Staff Product Designer - Design Systems - Remote US

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Staff Product Designer - Design Systems - Remote US Company: HubSpot Location: Remote - USA Job Type: Full-time Category: Product Design / Design Systems Date Posted: 2026-02-18T17:18:28 Experience Level: 10+ years Remote Status: Remote Solely

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the modernization and strategic evolution of HubSpot's core design system, Trellis, to address fragmentation and establish horizontal infrastructure for the entire platform.
• Drive the reduction of the core component footprint from 300+ to approximately 60 scalable primitives and reusable components, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
• Establish and maintain parity across design tools (Figma), documentation, and code (React), embedding critical features like accessibility, internationalization, and RTL support.
• Develop and implement robust governance models, scalable workflows, and cross-team decision frameworks to ensure long-term design system health and adoption.
• Focus on automation and emerging tooling to accelerate design system development, adoption, and maintenance, aiming for a truly self-serve system by the end of 2026.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a Staff-level individual contributor, emphasizing significant strategic influence, technical depth in design systems, and the ability to drive large-scale initiatives without direct management authority. The focus on modernization, AI integration, and platform-wide impact indicates a high level of autonomy and responsibility.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Validate and refine the future vision for the design system platform through user research and stakeholder engagements.
• Design and operationalize cross-platform components and patterns, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and adherence to best practices.
• Partner closely with various platform teams through modernization pilots, providing guidance and support for their adoption of the core design system.
• Define clear component APIs and architectural boundaries to facilitate consistent implementation and integration across diverse product areas.
• Create comprehensive documentation, technical specifications, and adoption frameworks to empower product teams and drive system utilization.
• Facilitate workshops, governance rituals, and cross-functional meetings to foster collaboration, alignment, and decision-making.
• Collaborate intimately with engineering teams to ensure scalable, high-quality implementation of design system components and patterns.
• Lead and execute consolidation and deprecation campaigns for legacy components and patterns across the HubSpot platform.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic design leadership, hands-on component design, cross-functional collaboration, and process implementation. The emphasis on "operationalizing workflows," "governance rituals," and "consolidation and deprecation campaigns" points to a need for strong process orientation and change management skills within a complex organizational structure.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Specific educational requirements are not detailed, but a strong portfolio and equivalent practical experience are paramount. Experience: A minimum of 10+ years of experience in product design, with a significant focus on designing, evolving, and scaling complex design systems or component libraries.

Required Skills:

• Significant experience designing and evolving complex design systems or component libraries at scale, demonstrating a deep understanding of their lifecycle and challenges.
• Deep expertise in UX patterns, interaction models, and information architecture, specifically for enterprise-level or multi-product platforms.
• Proven track record of leading modernization or system-wide initiatives, successfully influencing adoption and driving change without direct management authority.
• Extensive experience partnering closely with engineering teams on implementation details, establishing effective governance models, and developing scalable processes.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills, capable of effectively engaging and gaining buy-in from senior stakeholders across multiple product areas.
• Experience in translating exploratory pilot projects into fully operationalized frameworks, comprehensive playbooks, and actionable backlog initiatives.
• A robust systems-thinking mindset, with the ability to strategically balance immediate product needs against long-term platform health and sustainability.

Preferred Skills:

• Proficiency with design tools such as Figma for component creation, prototyping, and design system management.
• Familiarity with front-end development frameworks, particularly React, to ensure seamless collaboration with engineering and accurate implementation of components.
• Experience embedding accessibility (WCAG compliance), internationalization (i18n), and Right-to-Left (RTL) language support directly into component APIs and design specifications.
• Expertise in developing and implementing automation strategies and tooling to enhance design system efficiency and developer experience.
• Experience with creating and maintaining comprehensive design system documentation and living style guides.
• Familiarity with AI-driven design tools or methodologies relevant to design system evolution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The required qualifications emphasize strategic leadership, systems thinking, and cross-functional influence, typical of a Staff-level design role. The preferred skills indicate a need for practical, hands-on experience with modern design and development workflows, including a strong understanding of technical implementation details and emerging technologies like AI.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of design system architecture and component lifecycles.
• Showcase experience in leading and executing large-scale design system modernization or consolidation efforts, highlighting challenges and solutions.
• Provide detailed case studies of cross-functional collaboration, particularly with engineering, to achieve system-wide adoption and impact.
• Illustrate the ability to balance immediate product needs with long-term platform health through strategic design decisions.
• Present examples of creating operationalized frameworks, playbooks, and adoption strategies that drive measurable improvements.
• Highlight experience in defining component APIs, architectural boundaries, and governance models.

Process Documentation:

• Evidence of creating and maintaining detailed documentation for design system components, including usage guidelines, code snippets, and design specifications.
• Examples of establishing scalable workflows for design system contribution, review, and release management.
• Documentation related to governance frameworks, including decision-making processes, contribution models, and issue resolution strategies.
• Case studies demonstrating the impact of process improvements on design system adoption, efficiency, and platform consistency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are critical for this role. Candidates must present tangible evidence of their ability to manage complex design systems, drive strategic initiatives, and collaborate effectively across disciplines. The emphasis on process documentation and operationalization suggests that a structured, repeatable approach to design system management is highly valued.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $210,000 - $336,000 USD annually. Benefits:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Equity participation through Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
• Annual bonus targets under HubSpot’s bonus plan.
• Potential for overtime pay depending on the role.
• Access to HubSpot's extensive benefits and perks designed for employee growth and well-being.
• Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.
• Support for remote work arrangements, including potential in-person onboarding and team events.

Working Hours: 40 hours per week, with flexibility.

📝 Enhancement Note: The provided salary range is substantial and reflects the seniority and impact of a Staff-level Product Designer in a high-demand role. The inclusion of RSUs and bonus targets indicates a performance-driven compensation structure. HubSpot's commitment to remote work is balanced with opportunities for in-person connection, which is important for fostering team cohesion in a distributed environment.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Software, AI-Powered Customer Platform, Marketing, Sales, Service Software. Company Size: HubSpot is a publicly traded company with a significant global presence, indicating a mid-to-large enterprise structure. Founded: HubSpot was founded in 2006, bringing over 18 years of experience in building customer-centric software solutions.

Team Structure:

• The Trellis Design System team is a specialized group focused on foundational design infrastructure.
• This role operates within the broader Product organization, likely collaborating closely with Product Management, Engineering, and UX Research.
• As a Staff Designer, this individual will act as a senior individual contributor, influencing product teams across the organization without direct reports.
• Cross-functional collaboration is essential, requiring strong partnerships with platform teams, engineering leads, and product managers.

Methodology:

• Data-driven decision-making, utilizing user feedback, analytics, and pilot program results to inform design system evolution.
• Agile and iterative development practices, with a focus on delivering value incrementally and adapting to rapid changes in interaction paradigms, particularly with AI.
• Emphasis on creating "self-serve" infrastructure, empowering product teams to adopt and integrate the design system efficiently.
• Strong focus on establishing governance, scalable workflows, and cross-team decision frameworks to ensure coherence and prevent fragmentation.

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

📝 Enhancement Note: HubSpot's culture is characterized by a commitment to customer obsession, continuous learning, and bold action. The emphasis on AI integration and modernization suggests a forward-thinking environment. The "Trellis" design system team is central to enabling this vision by providing a scalable and consistent foundation for all of HubSpot's product offerings.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Staff Product Designer. This level signifies a senior individual contributor role with significant strategic impact, technical leadership, and influence across multiple product teams. It requires a deep understanding of design systems, platform architecture, and the ability to drive complex, multi-year initiatives.

Reporting Structure: The role reports into a Design Systems leadership position, likely a Director or Senior Manager of Design Systems or a related Product Design leadership role. The individual will work closely with engineering leads and product managers on various platform teams.

Operations Impact: The Staff Product Designer will have a direct and profound impact on the efficiency, consistency, and quality of HubSpot's entire product suite. By modernizing the design system, this role will accelerate product development cycles, improve user experience consistency, reduce technical debt, and ensure accessibility and internationalization standards are met across hundreds of components and across the entire platform. This foundational work directly supports HubSpot's mission to help customers "grow better."

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in advanced design system architecture, component modeling, and cutting-edge tooling for automation and AI integration.
• Strategic Leadership: Influence the long-term vision and roadmap for design systems at HubSpot, potentially leading future modernization efforts or new system initiatives.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Develop mastery in influencing and driving alignment across diverse engineering, product, and design teams within a large organization.
• Mentorship: Opportunity to mentor junior designers and engineers involved in design system work, sharing knowledge and best practices.
• Industry Influence: Contribute to the broader design systems community through speaking, writing, or open-source contributions, leveraging HubSpot's platform.

📝 Enhancement Note: The Staff level indicates a career path focused on deep technical expertise and strategic influence rather than people management. Growth is likely to come from tackling increasingly complex challenges within the design system domain and expanding influence across more product areas or strategic initiatives.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Primarily a remote-first environment for this specific role, with the possibility of occasional in-person collaboration events or onboarding sessions. HubSpot is known for its hybrid and remote-friendly policies.

Office Location(s): While the role is remote within the US, HubSpot maintains physical offices in various locations, which may be used for specific team gatherings or onboarding requirements. The company's headquarters are in Cambridge, MA.

Workspace Context:

• Remote Collaboration: Expect a highly collaborative digital environment utilizing tools like Slack, Zoom, Figma, and project management software.
• Asynchronous Communication: Proficiency in asynchronous communication is essential for effective collaboration across different time zones and schedules.
• Design System Focus: The work environment will be deeply focused on design system principles, component libraries, and cross-functional alignment.
• Tools and Technology: Access to industry-standard design and collaboration tools will be provided.

Work Schedule: Standard 40-hour work week, with flexibility to manage personal schedules, provided that core collaboration hours and deadlines are met. This allows for effective engagement with teams across different US time zones.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote-first nature of this role necessitates strong self-discipline, excellent communication skills, and comfort with digital collaboration tools. While remote, HubSpot emphasizes building connections, suggesting that participation in virtual and occasional in-person team events will be encouraged.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Review of application and portfolio by a recruiter or hiring manager to assess alignment with core requirements.
• Portfolio Presentation: A dedicated session where the candidate presents their design system work, focusing on strategic thinking, execution, and impact. Expect to walk through case studies that demonstrate experience with modernization, governance, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Design Challenge/Workshop: A practical exercise, potentially a collaborative workshop or a take-home challenge, to assess problem-solving skills, systems thinking, and ability to apply design system principles to specific scenarios. This may involve evaluating existing components, proposing solutions for modernization, or defining new patterns.
• Stakeholder Interviews: Meetings with key collaborators, including engineering leads, product managers, and potentially other senior designers, to evaluate technical understanding, communication style, and ability to influence.
• Hiring Manager Final Interview: A final discussion to assess cultural fit, strategic alignment, and overall suitability for the Staff Designer role.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight Design System Expertise: Clearly showcase your experience with building, scaling, and modernizing design systems. Use specific examples and metrics.
• Demonstrate Systems Thinking: Explain your approach to understanding complex systems, identifying dependencies, and balancing trade-offs between short-term needs and long-term platform health.
• Showcase Modernization Efforts: Detail projects where you led or significantly contributed to design system modernization, including the challenges faced, strategies employed, and measurable outcomes (e.g., component reduction, adoption rates, efficiency gains).
• Emphasize Collaboration & Influence: Provide examples of how you partnered with engineering, product, and other stakeholders to drive adoption, establish governance, and resolve conflicts.
• Focus on Impact: Quantify the impact of your work whenever possible. Use metrics related to efficiency, consistency, adoption, accessibility improvements, or reduction in technical debt.
• Address AI Integration: If you have experience with AI in design systems, highlight it, as it's a key focus for HubSpot.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand HubSpot's Context: Research HubSpot's product suite, current design system (Trellis), and their stated goals (modernization, AI integration, self-serve system).
• Prepare for Systems Design Scenarios: Be ready to discuss how you would approach designing scalable, reusable components, defining their APIs, and embedding features like accessibility and internationalization.
• Practice Governance Discussions: Prepare to articulate your philosophy on design system governance, including decision-making frameworks, contribution models, and conflict resolution.
• Anticipate Technical Questions: Be ready to discuss the technical aspects of design systems, such as establishing parity between design and code, and working with various technologies (Figma, React).

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is designed to rigorously assess not only design craft but also strategic thinking, technical depth, leadership potential, and collaborative capabilities. A strong, well-documented portfolio that clearly articulates impact and process is paramount.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: The primary tool for designing components, creating prototypes, and managing visual assets within the design system.
• React: Essential for understanding and collaborating on the implementation of design system components within HubSpot's front-end codebase.
• Design System Management Platforms: Experience with tools that facilitate design system documentation, versioning, and distribution (e.g., Storybook, Zeroheight, or similar internal tools).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Analytics Tools: Familiarity with product analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Amplitude, Pendo) to understand user behavior and inform design decisions.
• Data Visualization Tools: Ability to interpret and potentially contribute to dashboards that track design system adoption, component usage, and overall platform health.

CRM & Automation:

• CRM (HubSpot CRM): Understanding how the design system serves the CRM and other core HubSpot products.
• Automation Tools: Experience with tools that can automate design system tasks, such as documentation generation, code linting, or component testing.
• Version Control Systems (e.g., Git): Crucial for collaborating with engineering on code-based components and managing design system assets.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in Figma and a strong understanding of React are non-negotiable for this role. Experience with specialized design system tools and an awareness of analytics and automation technologies are highly valued, reflecting the role's focus on efficiency and data-informed iteration.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Solve for the Customer: All design decisions and system improvements should ultimately aim to enhance the customer experience and enable them to "grow better."
• Be Bold: Embrace challenges, drive significant change, and take calculated risks to achieve ambitious goals, such as a full design system modernization.
• Learn Fast: Maintain a growth mindset, continuously learning from user feedback, industry trends (especially AI), and team experiments to adapt and improve.
• Align, Adapt & Go!: Foster alignment across teams, remain adaptable to evolving needs and technologies, and execute with speed and efficiency.
• Deliver with HEART: Embody Honesty, Empathy, Accountability, Respect, and Transparency in all interactions and work.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Partnership: Highly collaborative, working closely with Product Management, Engineering, UX Research, and other design teams to ensure alignment and integration.
• Data-Informed & User-Centric: Decisions are backed by user research, data analysis, and a deep understanding of customer needs.
• Process-Oriented: Emphasis on establishing clear, scalable workflows, governance, and documentation to facilitate efficient collaboration and adoption.
• Transparent Communication: Open sharing of ideas, challenges, and progress to build trust and ensure everyone is working towards common goals.

📝 Enhancement Note: HubSpot's core values are deeply integrated into their culture and expected behaviors. For this role, emphasis will be placed on how these values translate into the practicalities of building and managing a large-scale design system, particularly "Solve for the Customer," "Be Bold," and "Learn Fast" in the context of modernization and AI.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Scale and Fragmentation: Addressing a design system with 300+ components, many lacking documentation or ownership, requires significant strategic planning and execution.
• Driving Adoption: Convincing numerous product teams to adopt a modernized system and deprecate existing solutions requires strong influence and clear value proposition.
• Balancing Priorities: Managing the tension between immediate product feature delivery and the long-term investment in design system health.
• Rapid Technological Evolution: Integrating emerging technologies like AI into the design system and its development processes requires continuous learning and adaptation.
• Cross-Team Alignment: Gaining and maintaining alignment across a large, diverse organization with various product roadmaps and priorities.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Dive into AI and Design: Explore how AI can be leveraged to enhance design system creation, maintenance, and developer tooling.
• Advanced Design System Architecture: Gain experience in architecting highly scalable, flexible, and future-proof design systems.
• Leadership in Complex Environments: Develop skills in leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives within a matrixed organization.
• Industry Best Practices: Stay at the forefront of design system trends, best practices, and emerging technologies through conferences, research, and peer collaboration.
• Mentorship and Knowledge Sharing: Contribute to the growth of the broader design and engineering teams by sharing expertise and best practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are inherent to leading a massive design system modernization project. The growth opportunities are substantial, offering a chance to be at the cutting edge of design systems, AI integration, and large-scale platform strategy.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your approach to reducing a large, fragmented component library (e.g., 300+ components) to a more streamlined set of primitives and reusable components. What metrics would you track to measure success?"
• "How would you establish governance and scalable workflows for a design system to prevent future fragmentation, especially in a large organization with many product teams?"
• "Walk me through a time you successfully led a system-wide modernization initiative without direct management authority. What were the key challenges, and how did you overcome them?"
• "How do you ensure parity between design (Figma), documentation, and code (React) for a design system, and what strategies would you employ for accessibility, internationalization, and RTL support?"

Company & Culture Questions:

• "Based on HubSpot's stated values and mission, how would you align the design system strategy to support their goal of helping customers 'grow better'?"
• "How do you see AI impacting the future of design systems, and how would you propose integrating AI into HubSpot's Trellis system?"
• "Describe your experience influencing senior stakeholders across different product areas. How do you build relationships and gain buy-in for design system initiatives?"

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the proposed solution (with a focus on design system principles), the execution process, and the measurable impact.
• Quantify Impact: Use data—component reduction, adoption rates, efficiency gains, reduction in bugs related to UI consistency, accessibility improvements—to demonstrate the value of your work.
• Showcase Systems Thinking: Explain your thought process behind architectural decisions, API definitions, and the creation of scalable workflows.
• Highlight Collaboration: Detail how you worked with engineering, product, and other teams, illustrating your ability to influence and drive alignment.
• Address Modernization Challenges: Be prepared to discuss specific challenges encountered during modernization projects and how you navigated them.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, practical execution, strong collaboration skills, and a deep understanding of design systems at scale. Be ready to discuss not just what you did, but why and how it impacted the business.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Staff Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided HubSpot careers link.
• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your most impactful design system projects, focusing on modernization, scalability, and cross-functional influence. Ensure your portfolio clearly articulates your role, the challenges, your strategic approach, and quantifiable results.
• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight experience with complex design systems, component libraries, enterprise platforms, modernization initiatives, and cross-functional leadership. Use keywords from the job description such as "Design Systems," "Product Design," "Staff Designer," "Modernization," "Governance," "Figma," and "React."
• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice walking through your portfolio case studies, focusing on clear communication, strategic insights, and the business impact of your work. Be ready to discuss your approach to AI integration and future design system trends.
• Research HubSpot: Understand HubSpot's product suite, their existing design system (Trellis), their company values, and their strategic focus on AI. This will help you tailor your responses and demonstrate your cultural fit.

⚠️ 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.