Staff Product Designer, Design Systems

Summary

Join Discord's Design Systems team as a Staff Designer and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our platform's design. You will define design quality, collaborate across teams, and lead the creation and maintenance of our design system used by designers, engineers, and product managers. Your responsibilities include defining the design system's vision, designing reusable components, leading product migration to the system, providing support and advocacy, and mentoring senior designers. This leadership role requires extensive experience in design systems, cross-functional collaboration, and a passion for creating accessible, user-centric designs. Discord offers a competitive salary, equity, and benefits.

Requirements

• 7+ years designing consumer-facing products
• 3+ years leading design systems teams
• A track record of driving cross-functional initiatives and delivering organizational impact
• Proficiency in developing scalable design and code libraries, crafting comprehensive documentation, and evolving systems to meet changing needs
• Experience defining the visual style of products; bonus if this includes brand integration
• Passion for creating accessible, user-centric design systems that align business goals with user needs
• Exceptional storytelling skills across multiple mediums, with consistent experience influencing design decisions at all levels, including executives
• Strong, proactive communication skills to articulate ideas, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and contribute to product strategy and roadmaps
• A desire to deeply understand the “why” behind decisions to inform the “how,” developing a strategic product perspective and vision
• High level of design craft with a commitment to quality, ensuring excellent execution from design iterations to documentation and QA
• Demonstrated leadership on large-scale, high-impact projects across desktop and mobile, with a portfolio showcasing work where you were the primary designer

Responsibilities

• Define the north star for the design system, solving foundational challenges and ensuring scalability across the organization
• Partner with the Design Systems Design Manager to drive the long-term vision and align the system with company goals
• Lead cross-functional efforts, advocating for systems thinking and fostering alignment across teams and disciplines
• Stay informed on design trends, best practices, and emerging technologies to ensure the system remains innovative and forward-looking
• Design reusable components, patterns, and tools, including design tokens, UI kits, and component libraries, to ensure consistency and efficiency
• Write clear, comprehensive documentation to help designers and developers apply system components and guidelines effectively
• Continuously improve and evolve the design system based on user feedback, technology advancements, and product landscape changes
• Lead the migration of existing products to the design system, ensuring a seamless transition while prioritizing the “Designer Experience.”
• Update or replace legacy components to align with system guidelines and modern standards
• Act as a champion for the design system, educating teams on its benefits and best practices through presentations, workshops, and ongoing communication
• Provide support and manage feedback channels to address user concerns, ensuring the system meets the needs of both internal teams and end users
• Mentor senior designers and foster systems thinking across the organization

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with version control and Github
• Technical writing experience, familiarity with markdown
• Experience creating Figma Tooling
• Casual or committed gamer

Benefits

• Equity
• Benefits