Manager, Design Systems

The Role

We are looking for an experienced design systems leader who thrives on the challenge of scaling systems across complex products and platforms. You are a strategic thinker who identifies inconsistencies in both our interface and our internal processes, designing high-impact improvements that gain broad adoption across the organization.

In this role, you will lead the evolution of our design system while leveraging AI-driven workflows to automate distribution and maximize effectiveness. You will embed design operations into our core methodology to optimize the development lifecycle and ensure our system provides maximum strategic value. As an empathetic manager, you will align business objectives with the growth and skills of your team.

Reporting to the Head of Design for Platform Capabilities and Systems, you will act as the vital link between our most innovative teams. You will partner closely with design and cross-functional leadership to unify our product experience and elevate our technical standards.

Addepar takes a market-based approach to pay. A successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on the role, job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target base salary for roles in Canada.

The current range for this role is $152,000 - $190,000 (base salary) + bonus + equity + benefits

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range during the hiring process. Additionally, these ranges reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits.

Applicants must be based in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Ontario.

Applicants must have legal authorization to work in the country where this role is based on the first day of employment. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and maintain a compelling vision and roadmap for the design system that aligns with company strategy and long-term product transformation
• Build and scale repeatable systems and rituals that optimize the end-to-end design and development lifecycle, ensuring a high degree of operational efficiency
• Partner with Engineering and Product leads to ensure the design system is deeply integrated into the development workflow, maintaining a high standard of technical feasibility and UI consistency across the entire platform
• Provide leadership on adopting the latest technologies, including AI-driven workflows and UX engineering practices, to automate system distribution and maximize effectiveness
• Lead, empower, and mentor a team of designers to do their best work, aligning business objectives with their professional development
• Act as the vital link between innovative teams to unify the product experience and elevate technical standards across Addepar’s platform
• Evolve the design systems documentation website as a single source of truth and establish goal-driven metrics to measure the impact and efficiency of the design system
• Build a strategy for incorporating global accessibility standards and UI excellence into our core methodology
• Uncover adoption roadblocks and build solutions to remove them, building the required relationships to get broad consensus across a complex organization
• Lead, empower, and mentor designers on the team to do their best work. Regularly provide constructive critique and introduce learning opportunities. Encourage growth

Who You Are

• 7+ years in Product Design or UX Design, with at least 3 years specifically in a leadership or management role
• You have a proven track record of leading design systems initiatives for enterprise or B2B SaaS organizations
• You can plan for long-term platform transformation while triaging immediate design needs across multiple workstreams
• You understand how to scale design operations and are passionate about systematic, modularized problem-solving
• You possess a solid technical understanding of user interfaces and are proficient in the latest tools; experience or interest in UX engineering and AI-assisted design is highly valued
• You have exceptional communication and partnership-building skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of an organization
• You thrive in a growth environment and are committed to cultivating a culture of design excellence and continuous learning