Design System Lead - Product & Engineering

Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR) is boldly redefining commerce by simplifying complex payments ecosystems across the world. As the leader in commerce-enabling technology, Shift4 powers billions of transactions annually for hundreds of thousands of businesses in virtually every industry. For more information, visit www.shift4.com.

Design System Lead - Product & Engineering

Summary

Our Product Design team works across multiple product lines, from web and SaaS to Android and POS hardware, as we move toward a shared foundation. We are looking for a Design System Lead to lead the next evolution of that foundation. You will own the design system end-to-end, from token architecture and component governance to AI-assisted tooling that closes the gap between Figma and production. You will define what should be standardized across platforms and what should remain platform-specific, creating a cohesive product experience without forcing a single technical implementation. This is a high-impact, high-autonomy role at the intersection of systems design, front-end engineering, and modern AI workflows.

This role is onsite and can be based at any of the following Shift4 locations:

Tampa, FL (preferred) / Atlanta, GA / Center Valley, PA

Relocation assistance may be available.

Responsibilities

• Assess the current state of our design systems across design and engineering, identify gaps and duplication, and establish a practical roadmap for unification, migration, and ongoing governance.
• Own, evolve, and consolidate our design system foundations across web, mobile, and POS products.
• Define and maintain scalable token architecture, component libraries, theming, accessibility standards, and cross-platform patterns.
• Lead the migration of existing and legacy interfaces to the shared design system, using AI-assisted tools and workflows to accelerate the process at scale.
• Drive design-to-code alignment between Figma and production, establishing practical workflows that connect design, design system code, and production.
• Partner closely with engineers to translate design system foundations into production, accelerate component migration, identify inconsistencies, and improve adoption across products.
• Identify and implement AI-assisted opportunities to automate repetitive design system work, including audits, component mapping, documentation, and migration.
• Establish clear design system standards and review mechanisms that prevent teams from creating redundant or non-compliant components and ensure new work aligns with the shared system.
• Work closely with Product and Engineering leads to ensure the design system accelerates product development rather than creating additional processes or rework.
• Mentor designers on implementation-aware design, token usage, systems thinking, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Create practical documentation, examples, and guidelines that help product teams correctly adopt and extend the design system.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in Product Design, Design Systems, or UX Engineering roles.
• Proven track record building, evolving, and implementing production-ready design systems at scale.
• Deep expertise in token architecture, theming, component variants, accessibility, and cross-platform design systems.
• Strong Figma skills and understanding of design system best practices, governance, and design-to-code workflows.
• Hands-on experience with React, ShadCN, and Tailwind CSS, as well as Kotlin/Jetpack Compose and Material 3, with a strong understanding of how design system components, tokens, and patterns are implemented in production code.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI-assisted tools to accelerate design system work, including migration, auditing, component generation or mapping, documentation, and design-to-code workflows.
• Strong understanding of front-end implementation and the ability to collaborate directly with engineers on production design system components.
• Clear communicator who can align design and engineering around shared conventions and technical constraints.

Nice‑to‑have

• Experience in fintech, commerce, POS, or SaaS product environments.
• Experience migrating legacy design systems or products to a new unified system.
• Experience using AI to automate or accelerate design system implementation, auditing, and migration.
• Experience contributing directly to design system code or front-end repositories.
• Experience with Storybook, Style Dictionary, or other token pipeline tooling.
• Background in prototyping advanced or AI-assisted user experiences.
• Comfort working with payment terminal UI constraints and hardware-specific design patterns.

What success looks like

• Legacy products have a clear path toward the shared design foundation, with migration prioritized based on product impact and engineering feasibility.
• The shared design system is successfully adopted across web, mobile, and POS products, with legacy experiences progressively migrated to the new foundation.
• Product teams ship faster because the design system accelerates decisions instead of creating rework.
• Figma and production stay tightly aligned, with designers and engineers working from a consistent source of truth.
• AI-assisted workflows meaningfully accelerate design system migration, auditing, documentation, and design-to-code workflows.
• The design team produces more consistent, implementation-aware work.
• New features move from concept to production faster without sacrificing UX quality.
• The system has modern, maintainable foundations that scale as Shift4 adds products, platforms, and people.
  
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We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.