Lead Design Engineer

At Braze, we have found our people. We’re a genuinely approachable, exceptionally kind, and intensely passionate crew.

We seek to ignite that passion by setting high standards, championing teamwork, and creating work-life harmony as we collectively navigate rapid growth on a global scale while striving for greater equity and opportunity – inside and outside our organization.

To flourish here, you must be prepared to set a high bar for yourself and those around you. There is always a way to contribute: Acting with autonomy, having accountability and being open to new perspectives are essential to our continued success.

Our deep curiosity to learn and our eagerness to share diverse passions with others gives us balance and injects a one-of-a-kind vibrancy into our culture.

If you are driven to solve exhilarating challenges and have a bias toward action in the face of change, you will be empowered to make a real impact here, with a sharp and passionate team at your back. If Braze sounds like a place where you can thrive, we can’t wait to meet you.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

We're seeking a Lead Design Engineer to own and evolve Braze's design system and shared UX foundations.

This is a senior individual contributor role operating at the intersection of design and code. In close partnership with Engineering, you'll shape the technical direction of our shared UI foundations, ensuring they're robust, scalable, accessible, and implementation-ready across product teams. You'll contribute hands-on while driving adoption, mentoring designers, and raising the bar for system-level design craft, accessibility, and implementation quality across the UX organization.

You'll also help future-proof our design system by thinking about it not only as a resource for human collaborators, but as structured context for automated and AI-assisted workflows. This means designing its architecture, naming conventions, and documentation so that tooling, CLI interfaces, and AI agents can consume it reliably and without ambiguity.

Responsibilities:

• Own the technical and design direction of Braze's design system in partnership with Engineering, keeping it coherent, scalable, and implementation-ready across product teams
• Define and uphold system-level design craft: evaluate, defend, and evolve what good looks like across interaction patterns, component behavior, and shared UX foundations
• Contribute hands-on to component architecture, interaction patterns, token architecture, and the design-to-code pipeline, including Figma variables and sync workflows
• Partner with frontend engineers on CSS architecture, semantic HTML, and WCAG compliance to raise the bar for accessibility and implementation quality across the organization
• Mentor designers in accessibility, responsive systems, and implementation-aware design thinking
• Build automation and tooling that improves system compliance, efficiency, and programmatic access, including architecture and documentation designed to be consumed by AI-assisted workflows
• Drive adoption across product teams through contribution models, governance workflows, and documentation, without relying on formal authority
• Reduce fragmentation, track system health and accessibility metrics, and own versioning and deprecation communication to consuming teams

WHO YOU ARE

• 5+ years in design systems, design engineering, or highly technical product design within complex SaaS environments
• Proven track record building, scaling, or modernizing a design system in close partnership with Engineering
• Strong design craft judgment at the system level: you can define, evaluate, and defend what good looks like across interaction patterns, component behavior, and shared UX foundations
• Fluent in component architecture, semantic HTML, modern CSS, accessibility (WCAG), and scalable UI patterns
• Hands-on experience with Figma variables, design tokens (Tokens Studio, Style Dictionary, or equivalent), and token-to-code pipeline workflows
• Experience leading accessibility audits or driving measurable accessibility improvements at scale
• You've introduced automation, tooling, or programmatic access to improve system quality and efficiency, and you think about the design system as structured context for both human and AI-assisted workflows
• Track record of mentoring designers and elevating technical fluency across a UX organization
• Proven ability to drive adoption across multiple product teams through influence, education, and trust rather than formal authority
• Clear communicator who can translate complex architectural decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Comfortable in fast-moving environments with high ambiguity

Bonus if you have: 

• Experience with Storybook or equivalent component documentation platforms
• Familiarity with modern frontend frameworks such as React in a component library context
• Built internal developer tooling, automated validation systems, or CI/CD-integrated quality checks
• Contributed to open-source UI systems or frontend and design systems communities
• Integrated design systems with AI-assisted tooling or automated compliance workflows

For candidates based in the United States, the pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $136,000 and $205,275/year with an expected On Target Earnings (OTE) between $160,000 and $241,500/year (including bonus or commission). Your exact offer may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to cash compensation, Braze offers full- and part- time employees a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants of restricted stock (RSUs) so that all Braze employees own a piece of our company.

#LI-Hybrid

WHAT WE OFFER

Braze benefits vary by location, and we encourage you to review our specific benefits offerings for each country here. More details on benefits plans will be provided if you receive an offer of employment.

From offering comprehensive benefits to fostering hybrid ways of working, we’ve got you covered so you can prioritize work-life harmony. Braze offers benefits such as:

• Competitive compensation that may include equity
• Retirement and Employee Stock Purchase Plans
• Flexible paid time off
• Comprehensive benefit plans covering medical, dental, vision, life, and disability
• Family services that include fertility benefits and equal paid parental leave
• Professional development supported by formal career pathing, learning platforms, and a yearly learning stipend
• A curated in-office employee experience, designed to foster community, team connections, and innovation
• Opportunities to give back to your community, including an annual company-wide Volunteer Week and donation matching 
• Employee Resource Groups that provide supportive communities within Braze
• Collaborative, transparent, and fun culture recognized as a Great Place to Work®

ABOUT BRAZE

Braze is the leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging.™ Braze helps brands deliver great customer experiences that drive value both for consumers and for their businesses. Built on a foundation of composable intelligence, BrazeAI™ allows marketers to combine and activate AI agents, models, and features at every touchpoint throughout the Braze Customer Engagement Platform for smarter, faster, and more meaningful customer engagement. From cross-channel messaging and journey orchestration to Al-powered decisioning and optimization, Braze enables companies to turn action into interaction through autonomous, 1:1 personalized experiences.

The company has repeatedly been recognized as a Leader in marketing technology by industry analysts, and was voted a G2 “Best of Marketing and Digital Advertising Software Product” in 2025.

Braze was also named a 2025 Best Companies To Work For by U.S. News & World Report, a 2025 America’s Greatest Companies by Newsweek, and a 2025 Fortune Best Workplace in Technology™ by Great Place To Work®, among other accolades. Braze is also proudly certified as a Great Place to Work® in the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Singapore.

The company is headquartered in New York with offices in Austin, Berlin, Bucharest, Chicago, Dubai, Jakarta, London, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo.

At Braze, we strive to create equitable growth and opportunities inside and outside the organization.

Building meaningful connections is at the heart of everything we do, and that includes our recruiting practices. We're committed to offering all candidates a fair, accessible, and inclusive experience – regardless of age, color, disability, gender identity, marital status, maternity, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran. When applying and interviewing with Braze, we want you to feel comfortable showcasing what makes you you.

We know that sometimes different circumstances can lead talented people to hesitate to apply for a role unless they meet 100% of the criteria. If this sounds familiar, we encourage you to apply, as we’d love to meet you.