiarity with accessibility standards (WCAG) is a plus WHAT WE OFFER - Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth company - 100% company-paid base medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees + healthcare FSA - 401(k) savings plan - Unlimited PTO and paid family leave - Home office & equipment stipend - Daily in-office lunch and dinner provided - Commuter benefits (pre-tax transit and parking) PermitFlow provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or family status, as protected by applicable law. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities. All employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.