Staff Design Systems Engineer

ClickUp

3d•$190,000 - $230,000

About The Position

At ClickUp, we’re not just building software. We’re architecting the future of work! In a world overwhelmed by work sprawl, we saw a better way. That’s why we created the first truly converged AI workspace, unifying tasks, docs, chat, calendar, and enterprise search, all supercharged by context-driven AI, empowering millions of teams to break free from silos, reclaim their time, and unlock new levels of productivity. At ClickUp, you’ll have the opportunity to learn, use, and pioneer AI in ways that shape not only our product, but the future of work itself. Join us and be part of a bold, innovative team that’s redefining what’s possible! 🚀 About the Role We're hiring an AI-first design systems builder to embed in our Design & Research org and own the systems, workflows, and tooling that 10x how our teams operate. You'll be equal parts AI workflow builder and design systems owner: someone who sits in design and research sessions, deeply understands the workflows, and then goes and rebuilds them, turning what used to take days into tasks that run in the background. Building effective systems starts in an LLM to clarify the problem, moves into tools like Claude Code and Cursor to prototype agents, and ends in workflows that the team actually adopts. This role exists because our Design & Research org needs someone obsessed with removing every friction point. You'll partner closely with our Head of Design, research leads, and the broader Product Ops team to ensure design and research operations are running at a pace and quality that matches our ambition. We move fast, we care about details, and we don't settle.

Requirements

4+ years in design systems, design engineering, design operations, research operations, or technical program management at a fast-paced company
Active use of LLMs such as Claude or ChatGPT in your actual workflow. You have AI projects you're excited to share!
Experience with modern design and research tooling ecosystems (Figma, design tokens, component libraries, research repos, prototyping tools) and a strong point of view on where they're headed
Strong technical fluency: APIs, automation platforms, and the ability to wire systems together
An eye for design and research quality. You don't have to be a designer or researcher, but you recognize great craft and care about the details that separate good from exceptional
Ability to manage multiple high-urgency projects simultaneously across cross-functional teams
Excellent communication with a strong bias toward action. Find the problem, diagnose it, propose the fix, and ideally just fix it

Nice To Haves

Engineering, Research, Design or Product Management background
Experience planning or supporting customer interviews, usability tests, or research synthesis at scale
Familiarity with design systems and extending shared components
Experience in operations at a high-growth SaaS company shipping to millions of users
Track record of building internal AI tools or agents that other teams actually adopted

Responsibilities

Own and evolve design systems with AI-first workflows that 10x EPD efficiency.
Go deep on how designers and researchers actually work: recruiting participants, synthesizing interviews, maintaining design systems, generating specs, tracking projects.
Identify the highest-leverage friction points and rebuild those workflows from the ground up using AI.
Ship agents, scripts, and integrations that compound team capacity.
Turn automate-able tasks into background processes. If a designer or researcher is doing something repetitive, that's your problem to solve.
Build Super Agents for ops work, use AI coding assistants for integrations across Figma, research repos, and component libraries, and create systems that handle the work without anyone needing to think about it.
Contribute to strategic improvement of team quality and efficiency. This isn't just about saving time, it's about improving product outcomes efficiently.
Surface where AI can improve research rigor, design system consistency, or cross-functional handoff quality.
Bring a point of view on where the org should invest.