Senior Design Systems Engineer (Remote Eligible)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Design Systems Engineer (Remote Eligible) Company: Smartsheet Location: Bellevue, WA, USA (Remote Eligible within the US) Job Type: Full-Time Category: Design Systems Engineering / Front-End Development Date Posted: August 13, 2025 Experience Level: Senior (5+ years) Remote Status: Remote Eligible (within the US)

🚀 Role Summary

• This role is central to establishing and scaling a robust design system, focusing on the engineering backbone that supports consistent, accessible, and high-performance user experiences across Smartsheet's product suite.
• You will act as a key technical liaison between design and engineering, translating design intent into production-ready, reusable UI components and patterns.
• A significant aspect of this role involves fostering adoption of the design system across engineering teams, providing clear documentation, implementation guidance, and support to accelerate development velocity.
• You will contribute to the architectural evolution of the design system, ensuring its scalability, maintainability, and adherence to best practices in front-end development, including performance and accessibility.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Senior Design Systems Engineer," the responsibilities and required skills align closely with advanced front-end engineering roles with a specialization in building scalable component libraries and influencing product development through a systematic approach. The emphasis on "revenue operations" or "sales operations" is not directly applicable here, as this role is within the product development/engineering function, focusing on product consistency and efficiency rather than direct revenue generation processes. However, the principles of efficiency, scalability, and stakeholder collaboration are highly relevant to operations professionals.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and maintain a comprehensive suite of scalable, reusable UI components and design patterns, strictly adhering to established design system guidelines and rigorous accessibility standards (WCAG).
• Collaborate intimately with cross-functional teams, including Product Managers, UX Designers, and fellow Engineers, to meticulously translate complex design specifications into robust, maintainable, and performant front-end code.
• Actively support and enable engineering teams across the organization by publishing and maintaining multiple code packages, creating comprehensive documentation, providing clear implementation guidance, and actively driving the adoption of system components.
• Contribute significantly to critical design system architecture decisions, participate actively in code reviews, and champion best practices concerning performance optimization, accessibility compliance, and well-defined API design for component reusability.
• Partner closely with UX Designers to explore innovative interaction patterns, conduct feasibility assessments, and codify these explorations into reusable, production-ready building blocks within the design system.
• Develop and maintain internal tooling, including command-line interface (CLI) tools, custom linting rules, or Figma plugins, to streamline development workflows and enhance efficiency for both engineers and designers.
• Create functional prototypes and proof-of-concepts as necessary to validate design concepts, technical feasibility, or explore new interaction paradigms.
• Serve as a proactive advocate for design system adoption, championing consistent UI implementation and high-quality code standards through active participation in reviews, engaging presentations, and continuous cross-functional collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strong focus on engineering excellence, system thinking, and cross-functional collaboration, all critical aspects for success in operations roles as well. The emphasis on documentation, adoption strategy, and tooling development directly translates to process improvement and efficiency gains, which are core tenets of operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is often preferred, but equivalent practical experience demonstrating strong technical aptitude and system-building capabilities will be highly valued.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of progressive experience as a front-end engineer, UI engineer, or a dedicated design systems contributor in a professional, production environment. This experience should demonstrate a proven track record of building and maintaining complex, scalable front-end applications or component libraries.

Required Skills:

• Modern JavaScript & TypeScript: Deep understanding and practical application of modern JavaScript (ES6+) and TypeScript, including advanced concepts, module systems, and best practices for building robust applications.
• React & Node.js: Strong proficiency in React for building dynamic and interactive user interfaces. Experience with Node.js for server-side JavaScript development, build tooling, and package management is essential.
• CSS Expertise: Advanced knowledge of CSS, including preprocessors (like Sass/LESS, though not explicitly mentioned, often implied), CSS-in-JS solutions, responsive design techniques, and cross-browser compatibility best practices.
• Design Systems Contribution: Demonstrated, hands-on experience in building, maintaining, and evolving design systems or shared component libraries within a production environment, showcasing an understanding of system architecture, versioning, and distribution.
• Accessibility (WCAG): A solid understanding of web accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA or higher), including ARIA attributes, semantic HTML, and techniques for ensuring inclusive design.
• Responsive Design: Proficiency in creating UIs that adapt seamlessly across various devices and screen sizes.
• Communication & Documentation: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a proven ability to articulate technical concepts clearly, document best practices, and collaborate effectively across diverse disciplinary teams (design, product, engineering).

Preferred Skills:

• Figma Plugin Development: Experience developing custom plugins for Figma, demonstrating an ability to extend design tooling and improve designer workflows.
• Automated Testing: Familiarity with and experience implementing automated testing strategies for UI components using frameworks like Jest, React Testing Library, or tools like Storybook for component showcasing and interaction testing.
• CI/CD & Package Management: Experience with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines and managing package distribution (e.g., npm, Yarn) for shared libraries.
• Performance Optimization: Knowledge of front-end performance optimization techniques, including code splitting, lazy loading, and efficient rendering strategies.

📝 Enhancement Note: The qualifications emphasize deep technical expertise in front-end development, with a specific focus on system building and cross-functional collaboration. For an operations professional, the transferable skills include a systematic approach to problem-solving, attention to detail in process documentation, and strong communication for stakeholder management. The "Senior" level implies a need for strategic thinking and the ability to mentor or guide others.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Design System Components: Showcase examples of reusable UI components you have built and maintained, demonstrating adherence to design specifications, accessibility standards, and robust code quality.
• Process Improvement Case Studies: Present case studies detailing how you have improved development workflows, accelerated team productivity, or enhanced product consistency through design system implementation or tooling.
• System Architecture & Scalability: Provide evidence of your ability to architect scalable and maintainable front-end systems, perhaps through examples of component library structure, versioning strategies, or adoption frameworks.
• Tooling & Automation: Include examples of internal tools, scripts, or plugins you have developed to streamline processes for designers or engineers, highlighting the efficiency gains or problems solved.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Demonstrate experience in documenting front-end development workflows, including component development lifecycles, contribution guidelines, and integration processes for design systems.
• Implementation & Adoption Strategies: Show examples of how you've documented best practices for adopting design system components, including usage guidelines, common pitfalls, and integration patterns.
• Measurement & Performance Analysis: Provide examples of how you measure the impact and performance of design system components or related tooling, such as adoption rates, reduction in UI bugs, or improvements in development speed.

📝 Enhancement Note: For an operations candidate, translating this into a portfolio would involve showcasing process maps, workflow diagrams, case studies on implementing new systems or improving existing ones, and demonstrating how you've measured the impact of these operational changes. The focus on documentation, adoption, and efficiency is directly applicable.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• The provided US Base Salary Pay Range is $132,500 to $173,750 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive health, vision, and dental coverage options, with a notable offering of 100% employer-paid premiums for HSA or buy-up medical/vision.
• Retirement Savings: A 401k plan with a generous company match (50% of your contribution up to the first 6% of eligible pay) to support long-term financial planning.
• Productivity & Flexibility: A monthly stipend to support work-from-home expenses and productivity, alongside a Flexible Time Away Program and paid Sick Time Off.
• Insurance & Income Protection: Smartsheet-sponsored life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability plans for full-time US employees.
• Time Off: 12 paid holidays per year and up to 24 weeks of Parental Leave.
• Community Engagement: A personal paid Volunteer Day to encourage community involvement.
• Professional Development: Opportunities for continuous learning and career advancement, including access to online courses through Udemy.
• Additional Perks: Company-funded perks such as counseling memberships, local retail discounts, and a personal Smartsheet account.

Working Hours:

• The standard working hours are 40 hours per week, typical for a full-time role. The "Remote Eligible" status suggests a degree of flexibility in how and where these hours are worked, as long as deliverables are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is competitive for a senior-level engineering role in a tech hub like Bellevue, WA, and reflects the specialized skills required. The benefits package is robust, emphasizing employee well-being, financial security, and work-life balance, which are attractive attributes for any professional, including those in operations. The "monthly stipend" is a notable perk for remote employees.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Software as a Service (SaaS), Work Management Software, Collaboration Tools. Smartsheet operates in a highly competitive market, emphasizing efficiency, automation, and data-driven insights for businesses. Company Size: Smartsheet is a publicly traded company with a significant global presence, indicating a mature organization with established processes, but also one that fosters innovation and growth. This size suggests opportunities for impact and career advancement, alongside the potential for more formalized operations and structure. Founded: Over 20 years ago, Smartsheet has a long history in the productivity and work management space, implying a stable company with a proven product-market fit, evolving alongside technological advancements.

Team Structure:

• Design Systems Team: This team likely comprises a Design Systems Engineering Manager, Senior Design Systems Engineers, and potentially UX Designers and Accessibility Specialists. The structure is collaborative, with a focus on shared ownership of the design system.
• Reporting Structure: The Senior Design Systems Engineer reports to the Design Systems Engineering Manager. This implies a direct reporting line with regular feedback and guidance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: The role explicitly requires close partnership with product engineers, designers, and accessibility experts, highlighting a highly collaborative environment where input from various disciplines is valued and integrated.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design & Development: The emphasis on translating design specs, adhering to standards, and measuring impact suggests a data-informed approach to building and maintaining the design system.
• Agile Development Practices: While not explicitly stated, the collaborative nature, iterative component building, and focus on cross-functional teams are hallmarks of agile development methodologies.
• Standardization & Efficiency: The core purpose of a design system is to drive consistency and efficiency, so these principles are likely embedded in the team's operational approach.

Company Website: https://www.smartsheet.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Smartsheet's culture appears to value innovation, collaboration, and empowering individuals to achieve significant outcomes. For an operations professional, understanding how a company built on "work management" and "automation" operates internally is key. The design systems team's function mirrors operational goals of standardization, efficiency, and enabling other teams.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is classified as "Senior," indicating a level of expertise and experience where individuals are expected to contribute strategically, mentor junior team members, and take ownership of significant technical areas. In an operations context, this would translate to managing key processes, driving optimization projects, and potentially leading small teams or initiatives. Reporting Structure: The Senior Design Systems Engineer reports directly to the Design Systems Engineering Manager. This provides a clear path for mentorship, feedback, and career development within the design systems discipline. Operations Impact: While not a direct revenue operations role, the impact is significant. A well-maintained design system directly influences product development velocity, reduces engineering debt, enhances user experience consistency, and ultimately contributes to customer satisfaction and retention—all of which have a downstream effect on revenue and business growth. This role enables hundreds of engineers to build features more efficiently and consistently.

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in front-end architecture, design systems, accessibility, and emerging web technologies. Potential to become a recognized expert within the company and industry.
• Leadership & Mentorship: Opportunities to mentor junior engineers, lead technical initiatives within the design systems team, and influence technical direction.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Grow influence across product, design, and engineering departments by advocating for system adoption and best practices.
• Potential for Management: With demonstrated leadership and impact, there could be pathways toward managing a team or technical programs in the future.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Senior" designation implies a need for strategic thinking and process ownership, which are core to operations roles. The growth opportunities focus on technical mastery and influencing product strategy, which can be achieved in operations by driving process improvements and operational excellence that directly impact business outcomes.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Smartsheet has a presence in Bellevue, WA, suggesting a modern office environment. However, the role is "Remote Eligible" within the US, indicating a strong embrace of remote work. Office Location(s): The primary office mentioned is Bellevue, WA. The company also operates in other locations (as per the EEO statement), but for this role, US-based remote work is supported.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The role emphasizes close collaboration with designers and engineers, suggesting a team that values open communication, shared problem-solving, and mutual support.
• Tooling & Technology: Expect access to industry-standard development tools, collaboration platforms (like Smartsheet itself, likely), and potentially specialized design system tooling.
• Team Interaction: Remote employees are expected to actively participate in virtual team meetings, discussions, and collaborative sessions to maintain strong working relationships and alignment.

Work Schedule:

• The standard 40-hour work week is expected, with flexibility in how these hours are structured to accommodate remote work. Professional output and meeting availability are key.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote-first or remote-eligible nature of this role means the workspace is largely self-managed. For an operations professional, this requires strong self-discipline, effective virtual communication, and proficiency in remote collaboration tools. Understanding Smartsheet's own product is likely an advantage for navigating internal workflows.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will likely conduct an initial phone screen to assess overall fit, experience, and interest.
• Technical Interviews: Expect multiple rounds of technical interviews focusing on JavaScript, React, CSS, accessibility, and design systems principles. This may include live coding challenges or discussions about your approach to building components.
• System Design/Architecture Discussion: You may be asked to discuss how you would approach building or scaling a design system, including architectural decisions, tooling choices, and adoption strategies.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Interviews with designers and/or engineers from product teams to assess your ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines.
• Portfolio Review: A dedicated session to walk through your portfolio, discussing specific projects, your contributions, and the impact of your work.
• Behavioral/Cultural Fit: Questions designed to understand your work style, how you handle challenges, your approach to teamwork, and alignment with Smartsheet's values.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: For each project in your portfolio, clearly articulate the problem you were solving, your specific contributions, the technologies used, and the measurable impact (e.g., increased efficiency, reduced errors, improved consistency).
• Showcase Design System Work: Highlight projects specifically related to design systems, component libraries, or shared codebases. Detail the architecture, contribution process, and adoption strategies you employed.
• Demonstrate Process: Explain the processes you followed for development, testing, documentation, and collaboration. This is where operations skills shine.
• Be Prepared to Code: Have examples of your code ready to share or discuss, and be prepared for live coding exercises that test your proficiency in JavaScript, React, and CSS.
• Explain Your "Why": Be ready to articulate your passion for design systems, your approach to solving complex front-end challenges, and your commitment to accessibility and quality.

Challenge Preparation:

• Front-End Fundamentals: Brush up on core JavaScript concepts, React hooks, state management, component lifecycle, and CSS best practices (including responsive design and accessibility).
• Design System Concepts: Understand design tokens, component architecture, theming, versioning strategies, and the relationship between design and code.
• Problem-Solving Scenarios: Prepare for questions that involve debugging, optimizing code, or designing solutions for common UI challenges. Think about how you would approach a request from a product team for a new component.
• Communication Practice: Practice explaining technical concepts clearly and concisely, both verbally and through written documentation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is rigorous, focusing on both technical depth and collaborative ability. As an operations professional, emphasize your process-oriented thinking, your ability to drive adoption, and your experience in documenting and standardizing workflows. Your portfolio should highlight projects where you improved efficiency or consistency through systematic approaches.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• JavaScript (ES6+), TypeScript: Core languages for development.
• React: The primary framework for building user interfaces.
• Node.js: For development tooling, build processes, and package management.
• CSS/SCSS/CSS-in-JS: For styling components.
• Storybook: Highly probable for component development, documentation, and testing.
• Jest/React Testing Library: For automated unit and integration testing of components.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Internal Smartsheet Tools: Likely used for project management, task tracking, and team collaboration.
• Web Analytics Tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Amplitude): Potentially used to track adoption and usage of design system components within the product.
• Performance Monitoring Tools: For analyzing component performance.

CRM & Automation:

• CRM (e.g., Salesforce): While not directly used by this role, understanding how the design system integrates with the broader product ecosystem is important.
• CI/CD Tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions): For automating the build, test, and deployment of component libraries.
• Figma: The primary design tool, with potential for plugin development.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in React, JavaScript, and CSS is non-negotiable. Experience with Storybook and testing frameworks like Jest is highly advantageous. For operations professionals, understanding how these tools contribute to efficiency, consistency, and scalability is key. Familiarity with CI/CD and package management demonstrates an understanding of production-ready development pipelines.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer Focus: While this role is engineering-centric, the ultimate goal is to improve the customer experience through consistent and high-quality UI. This aligns with operations' focus on customer satisfaction through efficient processes.
• Collaboration & Transparency: A strong emphasis on working effectively with cross-functional teams and maintaining open communication channels.
• Continuous Improvement: A commitment to iterating on the design system, improving tooling, and refining processes to drive ongoing efficiency and quality.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Using data from user feedback, analytics, and testing to inform design and development choices.
• Ownership & Accountability: Taking responsibility for the design system's health, adoption, and evolution.

Collaboration Style:

• Partnership: Working closely with designers to ensure fidelity and feasibility, and with product engineers to ensure seamless integration and adoption.
• Knowledge Sharing: Actively sharing best practices, documentation, and learnings with other teams to foster a consistent engineering culture.
• Constructive Feedback: Providing and receiving feedback through code reviews, design critiques, and team discussions to maintain high standards.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values of collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement are fundamental to successful Revenue Operations and Sales Operations teams. Demonstrating these values in your application and interview will resonate strongly.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Driving Adoption: Overcoming resistance or inertia to get engineering teams to consistently adopt and utilize the design system can be a significant challenge. This requires strong communication, training, and support.
• Balancing Innovation and Stability: Evolving the design system to incorporate new patterns and technologies while maintaining backward compatibility and stability for existing products is a constant balancing act.
• Scalability: Ensuring the design system can scale effectively as Smartsheet's product suite grows and new teams adopt it.
• Maintaining Consistency: Ensuring consistent implementation across diverse product teams with varying levels of technical expertise and priorities.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Dive into Front-End Architecture: Gaining advanced experience in building and managing complex, scalable front-end systems.
• Mastering Accessibility Standards: Becoming an expert in web accessibility and its implementation in large-scale applications.
• Tooling & Automation Expertise: Developing skills in creating custom development tools and automation scripts.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Enhancing skills in influencing stakeholders across different departments and driving consensus on technical standards.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are common in any role focused on standardization and process implementation, which are staples in operations. Overcoming these requires strategic planning, strong communication, and a focus on enablement, all skills valued in operations.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your experience building and maintaining a design system. What were the key architectural decisions you made, and why?"
  • Preparation: Be ready to detail your process, including component structure, theming, versioning, and how you handle accessibility. Discuss trade-offs you considered.
• "How do you ensure adoption of a design system across multiple engineering teams with different priorities?"
  • Preparation: Focus on your communication strategy, documentation approach, training initiatives, and how you provide ongoing support and gather feedback. Think about incentives for adoption.
• "Walk me through a complex UI component you built. What were the challenges, and how did you solve them, particularly regarding accessibility and performance?"
  • Preparation: Select a component from your portfolio that best showcases your skills. Be prepared to discuss the code, design rationale, and testing methodology.
• "How do you collaborate with designers to translate their vision into production-ready code?"
  • Preparation: Emphasize your understanding of the design process, your ability to provide technical feedback on designs, and your methods for ensuring fidelity.
• "What tools or processes would you introduce or improve to enhance the efficiency of front-end development at Smartsheet?"
  • Preparation: Think about areas where design systems can drive efficiency – e.g., component libraries, tooling, automated testing, documentation.

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What do you know about Smartsheet and its mission?"
  • Preparation: Research Smartsheet's product, market position, and company values. Understand how a design system contributes to their overall goals.
• "How do you handle disagreements or differing opinions with designers or other engineers?"
  • Preparation: Focus on your collaborative approach, problem-solving skills, and ability to find common ground based on project goals and best practices.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structured Narrative: For each portfolio item, follow a clear story: Problem -> Your Role/Contribution -> Solution/Process -> Outcome/Impact.
• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the value of your work (e.g., "reduced development time for UI elements by 20%," "improved Lighthouse accessibility score from 70 to 95").
• Showcase Code Quality: Be ready to share snippets or links to repositories (if public) that demonstrate clean, well-documented, and maintainable code.
• Highlight Process: Explain the workflows you established for component development, contribution, and maintenance. This is where operations skills are particularly relevant.
• Prepare for Q&A: Anticipate questions about your decisions, challenges faced, and what you would do differently.

📝 Enhancement Note: For an operations candidate, tailor your answers to highlight process improvement, efficiency gains, cross-functional collaboration, and data-driven decision-making. Your portfolio should emphasize projects where you standardized processes, improved workflows, or implemented systems that drove measurable business outcomes.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Design Systems Engineer position:

• Submit your application through Smartsheet's Greenhouse portal using the provided link.
• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your resume and portfolio to highlight your experience with design systems, component libraries, front-end architecture, and process optimization. Focus on projects that demonstrate your ability to create scalable, reusable solutions and drive efficiency.
• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your 5+ years of relevant experience, your proficiency in key technologies (JavaScript, TypeScript, React, CSS, Node.js), and any experience with design systems or shared component libraries. Use keywords from the job description naturally.
• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your technical skills, design system philosophy, and collaborative approach. Prepare specific examples from your experience that showcase your problem-solving abilities, process improvement initiatives, and impact.
• Company Research: Familiarize yourself with Smartsheet's product offerings, company culture, and values. Understand how a robust design system contributes to their mission of enabling teams to achieve anything.

⚠️ 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.