Design system manager

We are seeking a Design System Manager to own Purse, our design system, as a product: its vision, roadmap, governance, and quality bar. As we grow from 40 to 60+ designers across web, mobile, and tablet in multiple languages, you'll set the long-term direction of the system while staying hands-on and building it yourself, providing craft leadership to our Design System Designers and tapering direct production as the team grows. You'll partner with the Design Ops Manager on shared priorities and with engineering on design–code parity.

Responsibilities

Own the vision, roadmap, and governance of Purse, evolving the system as a product toward an ambitious, AI-ready future through high-value, milestone-driven releases; Set and uphold the quality bar for components, tokens, patterns, and accessibility — building system work hands-on today and providing craft leadership and direction to the Design System Designer(s), tapering direct production as the team grows; Drive adoption and measure system value, partnering with the Design Ops Manager on shared priorities and with engineering on design–code parity, and reporting impact to leadership; Language requirement: You are able to communicate well in both English and French

Requirements

Experience owning the vision and roadmap of a design system at scale, supporting 40+ designers and engineers across web, mobile, and tablet; Ability to balance an ambitious long-term vision with pragmatic, milestone-driven delivery that creates value at every step; Strong product sense applied to a design system — treating it as a product with users, adoption metrics, and a roadmap; Experience defining and evolving design system governance and contribution models that balance autonomy and consistency; A track record of setting and holding a quality bar for components, tokens, patterns, and accessibility as contribution volume grows; Comfort making tooling and infrastructure decisions that affect the system, in partnership with design ops and engineering; A genuine maker who is hands-on today, with a small team you personally author components, tokens, and patterns and maintain the Figma library rather than only directing the work, tapering direct production toward review and orchestration as the team grows; Deep design-system craft, components, APIs, token systems, semantic naming, theming / multi-brand, with the ability to provide craft direction and mentorship to IC designers; Strong technical acumen and a clear understanding of how design systems are implemented in code, comfortable in a production-first environment where code is the source of truth; Expertise in what makes a design system interpretable by AI: structured, machine-readable, AI-ready documentation, and how LLMs and codegen agents consume a system (MCP, token automation); Demonstrated ability to drive system adoption through evangelism, clear narratives, and presentations to diverse audiences including leadership; Experience defining system-health and adoption metrics and reporting system value and ROI to leadership; Strong partnership skills with design, engineering, and product leadership; To speak English (level is assessed and appreciated according to the department you're applying to); To be energized by an ever-shifting work environment; To be highly collaborative; Sufficiently experienced to prioritize business-led actions on your day to day activity; You are able to communicate well in both English and French

Nice to have

Experience with B2B SaaS products or fintech environments; Familiarity with multi-language / internationalization design challenges; Experience contributing to or owning a tokens pipeline (Style Dictionary, Tokens Studio, MCP-based pipelines); Background in accessibility standards and inclusive design practices; Experience working in fast-growing scale-ups; Experience growing into people management of a design system team — note that this role currently focuses on system and craft leadership, with people management handled separately and introduced as the team grows

Benefits

Remote work from your country of residence in Europe within a maximum time difference of two hours from CET; 25 vacation days paid by Pennylane; Competitive compensation package; Company shares; Budget to turn your home into a more comfortable workspace; Monthly allowance to work from a coworking space; Access to 8000 fitness spaces and 300 wellness activities through Gymlib; Access to Busuu to perfect English or French; Latest Apple equipment; Company events such as Tech Days and annual company seminar; If based in France: French contract with 6 to 12 RTT, 5 weeks PTOs, lunch credits (Swile), Alan Blue healthcare cover, and regular events in cities where Pennylaners are mostly present