Senior Design Engineer II

Kit

Work style

remote

Job type

full-time

Experience

senior

Kit's product surfaces have grown faster than the systems that keep them consistent. We need someone to close that gap. We're looking for a Senior Design Engineer II to help build and maintain our design system, improve UI quality and consistency across the app, and be the bridge between design and front-end engineering.

This role is about building durable systems that raise product-wide quality, reduce rework for every feature squad, decreases time-to-ship, improves our customer journeys, and helps designers experiment with shipping to production. You'll work closely with our front-end engineering team to help lead the development and maintenance of shared foundations such as Storybook, React components, design tokens, and the design-to-code workflow.

This is a full-time senior IC role ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of design and code, enjoys systems thinking, and is excited to create the foundations that feature teams rely on to ship high-quality UI faster. The work you do will directly shape the experience creators have every time they use Kit

Your support system

You'll sit within the Product Design team and collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, and feature squads across Kit. You'll report to Dan Winer, our Director of Product Design, and partner directly with front-end engineers, product designers, and the feature project leaders who'll rely on the system you build. You'll also work alongside product managers when new features require new or evolved components.

What you'll do

First Week: Immerse yourself in Kit's product surfaces and current component landscape. Attend Get-To-Know-You (GTKY) meetings with Product Design and Engineering. Get access to Figma, our codebase, and understand the current state of UI consistency challenges.

First Month: Audit the current UI for patterns, tokens, and inconsistencies. Present your observations, help establish the token architecture mapped between Figma and code, and start implementing some missing components in React.

First Six Months: Establish tokens and primitives mapped between Figma and code in partnership with the front-end engineering team. Lead the development of 5-8 core components at production quality with full documentation (including the navigation component suite with performance targets). Work with designers to define pattern standards and begin providing React hand-offs for new feature work. Measurably improve layout consistency across key surfaces. Help the product design team use AI to experiment with shipping their designs to production — for example, using AI-assisted code generation to turn Figma work into functional components faster

First Year: Create a stable, predictable design-to-code workflow that feature squads rely on. Drive high adoption of system components in new feature work with visible consistency improvements across surfaces that previously diverged. Lead the evolution of our component library in Storybook to become the canonical reference for UI behaviour and states. Establish guardrails that prevent UI drift before it starts, so feature squads ship faster with higher-quality UI without needing to check in with you on every decision.

Skills

Strong visual design craft: typography, layout, spacing, color, and hierarchy

Strong React/Typescript fundamentals and component architecture

Design token architecture and Figma-to-code mapping

Building and maintaining Storybook for component development

Deep understanding of interaction design, states, and edge cases

The ability to spot and resolve visual and interaction inconsistencies across a product surface — not just in isolation, but in context

Performance and accessibility standards

Systems thinking and building for scale

Clear documentation and pattern guidance

Ability to validate technical feasibility early in the design process

Experiences

6+ years of relevant experience with meaningful design system work as a significant part of that — building, scaling, and maintaining a design system in production

Proven track record retrofitting and modernizing legacy UI systems, migrating inconsistent patterns into cohesive design systems

Prior experience working as a designer

Portfolio demonstrating effective use of UI design fundamentals

Deep experience with composition and presentational component architecture in React

Proven track record maintaining Storybook as a canonical UI reference

Built and managed design token systems with Figma integration

Evidence of successfully bridging design and code in a live product

Experience collaborating with product designers and engineering teams

Hands-on experience implementing AI tooling to accelerate design-to-code workflows and automate design system consistency checks

Traits

Takes initiative and demonstrates leadership in ambiguous, cross-functional environments - you can identify what needs to happen next and rally people around a direction without formal authority

Systems thinker who builds foundations, not just features

Opinionated about design quality with a point of view on what good design looks like

Detail-oriented with exceptional craft sensibility for visual and interaction quality

Low ego, strong collaborator who bridges design and engineering

Comfortable receiving feedback on your work and adjusting direction when the team or constraints call for it — you care more about the system getting better than being right

Pragmatic approach to balancing perfection with progress

Clear communicator who can articulate tradeoffs and standards,

Focused on enabling others and reducing friction for feature teams

You document decisions and share what you learn so others can build on your work

Working hours and location

We're 100% remote with team members across the globe. We work mostly on East Coast time—so if you're based on the West Cost of the United States, Europe, or Asia, you might have a few early mornings or late evenings. We do our best to keep things reasonable, but a little time zone juggling comes with the territory. [Add any specific working hours or timezone requirement]

Compensation + perks + benefits

Kit has standardized salaries based on position, no matter where you live. For this role, we’re hiring at our level 4 ($186,000). Level is determined based on experience and our interview process.

Perks + benefits include:

Profit Sharing

Kit equity

401k with a 5% match

We cover up to $2,100 per month toward medical premiums, with dental and vision premiums fully covered. We offer Health Insurance plans through Aetna

$2,000 equipment allowance for your first two years, $1,000 budget every following two years. Company-provided laptops are issued to every Kit team member and are not included in the equipment budget

Individual learning + development budget ($3,500/year)

Gender affirming benefits

Childcare benefit up to $3,000 annually

Twenty (20) days of paid time off during each year of employment

Paid paid vacation: An after-tax bonus of $1,000 for taking five consecutive days of vacation where you’re fully unplugged from work

Ten (10) paid holidays a year

Two weeks of paid sick time each year, including mental health + well being days

Twelve (12) weeks paid parental leave and flexible scheduling in your child’s first year

Up to six weeks of paid bereavement leave, medical leave, and disaster after six months of employment, two weeks of each paid leave in your first six months

Winter Break Closure: Kit closes for a week at the end of December, giving everyone a collective break to enjoy the holiday season. Essential support services remain available, with teams coordinating to ensure coverage during this period

Four-week, paid sabbatical after five years with the team

Fantastic in-person or virtual retreats with the team twice a year

This role is no longer accepting applications.