Lead Design Engineer

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Lead Design Engineer based in Canada.** We are looking for an experienced Lead Design Engineer to shape the systems, tools, and standards that enable teams to build high-quality digital products at scale. In this role, you will bridge design and engineering, creating reusable components, design tokens, patterns, and guidelines for both human teams and AI-powered development workflows. You will help advance AI-assisted design and code generation while ensuring that product experiences remain consistent, accessible, responsive, and performant. Working closely with designers, engineers, and product managers, you will turn feedback and usage data into continuous improvements. This remote opportunity offers significant technical ownership, creative autonomy, and the chance to influence how modern web and mobile experiences are designed, developed, and delivered. ### Accountabilities - Develop and maintain core design system components, evaluation frameworks, and feedback loops to improve the quality and reliability of AI-assisted design and code generation. - Establish and evolve reusable components, design tokens, interaction patterns, visual standards, and guidelines that support both designers and AI-powered development tools. - Define and uphold high-quality design standards, ensuring AI-generated interfaces meet expectations for usability, consistency, and visual polish. - Ensure design system decisions translate effectively into production code, with shared ownership of quality, performance, maintainability, and user experience. - Integrate accessibility, responsive behavior, and performance considerations into the design system by default. - Establish clear contribution guidelines, governance practices, and component deprecation processes that balance development speed with system integrity. - Collaborate regularly with designers and engineers who use the system, incorporating their feedback and usage data into future improvements. - Share effective AI tools, workflows, techniques, and best practices with broader design and engineering teams. - Champion a customer-focused, inclusive, growth-oriented culture that encourages teamwork, long-term thinking, and continuous improvement as the organization scales. ### Requirements: - At least 8 years of experience in design engineering, design systems, product design, or front-end engineering, building user experiences for web and mobile applications. - Demonstrated experience delivering a design system or component library, supported by a portfolio, case studies, or code samples explaining the work, design decisions, and adoption by teams. A portfolio is required for consideration. - Strong interaction and visual design skills, with the judgment to apply established patterns appropriately or develop new solutions when needed. - Experience working with design tokens, theming systems, and accessibility standards. - Regular use of AI-assisted development and design tools, such as Cursor, Claude Code, or Figma Make, with shipped work that demonstrates their application. - Experience connecting AI tools and workflows to design systems and the ability to explain, review, debug, and validate AI-generated code. - Proven ability to collaborate with designers, engineers, and product managers in fast-paced development cycles. - Strong technical judgment and attention to detail, with a focus on usability, code quality, performance, and maintainability. - A collaborative mindset and the ability to communicate design and engineering decisions clearly while helping teams adopt shared standards. ### Benefits: - Annual base salary: CAD $151,300–$195,800, with the applicable range depending on the primary work location, relevant skills, experience, and other job-related factors. - Equity compensation: Initial restricted stock unit (RSU) grant with no vesting cliff, plus ongoing refresh opportunities tied to performance, subject to applicable plan terms and conditions. - Performance-based compensation: Bonus or variable pay opportunities as part of the overall compensation program. - Flexible remote work: An employee-led remote working model, with office access for those who prefer in-person collaboration and subject to role-specific operational requirements. - Professional development: A dedicated stipend to support ongoing learning and career growth. - Health coverage: Comprehensive health benefits. - Parental leave: Comprehensive parental leave plans. - Performance recognition: Compensation opportunities designed to recognize strong contributions and high performance. - Inclusive workplace: A commitment to accessibility, equal opportunity, and a supportive environment for people from diverse backgrounds.