RoleThe Whatnot Design System (WDS) is how one product ships coherently across iOS, Android, and web. We're in the middle of WDS 2.0 - a ground-up evolution of our tokens, components, and the pipeline that connects Figma to production code on all three platforms. As a Design Systems engineer, you will:
- Build and evolve Whatnot Design System components across iOS (Swift/SwiftUI), Android (Kotlin/Compose), and web (React/TypeScript), so that every team ships consistent, accessible, high-craft UI - measured by component adoption, migration velocity, and reduction of one-off UI in the product.
- Own and extend our design token architecture - base, semantic, and component tokens - and the automated pipeline that syncs them from Figma through our token repository into each platform's codebase, so a change made once lands everywhere without breaking changes.
- Partner daily with product designers as a true collaborator: reviewing specs and redlines, pressure-testing component APIs and naming, flagging gaps between Figma and code, and building the tooling (Figma plugins, code connect, component playgrounds, snapshot galleries) that keeps design and engineering in lockstep.
- Raise the bar on quality and leverage: accessibility by default, dark mode, RTL, haptics, snapshot and visual regression testing, component telemetry, and AI-assisted workflows that turn a Figma component into a first-draft implementation.
We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our San Francisco or New York hub. YouPeople who do well at Whatnot tend to be comfortable figuring things out as they go, biased toward action, and genuinely curious about what they're building. They care more about outcomes than credit and stay close to the product and the people using it.
As our next Design Systems engineer you should have 5+ years of software engineering experience building user-facing products, plus:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent work experience.
- Shipped production UI on at least two of our three platforms - iOS (Swift/SwiftUI), Android (Kotlin/Jetpack Compose), and web (React/TypeScript) - and genuine enthusiasm for flexing across all three. You follow the work to whichever platform needs it most.
- Hands-on experience building or maintaining a design system: component libraries, design tokens (e.g. Figma variables, Tokens Studio, style-dictionary-like pipelines), versioning and migration strategies, and API design that other engineers love to use.
- A strong track record of cross-functional collaboration with designers - you're comfortable in Figma, can speak fluently about variants, properties, and auto layout, and treat designers as partners in defining component behavior rather than handing work over a wall.
- Care for the details that make components trustworthy: accessibility (VoiceOver/TalkBack), theming and dark mode, internationalization/RTL, testing (snapshot, visual regression), and documentation.
- Bonus: you've built Figma plugins or design-to-code tooling, worked with documentation platforms like Supernova or Storybook, or used AI agents to accelerate component and token migrations.
Benefits- Generous Holiday and Time off Policy
- Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
- Work From Home Support
- Home office setup allowance
- Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
- Care benefits
- Monthly allowance for wellness
- Annual allowance towards Childcare
- Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
- Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
- Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
- All Whatnauts are expected to develop a deep understanding of our product. We're passionate about building the best user experience, and all employees are expected to use Whatnot as both a buyer and a seller as part of their job (our dogfooding budget makes this fun and easy!).
- Parental Leave
- 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.
