Partner 20, Design Systems Lead

a16z•San Francisco, CA

13h•$210,000 - $245,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is seeking a Design Systems Lead to own and evolve the firm's design infrastructure. This role involves translating the a16z brand into scalable templates, components, and modular frameworks across various platforms. The goal is to create systems that allow anyone at the firm to produce high-quality, on-brand work without direct designer intervention, leveraging AI-powered workflows and self-serve tools. The Design Systems Lead will be accountable for the quality, consistency, and reach of these systems, ensuring they are both functional and aesthetically aligned with the a16z visual language.

Requirements

4+ years of experience in brand design, design systems, product design, or a related field
A deep command of visual identity: quick to sense when something’s off, and able to diagnose and resolve it systematically
Strong Figma skills, including building and maintaining design systems, libraries, and component structures others actually use
Fluent in typography, layout, and the details that separate considered design from competent design
Experience writing and scaling AI skills, not just prompting, but structuring reference frameworks, markdown files, and instruction sets that produce reliably on-brand outputs
Comfortable vibe-coding: you've built lightweight apps, generators, or custom tools for design use cases, and you know where the edges are
AI is already part of how you work, not something you're experimenting with; you've used tools like Claude, Codex, Krea, Midjourney, or similar and you’re curious about what’s next.
You see the forest and the tree(s): if given a recurring design problem, your instinct is to build something comprehensive, not just solve it once
A natural collaborator with low ego and high empathy: you work well across teams and can translate between design thinking and the needs of people who don't speak it

Responsibilities

Take clear ownership of the a16z design systems function: setting the direction, maintaining the standards, and being accountable for what gets built and how well it works
Translate a16z brand systems into scalable templates, components, and modular frameworks across Krea, Figma, Google Workspace, Claude, Codex, Gamma, and many other core platforms with enough command of the brand to make those systems feel designed, not just functional
Build repeatable systems for high-volume design needs (presentations, social assets, event materials, charts) so these don't require a designer every time
Write and maintain markdown-based brand documentation, style references, and skill instruction files that serve as the source of truth for AI-generated outputs
Build high-functioning AI skills from scratch: structured prompts, reference frameworks, and training inputs that produce design work that's distinctly and consistently a16z
Vibe-code lightweight apps and custom tools purpose-built for design use cases (generators, formatters, asset builders, etc.) using whatever combination of AI models, APIs, and front-end code gets the job done
Create tools and templates that let non-designers produce polished, on-brand work independently, without the output looking like it came from a template
Partner with designers to distill complex visual systems into usable building blocks, and keep those systems current as the brand evolves
Spot patterns in repeatable work, build toward them, and continuously improve what's running based on real usage and feedback
Occasionally train people across the firm on the tools and systems we build (whether that's written documentation, a quick video walkthrough, or a 1:1) so what we make actually gets used the way it was intended
Work with the project manager and new media ops team to track adoption and efficiency gains across the firm