Design System Specialist

Zello • Austin, TX

2d

About The Position

Zello's design system supports iOS, Android, Desktop, and Hardware products — and it's being asked to do more. As the system expands across three distinct platform paradigms simultaneously, design needs a senior partner who can take architectural ownership of the backlog, drive cross-platform consistency decisions, and build direct working relationships with iOS, Android, and React engineering leads. This contractor brings IC-4 platform authority from day one, with the opportunity to convert to a full-time role based on performance across both DS and product design work.

Zello is the leading push-to-talk communication platform, enabling instant voice communication for frontline workers across industries like logistics, hospitality, transportation, and construction. We build for the people who keep the world running — the warehouse supervisor coordinating a crew, the flight crew managing a gate turnover, the field technician working in a loud environment where clarity and speed matter. Our product has to work the first time, every time.

A mature and growing design system is what allows us to keep pace with the product's ambition. This role is how we get there.

Requirements

• You've built native iOS components with genuine UIKit/SwiftUI behavioral fidelity — not just visual resemblance to iOS patterns — and you can walk through the platform-specific decisions in your portfolio without notes.
• You've built Android components that are genuinely distinct from your iOS equivalents, reflecting Material Design 3 conventions, and you can discuss the Compose vs. View-based component model with an Android engineer.
• You've owned a React token pipeline end-to-end — architecture, Style Dictionary configuration, and the tradeoffs you made — and you can explain every decision and what you'd do differently.
• You've written Storybook documentation, not just referenced it, and you have examples of component docs that others have used without needing a walkthrough from you.
• You've held engineering leads accountable to design fidelity — you can describe a specific time you surfaced a design-to-code discrepancy before it shipped and what you did about it.
• You've managed your own DS backlog with minimal direction. You didn't wait to be told what mattered — you identified systemic issues, prioritized them, and communicated status proactively.
• You have product design work in your portfolio alongside DS artifacts — screens, flows, or features — and your approach reflects platform-appropriate judgment, not just execution of a brief.
• 7+ years of experience; IC-4 platform depth across iOS, Android, and React is the bar.

Responsibilities

• Take architectural ownership of DS work across iOS, Android, and React — make decisions, document tradeoffs, and maintain a visible, current view of the backlog in Jira without needing prompting.
• Build and ship production-quality Figma components for iOS (UIKit/SwiftUI) and Android (Material Design 3) with genuine platform fidelity — behavioral accuracy, not just visual resemblance.
• Own the React token pipeline end-to-end: Style Dictionary configuration, Storybook documentation, and engineering handoff quality.
• Drive cross-platform consistency audits — identify gaps, resolve conflicts across platforms, and document shared conventions that outlast the engagement.
• Partner directly with iOS, Android, and React engineering leads to validate that Figma components map correctly to production implementations — surfacing discrepancies before they ship, not after.
• Define component documentation standards and write usage guidelines that engineers and designers can apply without additional walkthroughs.
• Identify systemic issues proactively — missing states, undocumented edge cases, token inconsistencies — and bring recommendations rather than flags.
• Contribute to product design work — screens, flows, and feature UX — as DS work matures (expect this to begin in earnest by months 2–3).

Benefits

• competitive pay
• equity with significant upside
• intentionally design our benefits to encourage healthy and well-balanced employees
• flexible schedules and time off
• sabbatical after every five years of service
• ping-pong table
• free snacks in our break room

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed