Design Systems Lead

Posted Yesterday
Be an Early Applicant
Palo Alto, CA, USA
Hybrid
190K-240K Annually
Senior level
HR Tech • Information Technology • Software
The Role
Own and evolve Pebl’s design system across web and mobile, including component architecture, tokens, documentation, governance, and design-to-code workflows. Partner with product and engineering to ship accessible, production-ready components, improve design-code parity, and integrate AI-powered design tooling. Lead cross-functional initiatives, influence stakeholders, and establish scalable standards for system adoption and quality.
Summary Generated by Built In

Purpose in Every Position

Pebl puts a world of talent at your fingertips. With our AI-powered Global Work Platform™, companies can hire, pay, and manage employees in 185+ countries—removing risk, red tape, and guesswork from global growth. Backed by more than a decade of compliance leadership and local expertise, Pebl helps businesses move fast, stay compliant, and scale with confidence. With Pebl, companies everywhere can hire great talent anywhere.

Where Your Work Moves the Needle.

At Pebl, every team member drives our success. Joining us means more than filling a role—you’re accountable for results and impact. Our values guide how we operate, execute, and collaborate across borders. By putting them into action, you’ll help us scale faster, compete harder, and lead the future of global work.

What Makes You a Great Fit

Design systems are infrastructure. They determine how fast teams move, how consistent the product feels, and how much trust users place in every interaction. We're looking for a designer who understands this deeply — someone who brings both systems-level thinking and exceptional craft to the work.

In this role, you'll own and evolve our design system end-to-end: the component library, the token architecture, the documentation, and the workflows that connect design to production. You'll work in close partnership with engineering and product to ensure the system scales across web and mobile surfaces — and that it stays useful, adoptable, and ahead of the curve as our product and tooling landscape evolves.

This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role. You'll shape the shared language that every product team works from, and influence how designers and engineers across the org build together.

This role will require in-office collaboration Monday-Wednesday in our Palo Alto, CA office.

How You'll Make an Impact:

  • Own the architecture, strategy, and evolution of the design system — components, tokens, patterns, and documentation — across web and mobile surfaces

  • Design and ship production-ready components with a high bar for craft: well-defined states, variants, interaction models, responsiveness, and accessibility baked in from the start

  • Partner closely with frontend engineering to ensure system decisions translate cleanly into code — with shared ownership of quality, parity, and maintainability

  • Create clear, opinionated documentation and usage guidance: best practices, anti-patterns, decision frameworks, and contribution standards that teams can act on immediately

  • Build and maintain governance models that balance system integrity with the speed product teams need

  • Conduct regular audits to identify inconsistencies, gaps, and opportunities to improve component coverage and design-to-code parity

  • Lead the evaluation and integration of AI-powered design tooling — including Figma AI, MCP integrations, StoryBook MCP and generative workflows — into how the system is built and consumed

  • Anticipate shifts in the product, platform, and tooling landscape, and evolve the system proactively towards an agentic workflow.

Let’s Connect If You Have:

  • 7+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years owning or significantly contributing to a design system at a product company

  • An outstanding portfolio demonstrating systems-level thinking, component craft, and real impact at scale

  • Extraordinary visual design taste — a rigorous, opinionated eye for typography, color, spacing, and interaction quality that raises the bar across every surface

  • Expert-level Figma skills: component architecture, variables, tokens, auto-layout, and the discipline to keep a shared library production-aligned

  • Comfort working across the design-to-code workflow — you know your way around design tokens, Storybook, and GitHub, and can collaborate closely with engineers on implementation

  • Strong understanding of front-end fundamentals (HTML, CSS, React or equivalent) and how design decisions translate into code

  • Knowledge of accessibility standards and a commitment to inclusive design baked into every component by default

  • Strong written communication skills — you write documentation that is clear, opinionated, and easy to act on

  • Track record of leading cross-functional initiatives and influencing senior stakeholders on system strategy and investment

Bonus Points

  • Experience integrating AI tools into design and development workflows — AI-assisted prototyping, automated component generation, design-to-code pipelines

  • Background building or contributing to open-source design systems

  • Familiarity with design-to-code automation tools and AI-driven product development workflows

  • External thought leadership through writing, speaking, or open-source contributions in the design systems space

  • Experience in enterprise SaaS, fintech, or other complex, data-dense product environments

Why This Role Matters

A strong design system isn't just a component library — it's a force multiplier. It's what lets teams move faster without sacrificing quality. It's what keeps a product feeling coherent as complexity grows. And in an era where AI tools are increasingly part of the design and development workflow, a well-structured system becomes the foundation everything else is built on. We are a fast paced company, and impact is made fast.

Our Commitment to You

At Pebl, we’re committed to supporting our team with comprehensive rewards and benefits designed to meet diverse needs across roles and locations. Our core offerings include:

  • Flexible Time Off – Take the time you need to recharge.

  • Parental Leave – Support for growing families.

  • Health and Dental Insurance – Where applicable, to cover you and your loved ones.

  • Retirement Savings + Employee Incentive Plan – Plan for the future while sharing our success.

Please visit our career page for more information.

Pebl is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We power global teams and believe diverse perspectives drive innovation and impact. Employment decisions at Pebl are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. We’re committed to fostering an inclusive culture where every teammate can thrive and do the best work of their career—anywhere in the world.

Skills Required

  • 7+ years of product design experience
  • At least 3 years owning or significantly contributing to a design system at a product company
  • Outstanding portfolio demonstrating systems-level thinking, component craft, and impact at scale
  • Expert-level Figma skills, including component architecture, variables, tokens, and auto-layout
  • Experience with design-to-code workflows, design tokens, Storybook, and GitHub
  • Strong understanding of front-end fundamentals, including HTML, CSS, and React or equivalent
  • Knowledge of accessibility standards and inclusive design
  • Strong written communication skills for creating clear documentation
  • Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and influencing senior stakeholders
  • Experience integrating AI tools into design and development workflows
  • Experience building or contributing to open-source design systems
  • Familiarity with design-to-code automation tools and AI-driven product development workflows
  • External thought leadership through writing, speaking, or open-source contributions in design systems
  • Experience in enterprise SaaS, fintech, or complex data-dense product environments
Am I A Good Fit?
beta
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.

The Company
HQ: Palo Alto, California
784 Employees
Year Founded: 2014

What We Do

Expanding a workforce across international borders is one of the most complex undertakings a company can face. Handling local labor law, tax obligations, entity requirements, and compliance risks across dozens of jurisdictions takes expertise that most businesses simply don't have in-house. Pebl (previously Velocity Global) was built to solve exactly that. Since its founding, Pebl has spent more than a decade developing on-the-ground expertise in global employment across 185+ countries, helping businesses of every size hire, pay, and manage international teams with confidence, ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. Pebl's flagship Employer of Record (EOR) service allows Pebl to assume legal employment responsibility for a client's international workforce. This removes the need to establish a local legal entity, dramatically reducing the time, cost, and risk of entering new markets. Pebl holds more employment licenses than any other EOR globally, giving clients a compliance infrastructure that is genuinely difficult to match. That depth of expertise has earned Pebl consistent recognition from the industry's most respected analysts. NelsonHall named Pebl a Leader for the fifth consecutive year. Everest Group honored Pebl on its PEAK Matrix for global EOR for the third straight year. On G2, Pebl is rated #1 for compliance. Together, these recognitions reflect a long-standing commitment to getting global employment right. Pebl's platform is AI-powered and human-led, integrating with leading HRIS, HCM, and ATS systems and delivering instant, vetted guidance in 50+ languages. From a company's first international hire to a workforce spanning multiple continents, Pebl provides the tools, expertise, and legal infrastructure to move fast without compromising compliance. Thousands of businesses around the world trust Pebl to take them further, faster.

Similar Jobs

General Motors Logo General Motors

Technical Lead

Automotive • Big Data • Information Technology • Robotics • Software • Transportation • Manufacturing
Hybrid
Sunnyvale, CA, USA
165000 Employees
189K-291K Annually

ServiceNow Logo ServiceNow

Design Systems Documentation Lead

Artificial Intelligence • Cloud • HR Tech • Information Technology • Productivity • Software • Automation
Hybrid
Santa Clara, CA, USA
29000 Employees
191K-334K Annually

Ramp Logo Ramp

Design Systems Lead

Fintech • Financial Services
Remote or Hybrid
2 Locations
450 Employees
280K-385K Annually
Hybrid
Irvine, CA, USA
6056 Employees
122K-150K Annually

Similar Companies Hiring

Ford Energy Thumbnail
Automotive • Software • Energy • Utilities • Manufacturing • Renewable Energy
Glendale, Kentucky
55 Employees
Revel Thumbnail
Aerospace • Hardware • Robotics • Software
Marina Del Rey, California
70 Employees
Blee Thumbnail
Artificial Intelligence • Marketing Tech • Software
New York, New York
33 Employees

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account