Senior Product Designer, Design Systems

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer, Design Systems

Company: Anduril Industries

Location: Seattle, Washington, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Design Systems / Product Design

Date Posted: 2026-09-28

Experience Level: Senior (5+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Drive the evolution and adoption of Anduril's design system, "Matter," by designing and iterating on its core elements, including primitives, tokens, components, patterns, and guidelines.

• Establish robust governance practices and frameworks to effectively balance the scaling needs of a diverse product ecosystem with specific program requirements.

• Champion the design system's integration across Anduril's software products, ensuring a unified visual and interaction direction across web, mobile, XR, and emerging platforms.

• Collaborate closely with product designers, researchers, and engineers to identify system gaps, drive adoption, and ensure the system embodies quality, craft, and accessibility, grounded in operational realities.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the primary focus is design systems, the role's "Senior Product Designer" title and emphasis on "real-world operations" and "human-to-machine control" suggest a strong product-centric approach. The candidate will not just build components but will actively contribute to the product design process, ensuring the design system directly supports complex user needs in defense scenarios.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and iterate on all aspects of Anduril's design system, "Matter," encompassing primitives, design tokens, interactive components, reusable patterns, and comprehensive guidelines.

• Define and implement effective design system governance models, establishing clear processes for contributions, reviews, and version control that cater to both platform-wide consistency and specific project needs.

• Act as a key liaison, managing the implementation of the design system and fostering alignment by clearly communicating system strategy, priorities, roadmap, and progress to leadership, design teams, and engineering partners.

• Proactively partner with product teams across the organization to identify areas where the design system can be expanded or improved, designing scalable solutions that maximize adoption, consistency, and efficiency.

• Unify the visual and interaction design language for all Anduril software experiences, ensuring a cohesive and high-quality user experience across diverse platforms including web, mobile, extended reality (XR), and future emergent technologies.

• Ensure the design system consistently reflects a high standard of quality, craft, and accessibility, while remaining deeply grounded in the practical operational realities and mission requirements of Anduril's customers.

• Lead and manage the transition process for deprecated patterns, components, or tooling within the design system, ensuring smooth migration paths and minimal disruption for product teams.

• Mentor fellow designers on design system principles and best practices, model exceptional design craft, and actively drive organizational alignment around system standards and adoption.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibility to "manage transitions from deprecated patterns or tooling" implies a need for strong project management and change management skills within a technical environment. This goes beyond pure design and touches on operational efficiency for development teams.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong educational foundation in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Science, or a related field is typically expected for senior-level design roles, often demonstrated through a portfolio.

Experience: 5+ years of dedicated experience in product design, with a significant and demonstrable portion focused on building, scaling, and leading design systems initiatives.

Required Skills:

• Proven track record in shaping end-to-end design systems, extending beyond basic UI kits to full product integration with measurable outcomes.

• Deep expertise in Figma, including advanced proficiency with libraries, component architecture, variables, branching workflows, and collaborative design processes.

• Demonstrated ability to align multiple cross-functional teams and drive successful adoption of design systems in complex, distributed organizational structures.

• Capacity to define and articulate a clear system strategy while simultaneously delivering tangible improvements to overall software craft and consistency.

• A strong portfolio showcasing exceptional attention to craft, interaction details, and a systematic approach to design problem-solving.

• Experience in designing for complex, technical, or mission-critical applications. Preferred Skills:

• Strategic and systematic thinking, with the ability to balance long-term design system health and scalability with immediate product development needs.

• Exceptional visual design craft, coupled with a strong commitment to usability, quality, and accessibility standards.

• Ability to discern durable design patterns from fleeting trends, consistently raising the bar for design craft without compromising operational grounding.

• Proven effectiveness as an influencer across various disciplines and seniority levels, demonstrating openness to feedback while maintaining confidence in decision-making.

• Experience leading large-scale design initiatives and successfully aligning diverse organizations around a shared system vision.

• A mindset of "strong opinions, loosely held," indicating adaptability and a collaborative spirit.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "portfolio evidence of product integration and measurable outcomes" is crucial. Candidates should be prepared to showcase how their design system contributions directly impacted product performance, user adoption, or development efficiency, rather than just showcasing aesthetic design.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Comprehensive case studies demonstrating end-to-end design system development, from foundational primitives and tokens to complex interactive components and comprehensive guidelines.

• Evidence of product integration: Showcase how the design system was implemented within actual products or platforms, detailing the process and challenges overcome.

• Measurable outcomes: Quantify the impact of your design system work, highlighting improvements in consistency, efficiency, adoption rates, or user experience metrics.

• System architecture and governance: Illustrate your approach to structuring design systems, managing libraries, and establishing governance frameworks for scalability and collaboration. Process Documentation:

• Workflow design and optimization: Detail how you designed and optimized workflows for design system creation, maintenance, and contribution, including version control and contribution processes.

• Implementation and automation: Showcase your experience in facilitating the implementation of design system elements by engineering teams and any automation strategies employed to ensure consistency.

• Measurement and performance analysis: Explain how you measured the effectiveness and adoption of the design system, including user feedback loops and performance metrics.

📝 Enhancement Note: For this role, the portfolio should heavily emphasize the "system" aspect of "design systems." This means demonstrating not just the visual components but the underlying structure, logic, governance, and adoption strategies that make a design system successful at scale within an organization.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $166,000 - $220,000 USD per year.

📝 Enhancement Note: This salary range is typical for a Senior Product Designer specializing in Design Systems in a high-cost-of-living area like Seattle, especially within the defense technology sector which often offers competitive compensation. The range reflects significant experience and specialized skills. The estimate is based on current industry benchmarks for similar roles in major US tech hubs, factoring in the "senior" level and the specialized nature of design systems expertise.

Benefits:

• Highly competitive equity grants, considered a significant part of the total compensation package.

• Comprehensive, top-tier benefits package available at little to no cost to employees.

• Specific benefits include health insurance, opportunities for recovery (implying robust PTO or wellness programs), and support for future endeavors.

• Further details on benefits can be explored via the company's career page.

Working Hours: The standard working hours are typically 40 hours per week, though the demanding nature of defense technology and design system development may require flexibility.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Defense Technology. Anduril Industries operates at the intersection of advanced technology and national security, developing cutting-edge solutions for military applications. This context implies a culture that values innovation, speed, technical excellence, and a strong sense of mission.

Company Size: Anduril is a rapidly growing company, indicative of a dynamic and fast-paced environment. This suggests opportunities for significant impact and involvement in shaping processes and systems, but also demands adaptability and resilience.

Founded: Anduril Industries was founded with the goal of modernizing the defense sector through technology. This forward-thinking approach permeates its culture, encouraging innovation and challenging traditional industry norms.

Team Structure:

• The centralized Software Product Design & Research team acts as a core integration point across Anduril's diverse software products, emphasizing collaboration and consistency.

• The Design Systems team, within this structure, likely works closely with individual product design teams and engineering squads, operating with a degree of autonomy while ensuring alignment with broader company objectives.

• Expect a highly collaborative environment where designers, researchers, and engineers work in tight-knit, cross-functional teams to solve complex problems. Methodology:

• Data analysis and insights: A strong emphasis on using data to inform design decisions and measure the impact of systems and products.

• Workflow planning and optimization: Continuous effort to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and accelerate development cycles, particularly relevant for design system development and adoption.

• Automation and efficiency practices: Leveraging technology and systematic approaches to automate repetitive tasks and enhance overall operational efficiency.

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

📝 Enhancement Note: The defense technology sector implies a need for discretion, security consciousness, and a deep understanding of user needs in high-stakes environments. Designers must be able to translate complex operational requirements into intuitive and effective digital experiences.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is at the Senior level, indicating a need for significant autonomy, strategic thinking, and the ability to mentor others. It suggests a path towards Principal or Lead Design System roles, or potentially management positions within design operations or product design.

Reporting Structure: The role reports into the centralized Software Product Design & Research team, working closely with design leadership. The Senior Designer will also collaborate extensively with engineering leads and product managers across various programs.

Operations Impact: As a Senior Product Designer on the Design Systems team, the impact is significant and far-reaching. By establishing and scaling "Matter," this role directly influences the user experience, development velocity, and consistency of all Anduril software products, thereby impacting the effectiveness of military operations and the company's overall success.

Growth Opportunities:

• Lead the strategic direction and evolution of Anduril's design system, potentially growing into a Design Systems Lead or Principal Designer role with increased scope and influence.

• Develop expertise in designing for cutting-edge technologies within the defense sector, potentially specializing in areas like AI, autonomy, or XR interfaces for mission-critical applications.

• Gain leadership experience through mentorship, driving organizational alignment, and influencing product strategy through the power of a cohesive design system.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "strong opinions, loosely held" preference indicates a growth opportunity for developing leadership and influencing skills within a high-performance culture.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is an on-site role in Seattle, Washington. Anduril emphasizes a collaborative and in-person work environment conducive to rapid innovation and problem-solving.

Office Location(s): Seattle, Washington, United States. This location offers a vibrant tech hub environment.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative environment: Expect an office setting designed to foster teamwork, brainstorming, and cross-functional interaction among designers, engineers, and researchers.

• Tools and technology: Access to industry-standard design tools like Figma, and potentially other software relevant to defense technology development.

• Team interaction: Opportunities for frequent direct interaction with colleagues, including design leadership, product managers, and engineering teams, facilitating rapid feedback loops and alignment.

Work Schedule: The role is full-time, typically 40 hours per week. However, the nature of defense technology development may require some flexibility to meet project deadlines and operational demands.

📝 Enhancement Note: The on-site requirement suggests a culture that values direct collaboration and spontaneous problem-solving, which can be highly beneficial for complex design system challenges.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter will likely review your application and resume, focusing on experience with design systems and Figma.

• Portfolio Review: Prepare to present your portfolio, highlighting 1-2 key case studies specifically focused on design system development, integration, and impact. Be ready to discuss your process, challenges, and outcomes in detail.

• Design Challenge: You may be given a design exercise, possibly related to extending or improving a design system, or solving a specific interaction problem. This will likely assess your problem-solving skills, craft, and systematic thinking.

• Team Interviews: Meet with other designers, researchers, and potentially engineers or product managers. These sessions will assess your collaboration style, communication skills, and cultural fit.

• Leadership Interview: A final interview with design leadership to discuss your strategic thinking, leadership potential, and overall fit with Anduril's mission. Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on impact: Clearly articulate the measurable outcomes of your design system work (e.g., improved consistency, faster development cycles, enhanced user satisfaction).

• Showcase system thinking: Go beyond individual components to explain the architecture, governance, and adoption strategies of the systems you've built.

• Demonstrate Figma expertise: Highlight advanced Figma usage, such as component architecture, variables, and collaboration workflows.

• Tell a story: Structure your case studies to narrate the problem, your process, the solutions you designed, and the results achieved.

• Highlight collaboration: Emphasize how you worked with engineering and product teams to ensure successful implementation and adoption. Challenge Preparation:

• Understand Anduril's mission: Research the company's products and its role in defense technology.

• Anticipate design system challenges: Prepare for questions about scaling systems, managing contributions, handling design debt, and ensuring accessibility in complex environments.

• Practice articulating your process: Be ready to walk through your design process for a specific system challenge, justifying your decisions.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the defense context, expect questions that probe your ability to design for complex, high-stakes scenarios and your understanding of operational constraints.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: Essential. Deep expertise required in libraries, component architecture, variables, prototyping, and collaborative workflows. This is the core tool for design system development and management at Anduril.

• Design System Management Platforms: While not explicitly mentioned, familiarity with tools or methodologies for documenting, sharing, and managing design systems (e.g., Storybook, Zeroheight, internal documentation tools) is highly beneficial.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Analytics Tools (e.g., Amplitude, Google Analytics): While not directly a design system tool, understanding how design decisions impact user behavior and product metrics is crucial. Experience with interpreting data to inform design system improvements is valuable.

• Data Visualization Tools: Familiarity with tools that can present design system adoption metrics or impact data clearly.

CRM & Automation:

• Project Management Tools (e.g., Jira, Asana): Essential for tracking design system tasks, bug reports, and feature requests, and for collaborating with engineering teams.

• Collaboration Tools (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams): For day-to-day communication and cross-functional team interaction.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary focus is on Figma and design system tooling. However, demonstrating an understanding of how design systems integrate with development workflows (e.g., via Storybook) and how their impact is measured (analytics) will strengthen an application.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Mission-Oriented: A strong dedication to Anduril's mission of transforming defense capabilities through technology.

• Innovation & Speed: A culture that encourages rapid iteration, pushing technological boundaries, and delivering solutions quickly.

• Technical Excellence & Craft: A high bar for quality, precision, and deep technical understanding in all aspects of work, including design.

• Collaboration & Alignment: Emphasis on working effectively across diverse teams to achieve common goals.

• Operational Grounding: Ensuring that all technological solutions are practical, effective, and suitable for real-world operational environments.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional integration: Designers are expected to work closely and seamlessly with engineers, researchers, product managers, and leadership.

• Process-driven: A focus on establishing and adhering to efficient processes for design, development, and system management.

• Feedback exchange: An open culture where constructive feedback is encouraged and valued to drive continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "strong opinions, loosely held" value suggests a culture that thrives on rigorous debate and diverse perspectives, but ultimately prioritizes collective progress and adaptability.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Scaling a Design System: Ensuring "Matter" remains scalable, manageable, and relevant as Anduril's product suite and organization grow rapidly.

• Balancing Consistency and Customization: Establishing governance that allows for necessary program-specific adaptations without sacrificing core system consistency.

• Driving Adoption: Overcoming inertia and encouraging widespread adoption of the design system across diverse engineering and product teams.

• Translating Operational Needs: Accurately understanding and translating the complex, high-stakes needs of defense operations into effective and usable design system components and patterns.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deepening Design System Expertise: Opportunity to become a leader in the field by working on a critical, mission-driven design system.

• Exposure to Advanced Technologies: Hands-on experience with AI, autonomy, sensor fusion, and other cutting-edge technologies within the defense sector.

• Leadership & Mentorship: Opportunities to mentor junior designers and influence organizational design strategy and best practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenge of "ensuring the system embodies quality, craft, and accessibility while grounded in operational realities" highlights a unique opportunity to blend high-fidelity design with practical, mission-critical application constraints.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your approach to defining a design system strategy that balances long-term health with immediate product needs." (Focus on strategic planning, prioritization, and stakeholder alignment.)

• "How would you drive adoption of a design system across multiple engineering teams with varying levels of design maturity?" (Highlight communication, education, tooling, and partnership strategies.)

• "Walk us through a time you had to manage a significant transition or deprecation within a design system. What was your process and what were the outcomes?" (Demonstrate change management, communication, and problem-solving skills.)

• "How do you ensure a design system remains accessible and inclusive for all users, especially in mission-critical applications?" (Emphasize accessibility standards, testing, and understanding diverse user needs.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Anduril's mission and our work in defense technology?" (Show genuine interest in the company's purpose and impact.)

• "How do you approach collaboration with engineering teams, and what is your experience with design-to-code handoff?" (Illustrate your partnership approach and understanding of developer workflows.)

• "Describe your experience mentoring other designers. What is your philosophy on sharing knowledge and best practices?" (Showcase leadership potential and willingness to elevate others.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure: For each case study, clearly outline: Problem Statement, Your Role, Process/Solution, Key Challenges, Outcomes/Impact, and Learnings.

• Focus on Systems: For design system case studies, emphasize the architecture, governance, component library structure, and adoption metrics.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use clear visuals, diagrams, and interactive prototypes where possible. For Figma examples, consider screen recordings or live demos of component structure.

• Quantify Impact: Use data points to demonstrate the success of your design system contributions (e.g., "reduced UI development time by X%", "increased component reuse by Y%", "improved brand consistency scores by Z%").

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate questions about specific design decisions, trade-offs made, and how you handled pushback or differing opinions.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the "Senior" title and the specific mention of "leading design systems at scale," expect interviewers to probe deeply into your strategic thinking, leadership capabilities, and ability to influence at an organizational level.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Product Designer, Design Systems position at Anduril Industries:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Greenhouse.

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your portfolio to prominently feature 1-2 robust case studies specifically demonstrating your experience in building, scaling, and managing design systems. Emphasize your contributions to "Matter" or similar systems, showcasing your Figma proficiency and measurable impact.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly highlights your 5+ years of product design experience, with a strong emphasis on design systems leadership, Figma expertise, and cross-functional collaboration. Use keywords from the job description.

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, system strategy, and collaborative approach. Prepare specific examples for behavioral questions, focusing on leadership, problem-solving, and influencing skills.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Anduril Industries, its mission, products, and the defense technology landscape. Understand their emphasis on innovation, speed, and operational impact to align your responses with their values and goals.

⚠️ 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.