Lead Design Engineer

Braze•New York, NY

4h•Hybrid

About The Position

We're seeking a Lead Design Engineer to own and evolve Braze's design system and shared UX foundations. This is a senior individual contributor role operating at the intersection of design and code. In close partnership with Engineering, you'll shape the technical direction of our shared UI foundations, ensuring they're robust, scalable, accessible, and implementation-ready across product teams. You'll contribute hands-on while driving adoption, mentoring designers, and raising the bar for system-level design craft, accessibility, and implementation quality across the UX organization. You'll also help future-proof our design system by thinking about it not only as a resource for human collaborators, but as structured context for automated and AI-assisted workflows. This means designing its architecture, naming conventions, and documentation so that tooling, CLI interfaces, and AI agents can consume it reliably and without ambiguity.

Requirements

5+ years in design systems, design engineering, or highly technical product design within complex SaaS environments
Proven track record building, scaling, or modernizing a design system in close partnership with Engineering
Strong design craft judgment at the system level: you can define, evaluate, and defend what good looks like across interaction patterns, component behavior, and shared UX foundations
Fluent in component architecture, semantic HTML, modern CSS, accessibility (WCAG), and scalable UI patterns
Hands-on experience with Figma variables, design tokens (Tokens Studio, Style Dictionary, or equivalent), and token-to-code pipeline workflows
Experience leading accessibility audits or driving measurable accessibility improvements at scale
You've introduced automation, tooling, or programmatic access to improve system quality and efficiency, and you think about the design system as structured context for both human and AI-assisted workflows
Track record of mentoring designers and elevating technical fluency across a UX organization
Proven ability to drive adoption across multiple product teams through influence, education, and trust rather than formal authority
Clear communicator who can translate complex architectural decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences
Comfortable in fast-moving environments with high ambiguity

Nice To Haves

Experience with Storybook or equivalent component documentation platforms
Familiarity with modern frontend frameworks such as React in a component library context
Built internal developer tooling, automated validation systems, or CI/CD-integrated quality checks
Contributed to open-source UI systems or frontend and design systems communities
Integrated design systems with AI-assisted tooling or automated compliance workflows

Responsibilities

Own the technical and design direction of Braze's design system in partnership with Engineering, keeping it coherent, scalable, and implementation-ready across product teams
Define and uphold system-level design craft: evaluate, defend, and evolve what good looks like across interaction patterns, component behavior, and shared UX foundations
Contribute hands-on to component architecture, interaction patterns, token architecture, and the design-to-code pipeline, including Figma variables and sync workflows
Partner with frontend engineers on CSS architecture, semantic HTML, and WCAG compliance to raise the bar for accessibility and implementation quality across the organization
Mentor designers in accessibility, responsive systems, and implementation-aware design thinking
Build automation and tooling that improves system compliance, efficiency, and programmatic access, including architecture and documentation designed to be consumed by AI-assisted workflows
Drive adoption across product teams through contribution models, governance workflows, and documentation, without relying on formal authority
Reduce fragmentation, track system health and accessibility metrics, and own versioning and deprecation communication to consuming teams

Benefits

Competitive compensation that may include equity
Retirement and Employee Stock Purchase Plans
Flexible paid time off
Comprehensive benefit plans covering medical, dental, vision, life, and disability
Family services that include fertility benefits and equal paid parental leave
Professional development supported by formal career pathing, learning platforms, and a yearly learning stipend
A curated in-office employee experience, designed to foster community, team connections, and innovation
Opportunities to give back to your community, including an annual company-wide Volunteer Week and donation matching
Employee Resource Groups that provide supportive communities within Braze
Collaborative, transparent, and fun culture recognized as a Great Place to Work®