Engineering Manager, Design Systems

Hinge Health • San Francisco, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Opportunity Every product surface at Hinge Health — from the exercise therapy app that helps 20+ million people access MSK care, to the clinician tools our care teams rely on daily — is built on a shared design language. This role puts you at the center of that leverage. As the Engineering Manager for Design Systems , you'll lead the team that owns the foundational component library, design token infrastructure, and accessibility standards powering every screen we ship. Your work will be a force multiplier for every engineer and designer in the company, directly accelerating our ability to deliver consistent, high-quality experiences to members who are counting on us to help them move beyond pain.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
• 8+ years of non-internship, full-time professional experience in the technology industry, with a focus on SaaS products and large-scale, complex systems
• 2+ years of experience managing an engineering team of 4+ direct reports, including hiring, coaching, and performance management
• 2+ years of experience mentoring and leading team members, collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams (especially design), and contributing to project planning and decision-making
• 2+ years of experience resolving interpersonal conflicts and finding creative resourcing solutions where others would see zero-sum tradeoffs
• Set a clear technical vision for the design system and stay hands-on — spending ~15% of your time in the code, reviewing PRs, and dogfooding the developer experience.
• Communicate effectively across engineering, design, and product to align on shared goals and resolve cross-team dependencies with empathy and clarity.
• Don't have all the answers, but have a proven framework for finding them — staying at the forefront of frontend tooling, AI-assisted development, and design system best practices.
• Act in the company's best interest, meet your commitments, and coach your team to do the same — creating a culture where blameless retros convert insights into action.

Nice To Haves

• Frontend experience with technologies such as React & React Native
• Expertise in TypeScript and modern CSS architecture
• Hands-on experience building or scaling a design system or component library used across multiple product teams
• Hands-on experience with AI tooling (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code) and architectures
• Deep understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA) and how to operationalize them at the component level
• Experience with design tooling and handoff workflows, particularly Figma plugins, tokens, and design-dev alignment practices
• Familiarity with tooling such as Storybook, Style Dictionary, Chromatic, Changesets, or similar

Responsibilities

• Audit the current design system architecture, component library coverage, and adoption metrics across consuming teams.
• Build high-trust relationships with design leadership, product partners, and key frontend engineers across the org.
• Assess team health, onboarding, and individual growth trajectories for your pod of 4–8 engineers; establish coaching rhythms and a feedback cadence.
• Launch a contribution model and governance framework that makes it easy for product engineers to extend the design system correctly — driving measurable adoption gains across teams.
• Deliver improvements to the design token pipeline, Storybook documentation, and component APIs that meaningfully reduce friction for consuming engineers.
• Stand up the metrics and feedback loops (adoption rate, breaking-change velocity, developer satisfaction) that empower your team's continuous improvement.
• Own and execute a forward-looking roadmap for the component library, theming infrastructure, and accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) — collaboratively defined with your team, design, and product stakeholders.
• Scale the team with a strong focus on frontend craftsmanship, systems thinking, and AI integration (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code).
• Lead migration tooling and semantic versioning discipline that allows the design system to evolve without destabilizing consuming teams — making doing the right thing the easy thing.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Help with gender-affirming care
• Tools for family and fertility planning
• Travel reimbursements if healthcare isn't available where you live
• Traditional or Roth 401k retirement plan options which include a 2% company match
• Manage your own learning and development

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager