Manager, Design Systems

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Manager, Design Systems

Company: Addepar

Location: Remote, Canada

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Design Operations / Product Design Leadership

Date Posted: 2026-04-22T19:03:20

Experience Level: 7+ Years (with 3+ years in leadership)

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the strategic evolution and operationalization of Addepar's Design System, driving UI consistency and technical excellence across a global data and AI platform.

• Leverage AI-driven workflows and UX engineering practices to automate design system distribution and maximize its effectiveness and adoption.

• Foster a culture of design excellence and continuous learning by managing, mentoring, and empowering a team of designers to achieve business objectives.

• Act as a critical liaison between innovative product and engineering teams, unifying the user experience and elevating technical standards for enterprise B2B SaaS products.

• Develop and execute a compelling roadmap for the design system, ensuring alignment with company strategy and long-term product transformation goals.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned at the intersection of Design Systems, Design Operations, and People Management. The emphasis on AI-driven workflows, UX engineering, and enterprise B2B SaaS suggests a need for a candidate who can bridge advanced technical capabilities with strategic design leadership and process optimization. The "Manager, Design Systems" title, combined with the responsibilities, indicates a senior individual contributor or a team lead role focused on scaling a mature design system.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Develop and own the vision, strategy, and roadmap for the design system, ensuring it aligns with Addepar's overarching business objectives and product transformation initiatives.

• Implement and scale repeatable systems, processes, and rituals that optimize the end-to-end design and development lifecycle for maximum operational efficiency.

• Collaborate closely with Engineering and Product leadership to ensure deep integration of the design system into development workflows, maintaining high standards for technical feasibility and UI consistency across the entire platform.

• Champion the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, including AI-assisted design tools and UX engineering practices, to automate system distribution and enhance overall effectiveness.

• Lead, mentor, and empower a team of designers, fostering their professional development and aligning their growth with business goals.

• Serve as a key connector between innovative teams, unifying the product experience and elevating technical standards across Addepar's comprehensive platform.

• Evolve the design system's documentation website into a definitive single source of truth and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure system impact and efficiency.

• Strategize and implement global accessibility standards and UI excellence into the core design methodology, ensuring inclusive and high-quality user interfaces.

• Proactively identify and address adoption roadblocks, developing strategic solutions and building consensus across a complex organization to drive widespread acceptance.

• Provide regular, constructive critique and introduce targeted learning opportunities for team members, encouraging professional growth and skill enhancement.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strong focus on process optimization, cross-functional leadership, and strategic implementation. The emphasis on "repeatable systems and rituals" and "design operations" suggests the candidate will be responsible for formalizing and scaling design system processes. The mention of "AI-driven workflows" and "UX engineering" points to a need for forward-thinking technical understanding within the design leadership.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or a related field is typically expected for this level of role. Relevant certifications in design or project management could be beneficial.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in Product Design or UX Design.

• At least 3 years of dedicated experience in a leadership or management capacity, directly overseeing design teams or initiatives.

• A proven, demonstrable track record of successfully leading and scaling design systems in enterprise or B2B SaaS environments.

• Experience in planning for long-term platform transformation while simultaneously managing immediate design needs across multiple workstreams.

Required Skills:

• Design Systems Leadership: Expertise in building, evolving, and scaling comprehensive design systems for complex product ecosystems.

• Product Design/UX Design: Deep understanding of user-centered design principles, UX methodologies, and best practices for enterprise B2B SaaS.

• Design Operations: Proven ability to establish and optimize design processes, workflows, and rituals for efficiency and adoption.

• Team Management & Mentorship: Strong leadership skills with experience in managing, mentoring, and developing design talent.

• Strategic Planning & Roadmapping: Ability to develop and articulate long-term design system visions and actionable roadmaps aligned with business strategy.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Exceptional skills in partnering with Product Management, Engineering, and other stakeholders to achieve shared goals.

• Technical Acumen: Solid understanding of user interfaces, front-end development principles, and modern design/development workflows.

• Communication & Influence: Superior verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to influence and drive consensus at all organizational levels.

Preferred Skills:

• UX Engineering: Experience or strong interest in UX engineering practices and principles.

• AI-Assisted Design: Familiarity with or interest in leveraging AI tools and workflows to enhance design processes.

• Accessibility Standards: Knowledge of WCAG guidelines and experience incorporating accessibility into design systems.

• Design System Documentation: Proficiency in creating and maintaining clear, comprehensive design system documentation websites.

• Metrics & Analytics: Experience in defining and tracking metrics to measure design system impact and ROI.

• Agile Methodologies: Familiarity with Agile development processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirements emphasize a blend of strategic vision, operational rigor, and people leadership. The "7+ years" with "3+ years in leadership" confirms this is a senior role. The specific mention of "enterprise or B2B SaaS" and "scaling design operations" are critical keywords for candidates to highlight. "AI-assisted design" and "UX engineering" are forward-looking skills that will differentiate candidates.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Design System Case Studies: Showcase 2-3 in-depth case studies detailing the development, evolution, and impact of design systems you have led or significantly contributed to. Focus on enterprise/B2B SaaS if possible.

• Process Optimization Examples: Include examples of how you have improved design workflows, implemented new processes, or scaled design operations, demonstrating a systematic approach to problem-solving.

• System Integration & Adoption: Demonstrate how you ensured the design system was integrated into development workflows and drove adoption across teams, with clear evidence of impact.

• Metrics & ROI: Present how you measured the success and efficiency of your design system initiatives, quantifying impact through metrics and ROI where applicable.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Provide examples of documented workflows related to design system contribution, maintenance, or integration. Highlight how these workflows were optimized for efficiency.

• Implementation & Automation: Showcase how design system components were implemented and distributed. If applicable, include examples of automation strategies used in the distribution or maintenance of the system.

• Measurement & Performance Analysis: Demonstrate the ability to define, track, and analyze performance metrics for a design system, using data to inform future iterations and improvements.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a role focused on Design Systems and Design Operations, the portfolio is crucial. Candidates should focus on demonstrating impact and scalability. Showing how they've formalized processes, driven adoption, and measured results will be key. The inclusion of "AI-driven workflows" and "UX engineering" in the job description suggests candidates might want to highlight any relevant work in their portfolio, even if it's emerging.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

The provided base salary range for this role in Canada is $152,000 CAD to $190,000 CAD per year.

📝 Enhancement Note: This salary range is based on the provided information for Canada. The exact compensation will be determined by factors such as the candidate's experience, qualifications, location within the specified provinces (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON), and market conditions. The range is for base salary only and does not include additional compensation.

Benefits:

• Bonus: Performance-based bonus opportunities.

• Equity: Stock options or other equity grants, reflecting ownership and long-term commitment.

• Health Benefits: Comprehensive health and wellness benefits package, likely including medical, dental, and vision coverage.

• Professional Development: Opportunities for continuous learning, including access to training, conferences, and certifications related to design systems, AI, and UX engineering.

• Retirement Savings Plan: Potential for a company-sponsored retirement savings plan (e.g., RRSP matching in Canada).

• Paid Time Off: Generous vacation, sick leave, and public holiday allowances.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time work hours are expected, likely around 40 hours per week.

• Given the fully remote nature and the emphasis on global accessibility, some flexibility may be required to accommodate different time zones for collaboration with international teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The benefits listed are standard for senior roles in tech companies. The inclusion of "Bonus" and "Equity" signals a performance-driven culture and an opportunity for significant financial upside beyond base salary. The mention of "Health benefits" is broad; candidates should inquire about the specifics during the interview process.

DNIs & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Financial Technology (FinTech), specifically a Data and AI Platform for investment professionals. Addepar operates within the complex landscape of wealth management technology, aiming to unify and analyze vast amounts of financial data.

Company Size: Addepar manages nearly $9 trillion in assets across ~1,400 firms in nearly 60 countries, indicating a significant and established player in the FinTech space. The company has offices globally, suggesting a sizable employee base beyond the core product/engineering teams.

Founded: Founded with a mission to provide a total portfolio view and AI-powered insights, Addepar has grown to be a key technology provider in the investment management industry.

Team Structure:

• The Design Systems team reports to the Head of Design for Platform Capabilities and Systems, indicating a structured approach to design leadership within the platform capabilities division.

• Collaboration is expected to be deep with Product Management and Engineering leads, particularly those focused on platform development and core functionalities.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Insights: The company leverages AI and data analytics to provide actionable intelligence, suggesting a culture that values data in decision-making processes.

• Process Optimization: The role explicitly calls for building repeatable systems and rituals to optimize the development lifecycle, highlighting a focus on efficiency and structured approaches.

• Automation & Efficiency: A strong emphasis is placed on using technology, including AI, to automate processes and maximize effectiveness, reflecting a modern approach to operations and development.

Company Website: https://addepar.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Addepar's focus on FinTech, data, and AI positions it as a forward-thinking technology company. The emphasis on scaling systems and operational efficiency aligns well with the core tenets of revenue and sales operations, even though this role is in design. The company's global presence and scale suggest a need for robust, well-documented systems and processes.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is a Senior Management/Leadership position within the Design function, specifically focused on Design Systems. It requires a blend of deep technical design expertise, strategic product thinking, and people management skills. The scope involves influencing product strategy and operationalizing design at a company-wide level.

Reporting Structure: The Manager, Design Systems reports directly to the Head of Design for Platform Capabilities and Systems. This implies a clear hierarchy within the design organization, with opportunities to influence senior design leadership and contribute to broader design strategy.

Operations Impact: The Design System Manager plays a critical role in ensuring product consistency, accelerating development cycles, and improving the overall user experience for Addepar's enterprise clients. By standardizing components and patterns, the role directly impacts the efficiency of design and engineering teams, reduces development costs, and enhances the perceived quality and reliability of Addepar's data and AI platform. This operational efficiency translates into faster time-to-market for new features and a more cohesive user journey, ultimately supporting Addepar's business objectives.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership Advancement: Potential to grow into a Director-level role overseeing a larger design systems or design operations function, or to transition into broader product design leadership.

• Specialization: Deepen expertise in areas like AI-driven design tools, UX engineering, or accessibility standards, becoming a recognized subject matter expert.

• Cross-functional Impact: Gain exposure to strategic product planning and business initiatives by working closely with senior leadership across Product, Engineering, and potentially Go-to-Market teams.

• Mentorship & Team Building: Develop strong people management skills and build high-performing design teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth trajectory for this role is significant, moving beyond just managing a design system to potentially leading broader design operations or platform design initiatives. The emphasis on AI and UX engineering also presents opportunities for skill development in cutting-edge areas relevant to future design and development roles.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote, Canada. This indicates a distributed workforce with no mandatory office presence.

Office Location(s): While the role is remote, Addepar has physical offices in New York City, Salt Lake City, London, Edinburgh, Pune, Dubai, Geneva, and São Paulo. This suggests a global company with a hybrid or on-site presence in other regions, implying the remote Canadian team collaborates with a diverse, international workforce.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: Despite being remote, the role emphasizes collaboration with design and engineering leadership, suggesting a strong use of virtual collaboration tools and a culture that values connection and shared problem-solving.

• Operations Tools & Technology: Access to modern design tools, collaboration platforms, and potentially internal development environments will be key to success. The company's reliance on a data and AI platform suggests a robust technology infrastructure.

• Team Interaction: Regular virtual meetings, design critiques, and syncs with the immediate design systems team and wider design/product organizations will be integral to the daily work.

Work Schedule:

• Standard full-time hours (approx. 40 hours/week) are expected, but the remote nature may offer some flexibility.

• Collaboration with teams in different time zones (e.g., North America, Europe, Asia) might necessitate occasional adjustments to the work schedule for key meetings or urgent issues.

📝 Enhancement Note: The fully remote aspect in Canada requires strong self-discipline and communication skills. Candidates should be comfortable with virtual collaboration tools and asynchronous work patterns. The global office presence indicates a diverse and potentially complex stakeholder landscape that requires cultural awareness.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will likely conduct an initial screening call to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit.

• Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper dive into your experience, leadership style, and strategic thinking regarding design systems and operations. Expect questions about your past roles and accomplishments.

• Team/Peer Interviews: Interviews with designers, engineers, and product managers you would collaborate with. These sessions will assess your technical skills, collaboration abilities, and how you handle design challenges.

• Portfolio Presentation: A dedicated session where you will present your design systems case studies. This is a critical part of the process, requiring you to articulate your process, decision-making, and impact.

• Executive/Senior Leadership Interview: A final interview with senior leaders (e.g., Head of Design, VP of Product) to discuss strategic alignment, long-term vision, and overall fit within the company.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your proposed solution (the design system elements/processes), your role, the process you followed, and most importantly, the measurable impact (e.g., reduced design/dev time, improved consistency, increased adoption).

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Demonstrate how you approached the design system holistically – considering components, patterns, documentation, governance, and distribution.

• Highlight Operationalization: Emphasize how you built or scaled processes, managed contributions, and ensured adoption. Use "Design Operations" language where appropriate.

• Technical Understanding: Be prepared to discuss the technical aspects of your design system, including integration with development workflows and any considerations for UX engineering or AI.

• Storytelling: Craft a narrative for each project that highlights your problem-solving skills and leadership.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design System Audit/Strategy: You might be asked to critique an existing system (hypothetical or a public example) or outline a strategy for building/scaling a design system for a specific product type.

• Process Improvement Scenario: Be ready to discuss how you'd improve a given design process or address a common design system challenge (e.g., low adoption, inconsistent contribution).

• Cross-functional Collaboration Scenario: Prepare examples of how you've successfully partnered with engineering and product teams to drive design system initiatives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio presentation is paramount. Candidates should prepare concise, impactful case studies that clearly demonstrate their ability to lead, scale, and operationalize design systems, with a strong emphasis on measurable outcomes.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design Tools: Figma (highly probable given industry trends and collaborative nature), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite.

• Prototyping Tools: Figma, InVision, ProtoPie.

• Collaboration & Communication: Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Jira, Confluence.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics: Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics (for understanding user behavior and feature adoption).

• Design System Metrics: Custom dashboards or reporting tools to track adoption rates, contribution frequency, component usage, and efficiency gains. Tools like Looker or Tableau might be used for data visualization.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly managing CRM, understanding its role in B2B SaaS and how design systems impact customer-facing platforms is important.

• Workflow Automation: Tools or scripting capabilities that could support automated distribution of design system assets or documentation updates. Experience with CI/CD pipelines for design assets might be a plus.

• Component Libraries: Deep familiarity with creating and managing component libraries within design tools and potentially code repositories (e.g., Storybook for front-end components).

📝 Enhancement Note: The job description mentions "AI-driven workflows" and "UX engineering." Candidates should be prepared to discuss how they integrate or plan to integrate AI tools into their design system processes and how they collaborate with engineering on "UX engineering" principles, which often bridges design and front-end development.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Act Like an Owner: A proactive, responsible approach to managing the design system and its impact on the business. Taking initiative to identify and solve problems.

• Build Together: Emphasis on collaboration, both within the design team and with cross-functional partners (Product, Engineering), to create unified solutions.

• Champion Our Clients: Ensuring the design system serves the needs of Addepar's clients by delivering a consistent, high-quality, and intuitive user experience.

• Drive Innovation: Encouraging bold problem-solving and the adoption of new technologies like AI to transform the industry and improve design processes.

• Embrace Learning: A commitment to continuous improvement, sharing knowledge, and adopting a growth mindset to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: The role requires seamless collaboration with Product Management for roadmap alignment and Engineering for technical implementation and feasibility.

• Process Review Culture: Openness to feedback, iterative improvements, and establishing clear processes for design system contribution and governance.

• Knowledge Sharing: A culture that encourages sharing best practices, learnings, and design system updates across teams to foster consistency and efficiency.

📝 Enhancement Note: Addepar's values are strongly aligned with a high-performing, collaborative, and forward-thinking tech environment. For a design operations-focused role, "Act Like an Owner" and "Build Together" are particularly relevant, highlighting the need for proactive problem-solving and strong teamwork.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Scaling Across a Complex Platform: Ensuring the design system remains effective and adopted across Addepar's extensive data and AI platform, which likely involves diverse product areas and user needs.

• Driving Broad Adoption: Overcoming resistance or inertia to adopt new design patterns and processes across multiple, potentially siloed, teams.

• Integrating Emerging Technologies: Successfully incorporating AI-driven workflows and UX engineering practices into the existing design system and team workflows.

• Balancing Strategic Vision with Tactical Execution: Managing long-term design system roadmap while addressing immediate design needs and supporting multiple workstreams simultaneously.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI in Design: Opportunity to lead the integration of AI tools and workflows into design system management and creation.

• UX Engineering Best Practices: Deepen understanding and implementation of UX engineering principles, bridging design and code for more efficient workflows.

• Platform Design Strategy: Gain insights into the strategic planning for large-scale enterprise platforms and how design systems contribute to overall product transformation.

• Leadership Development: Enhance people management, strategic communication, and cross-functional influence skills through managing a team and interacting with senior leadership.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are typical for a senior design systems role in a growing tech company, especially one focused on sophisticated B2B SaaS. The growth opportunities are significant, particularly in the areas of AI and UX engineering, positioning the candidate at the forefront of design and development trends.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you develop a 3-year roadmap for a design system at a company like Addepar, considering our data and AI platform focus?" (Focus on strategic alignment, phased rollout, and key milestones.)

• "Describe a time you had to influence engineering or product leadership to adopt a new design system component or process. What was your approach, and what was the outcome?" (Highlight influence, data-driven persuasion, and partnership building.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "Based on your research, how do you see Addepar's values influencing the way a Design Systems team operates?" (Relate values like 'Act Like an Owner' and 'Build Together' to your responsibilities.)

• "How would you foster a culture of continuous learning and adoption for the design system within a distributed team environment?" (Discuss mentorship, knowledge sharing, and feedback mechanisms.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly define the problem, your role, the solution (design system elements/processes), the execution, and the measurable results. Use a consistent structure.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, use data to demonstrate the positive outcomes of your work. This could include time saved, reduction in bugs, increase in adoption, or improvements in user satisfaction.

• Highlight Operationalization: Show how you built processes, managed contributions, and ensured the system was integrated and maintained. This is key for a Design Ops aspect.

• Address Technical Aspects: Be prepared to discuss the technical feasibility and integration of your design system with development, especially concerning AI and UX engineering if applicable.

• Engage Your Audience: Make it a conversation, not a lecture. Be ready to answer questions thoughtfully and demonstrate your problem-solving approach live.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview questions will likely probe your strategic thinking, operational capabilities, and leadership potential. Be ready to discuss how you embed "operations" into design systems and how you leverage technology (like AI) to achieve efficiency and scale.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the Addepar careers portal via the provided greenhouse.io link.

• Tailor Your Resume: Emphasize your experience in design systems leadership, design operations, B2B SaaS, and any work involving AI or UX engineering. Quantify your achievements with metrics related to efficiency, adoption, and impact.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest design systems case studies that showcase your ability to lead, scale, and operationalize systems. Focus on demonstrating measurable impact and cross-functional collaboration.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice presenting your portfolio case studies concisely and effectively, highlighting your strategic thinking, process improvements, and leadership approach. Be ready to discuss specific tactical details.

• Research Addepar: Understand their product offering, target market, and company values. Prepare specific examples of how your skills and experience align with their needs and how you would contribute to their mission.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.