Staff Software Engineer, Design Systems

Cedar•San Diego, CA

19h

About The Position

Help reinvent how housing gets designed, permitted, and built in America. Cedar is building the operating system for urban housing delivery. We combine architectural expertise with software, automation, and data systems to dramatically accelerate how projects move from land acquisition to approved designs and construction. The result: faster timelines, higher quality, lower risk, and more housing in the cities that need it most. Our team blends architects, engineers, and product builders. We design real buildings — and we build the software systems that make great architecture scalable.

Requirements

8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including staff-level or equivalent ownership of a core system (flexible for exceptional candidates)
Strong proficiency in Rust, or deep systems experience in a comparable language and the ability to ramp up quickly
Experience designing data models, schemas, and persistence layers for versioned, evolving content, including migrations and contracts with downstream consumers
Experience with geometric modeling, computational geometry, or parametric design systems
Familiarity with web 3D rendering (Three.js, WebGPU, or similar)
A track record of writing specs, contracts, and decision records that other engineers execute against
Fluency in AI-native software development, understanding how to use agents effectively across planning, implementation, review, testing, and iteration
Experience setting technical direction for other engineers through specs, code review, and mentorship

Nice To Haves

Experience with AEC software, BIM tools, or CAD systems
Working familiarity with Rhino/Grasshopper or similar parametric design tools
Experience building authoring tools, design systems, or developer platforms used directly by non-engineers
Background in intermediate representations, compilers, or toolchains for structured content
Exposure to USD, Unreal, or similar 3D interchange and rendering pipelines
Familiarity with rule engines or constraint-solving systems

Responsibilities

Own Composer end-to-end, Cedar’s design tooling platform, which spans parametric modeling, data architecture, and the authoring experience.
Set Composer’s technical direction, own its architecture and quality bar, and take over its long-term roadmap.
Work directly with the architects who use the tools every day.
Help build the team that carries the work forward.
Provide technical leadership across Composer, including its geometric and parametric modeling, data models, and storage.
Build a data architecture that evolves with versioning, migrations, and stable contracts with dependent systems and teams.
Ensure Composer is a coherent product as it grows, making new capabilities feel integrated.
Improve the designer experience by making Composer directly usable by architects without engineering intervention.
Tighten the feedback loop between authoring and results.
Measure workflow friction and prioritize based on impact.
Understand current design tools to inform Composer’s development.
Write specs, contracts, and decision records for clear execution.
Own the technical roadmap, translating product needs into a clear plan.
Represent Composer in cross-team technical decisions.
Raise architectural disagreements early and in writing.
Grow into leading the Composer team, including hiring input, technical screens, and eventually direct reports.