Senior Android Design Technologist

Summary

Join Instacart's Caper team as an Android Design Engineer and play a key role in building a world-class experience for our AI-powered smart shopping cart. You will collaborate with a high-performing team to improve the user experience through design systems, motion design, prototyping, and production code. This role requires extensive Android development experience, expertise in Jetpack Compose, and a strong understanding of UI/UX principles. You will work closely with designers, product managers, and engineers to deliver innovative features. The position offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including equity grants, and is remote-friendly.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience building and shipping high-quality Android applications with a strong focus on UI development and visual polish
• Expert-level proficiency in Jetpack Compose, with deep knowledge of layout systems, animation APIs, and accessibility tooling
• Proven track record of translating design specifications into precise, scalable implementations that maintain visual fidelity across screen sizes and states
• Comfortable developing with accessibility best practices, including TalkBack support, color contrast, focus behavior, and touch target sizing
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, especially when bridging conversations between design and engineering stakeholders
• Demonstrated attention to detail in UI implementation, with a portfolio or code samples that show precision, consistency, and visual refinement
• Highly collaborative mindset, with experience working in tight feedback loops with designers, and a bias toward “show, don’t tell” when communicating design trade-offs

Responsibilities

• Partner with Instacart’s Design Systems and Caper’s Design teams to improve the quality and consistency of the user experience by refining and productionizing design systems, driving UI enhancements
• Lead design infrastructure improvements, such as transitioning animations from Lottie to Rive, and increasing the configurability of product features
• Bring innovative concepts to life by building functional prototypes on demo carts, incorporating sensor fusion when required
• Equip the design team with tools and techniques to create prototypes of varying fidelity (e.g., using tools like Cursor for code generation from Figma designs)
• Accelerate the feature roadmap by directly collaborating with engineering and product teams to write scalable production code that aligns with both the design vision and business needs

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as a design engineer or systems engineer embedded within or closely supporting a design org
• Experience building, maintaining, or extending a design system on Android, including component architecture, token theming, and variant handling
• Familiarity with motion and interaction design tools such as Rive, Lottie, or custom animation engines—bonus if you've led a transition between platforms
• Experience using or contributing to design-to-code tools, such as Figma Plugins, Cursor, Relay, or similar
• Strong grasp of front-of-screen performance optimizations, including frame rendering, transitions, and touch latency, especially in animation-heavy UIs
• Passion for rapid prototyping and concept validation, especially using hardware or sensor integration (e.g., camera, weight sensor, motion input)
• A strong point of view on how design and engineering can partner effectively, and experience creating tools, processes, or documentation that empower designers to self-serve where appropriate

Benefits

• Highly market-competitive compensation and benefits
• Remote work
• Equity grant
• Annual refresh grants