Sr. Design Engineer, Design Systems

Dialpad is seeking a Senior Design Engineer to support its Design System, Dialtone. This role involves defining how Dialpad explores and prototypes AI-powered communications, designing, building, and iterating on tools and experiences for research and product vision. The engineer will develop experimental interfaces, internal tools, and proof-of-concept experiences, partnering with AI, Research, and Product teams. This individual contributor will prototype production-quality interfaces with real interactivity, data, and states, using modern front-end frameworks and integrating AI systems into user flows.

Must Have

• Oversee the front-end design strategy of the Design System (style, components, and patterns).
• Lead and heavily influence how Dialtone and the design system team mature.
• Advance and scale a design-focused prototyping practice that explores feasibility and evaluates AI capabilities.
• Design and build tooling that supports product designers, researchers, and engineers.
• Prototype and validate new interaction models for AI-powered workflows, leveraging technologies like Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Ensure quality and performance, optimizing for accessibility, maintainability, and performance.
• Act as a guardian of consistency, championing reusable components and evolving Dialtone.
• Navigate ambiguity with confidence, helping cross-functional teams clarify ideas.
• Invest in the growth of the Design organization by sharing best practices and mentoring.
• Online portfolio demonstrating design-focused technical expertise.
• 8+ years of experience demonstrating exceptional design engineering fluency, including 3+ years of design system experience.
• Deep proficiency and design-focused passion in the front-end stack like Vue/React/Angular/etc, HTML, CSS, Design Tokens, and JavaScript/Typescript.
• Track record of designing, documenting, and evolving styles, Design Tokens, component libraries, and UI patterns.
• Proven ability to design and build tooling, plugins, or internal utilities.
• Experience building AI/ML-driven features, prototypes, experimental systems, or research tools.
• Demonstrated skill in optimizing and refactoring existing UIs for performance, accessibility, and maintainability.
• Mastery of state management and component-based architecture.
• A systemic approach, thinking in patterns and frameworks.
• Strong understanding of foundational UX principles, design heuristics, information architecture, usability, accessibility and inclusive design practices.
• Commitment to building inclusive, accessible experiences.
• Experience with front-end build systems, bundlers, and package management (e.g. Webpack, Vite, Rollup, npm, Yarn, nx).
• Proven ability to mentor and collaborate with designers and engineers.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and storytelling skills.
• Demonstrate ability to articulate design rationale to developers, and technical constraints to designers.
• Deep curiosity about emerging design trends, AI tooling, and evolving front-end practices.

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive benefits and perks
• Robust training program
• Inclusive office environment
• Vibrant environment to cultivate collaboration and connection
• Exceptional culture (Great Place to Work certified)

Your role

We’re looking for a Senior Design Engineer who thrives at the intersection of design, front-end engineering, AI, and rapid experimentation. You will play a critical role in supporting our Design System (Dialtone). You’ll help define how Dialpad explores and prototypes the future of AI-powered communications, designing, building, and iterating on tools and experiences that make our research and product vision tangible.

This role sits within the Design organization and partners closely with AI, Research, and Product teams. You’ll design and develop experimental interfaces, internal tools, and proof-of-concept experiences that help teams test hypotheses, evaluate AI interactions, and uncover new product opportunities.

This is a senior individual contributor role, ideal for someone with strong design sensibilities and hands-on technical fluency, someone who can move seamlessly between Figma, the browser, and AI tooling. You’ll prototype production-quality prototypes with real interactivity, data, and states; using modern front-end frameworks and our design system Dialtone; integrate real AI systems into user flows; and build scalable frameworks that accelerate design solutions with technical exploration across teams.

This position reports to our Design Engineering Manager.

What You'll Do

• You’ll oversee the front-end design strategy of our Design System – style, components, and patterns by bringing your experience as a subject matter expert in front-end design and engineering. Your front-end engineering experience may be characterized as “front of the front-end.”
• Lead through Design. Though Dialtone serves both designers and engineers, it all starts with the end user’s experience. You’ll have the opportunity to lead and heavily influence how Dialtone and the design system team mature to take on large, high-visibility initiatives, as well as how other designers and engineers contribute.
• Advance and scale a design-focused prototyping practice that explores feasibility, evaluates emerging AI capabilities, and AI design patterns. You will rapidly build functional prototypes that inform product direction.
• Design and build tooling that supports product designers, researchers, and engineers—such as internal utilities, plugins, and scripts that accelerate iteration and experimentation.
• Prototype and validate new interaction models for AI-powered workflows, leveraging technologies like Model Context Protocol (MCP) and modern front-end frameworks, or even integrate LLM APIs and generative AI services into design tools.
• Ensure quality and performance in everything you build with rigor, optimizing for accessibility, maintainability, and performance as first-class concerns in the design process.
• Act as a guardian of consistency, championing reusable components, ensuring designers and developers adhere to a unified system, and evolving Dialtone, our design system.
• Navigate ambiguity with confidence, helping cross-functional teams clarify ideas and move toward impactful solutions quickly and iteratively.
• Invest in the growth of the Design organization by sharing best practices, mentoring peers in design-engineering methods, and building community around creative prototyping.

Skills You'll Bring

• An online portfolio demonstrating design-focused technical expertise across multiple projects, showcasing thoughtful, high-quality work that drives innovation.
• 8+ years of experience demonstrating exceptional design engineering fluency across modern product environments, including 3+ years of design system experience.
• Deep proficiency and design-focused passion in the front-end stack like Vue/React/Angular/etc, HTML, CSS, Design Tokens, and JavaScript/Typescript.
• Track record of designing, documenting, and evolving styles, Design Tokens, component libraries, and UI patterns that scale product development.
• Proven ability to design and build tooling, plugins, or internal utilities that streamline workflows between design and engineering teams.
• Experience building AI/ML-driven features, prototypes, experimental systems, or research tools, ideally leveraging frameworks like Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar.
• Demonstrated skill in optimizing and refactoring existing UIs for performance, accessibility, and maintainability.
• Mastery of state management and component-based architecture.
• A systemic approach, thinking in patterns and frameworks.
• Strong understanding of foundational UX principles, design heuristics, information architecture, usability, accessibility and inclusive design practices.
• Commitment to building inclusive, accessible experiences that elevate usability for all users.
• Experience with front-end build systems, bundlers, and package management (e.g. Webpack, Vite, Rollup, npm, Yarn, nx).
• Proven ability to mentor and collaborate with designers and engineers to raise the craft and technical quality of their work.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and storytelling skills, able to present complex ideas clearly and build alignment with stakeholders.
• Demonstrate ability to articulate design rationale to developers, and technical constraints to designers.
• Deep curiosity about emerging design trends, AI tooling, and evolving front-end practices, with a continuous drive to learn and improve.

We believe in investing in our people. Dialpad offers competitive benefits and perks, alongside a robust training program that helps you reach your full potential. We have designed our offices to be inclusive, offering a vibrant environment to cultivate collaboration and connection. Our exceptional culture, recognized repeatedly as a certified Great Place to Work, ensures every employee feels valued and empowered to contribute to our collective success.

Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role and you possess the fundamental traits, the drive, and strong ambition we seek, but your experience doesn’t satisfy every qualification, we encourage you to apply.

Dialpad is an equal-opportunity employer. We are dedicated to creating a community of inclusion and an environment free from discrimination or harassment.