Design Systems Lead
About The Position
Imprint is seeking a Design Systems Lead to shape the design and development of product experiences across the company. This role involves owning the strategy, evolution, and execution of the design system, with a focus on defining the future of design systems in an AI-native product development environment. The Design Systems Lead will work closely with Product Design, Engineering, Product Management, and AI teams to create systems that accelerate product development, enhance experience quality, and scale the design organization. This is a strategic and high-impact position. Key responsibilities include defining the long-term vision and roadmap for the design system, establishing governance and contribution models, and ensuring the system adapts to business needs and emerging technologies. The role also involves leading and mentoring a team of design systems designers and developers, raising the standard for decision-making and systems thinking, and advocating for design systems across the organization. Cross-functional collaboration is crucial, requiring deep partnerships with Product Design, Engineering, and Product Management to align roadmaps and ensure system components are scalable and production-ready. The Design Systems Lead will also explore how AI can transform product design and development, evolving the system beyond traditional tools towards machine-readable foundations and evaluating new technologies to enhance the product development lifecycle. Direct contribution to design system work, including component architecture, documentation, and leading complex initiatives, is also expected.
Requirements
- 8+ years of product design experience, including significant design systems ownership
- Experience leading or managing design systems teams
- Demonstrated success building and scaling systems used across multiple product teams
- Strong product judgment and ability to prioritize high-impact work
- Deep understanding of design systems, component architecture, tokens, accessibility, and design-to-development workflows
- Experience partnering closely with frontend engineers and engineering leadership
- Excellent communication skills and ability to influence across functions
Nice To Haves
- Experience with modern frontend technologies and component-based development
- Familiarity with Storybook, design tokens, and design system tooling
- Experience with AI-assisted design, code generation, or agent-driven workflows
- Background in design engineering or highly technical product environments
- Experience building systems in high-growth startup environments
Responsibilities
- Own the Design System Strategy
- Define and drive the long-term vision for Imprint's design system
- Create and maintain a roadmap that balances immediate product needs with long-term platform investments
- Establish governance, contribution models, and decision-making frameworks
- Ensure the system evolves in response to both business needs and emerging technologies
- Lead and Develop the Team
- Mentor a small team of design systems designers and partner with developers
- Raise the bar on decision-making, prioritization, and systems thinking across the team
- Create clear ownership and accountability structures that increase efficiency
- Define success and report on progress, as well as any shifts on strategy
- Advocate for and educate on design systems across the org
- Drive Cross-Functional Execution
- Partner deeply with Product Design to understand customer and business needs
- Collaborate closely with Engineering to ensure system components are scalable, maintainable, and production-ready
- Align design and engineering roadmaps around shared priorities
- Serve as the primary point of contact for design system strategy and adoption
- Build for the Future
- Help define how AI transforms the way products are designed and built
- Explore new workflows that connect design systems, design tooling, code generation, and AI-assisted development
- Evolve our system beyond traditional Figma libraries and Storybook documentation toward machine-readable, AI-consumable foundations
- Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities to increase leverage across the product development lifecycle
- Stay Hands-On
- Contribute directly to design system work as needed
- Review and improve component architecture, documentation, patterns, and guidelines
- Lead complex initiatives from strategy through execution
Benefits
- Competitive compensation and equity packages
- Leading configured work computers of your choice
- Flexible paid time off
- Fully covered, high-quality healthcare, including fully covered dependent coverage
- Additional health coverage includes access to One Medical and the option to enroll in an FSA
- 20 weeks of paid parental leave for the primary caregiver and 8 weeks for all new parents
- Access to industry-leading technology across all of our business units, stemming from our philosophy that we should invest in resources for our team that foster innovation, optimization, and productivity
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
