Design System Engineer job at PermitFlow in New York City, NY

Title: Design System Engineer

Location

New York City, NY

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Hybrid

Department

Engineering

Compensation

$135K – $250K • Offers Equity

Job Description:

PermitFlow is redefining how America builds. We’re an applied AI company serving the nation’s builders, tackling one of the largest information challenges in the economy: understanding what can be built, where, and how. Our AI agent workforce helps the fastest-growing construction companies navigate everything from permitting and licensing to inspections and project closeouts – accelerating housing, clean-energy, and infrastructure development across the country.

Despite being a $1.6T industry, construction still suffers from massive delays, wasted capital, and lost opportunity. PermitFlow has already delivered unprecedented speed, accuracy, and visibility to over $20B in development, helping contractors reduce compliance time, de-risk projects, and scale with confidence.

As the U.S. enters a new capex supercycle across data centers, factories, housing, and renewables, joining PermitFlow means building the AI infrastructure at the core of every construction project driving the next wave of reindustrialization.

We’ve raised over $90M, most recently completing our Series B, from top-tier investors including Accel, Kleiner Perkins, Initialized, Y Combinator, Felicis, and Altos Ventures, with backing from leaders at OpenAI, Google, Procore, ServiceTitan, Zillow, PlanGrid, and Uber.

Our HQ is in New York City with a hybrid schedule (3 in-office days per week). We prefer NYC-based candidates or those open to relocation.

Role Overview

As a Design System Engineer, you’ll be the technical steward of the component library that every product engineer at PermitFlow builds on top of. You'll work at the intersection of design and engineering, partnering closely with our designers to define and ship the atoms, molecules, and organisms that keep our product consistent, fast to build, and delightful to use.

This isn't a supporting role. You'll set the standards, own the roadmap, review PRs into the library, and be the go-to person when teams hit the edges of what our design system supports. You'll also lead the federated model we've established — working with team champions across our product squads to drive adoption, surface gaps, and maintain quality across a fast-moving codebase.

What You'll Do

Own the day-to-day development and evolution of PermitFlow's React component library

Build and maintain components across all levels of the Atomic Design hierarchy — atoms, molecules, organisms, and templates — ensuring each is robust, accessible, and documented in Storybook

Define and enforce component standards: API contracts, design token usage, prop interfaces, and variant patterns

Review PRs into the component library, maintaining quality bar and ensuring consistency

Partner with designers using Figma to translate design specs into production-grade components with fidelity

Manage the library's roadmap, balancing new component development with migration work as we bring the broader application into alignment

Work with Chromatic for visual regression testing and manage the Storybook instance as the source of truth for component documentation

Lead the Design Systems Guild — a cross-team working group of engineering champions — sharing updates, aligning on patterns, and reviewing proposals before implementation

Reduce overall frontend complexity: our migration work has already yielded thousands of lines of consolidation, and there's more to go

What We're Looking For

Strong React and TypeScript fundamentals — you think in components, not just in pages

Demonstrated experience building and maintaining a production design system or component library, not just consuming one — a portfolio, GitHub profile, or Storybook instance you can share carries more weight than a resume line

A sharp eye for visual and interaction design — you notice when something is off and can articulate why clearly

Experience working in close partnership with product designers: giving and receiving feedback on specs, negotiating tradeoffs, and aligning on the right abstraction before something gets built

Familiarity with design tooling (Figma) and developer experience tooling (Storybook, Chromatic, or equivalents)

Strong written communication — you'll be setting standards that product engineers read and follow, and documenting decisions that outlast you

Experience with Tailwind CSS is a strong plus

Experience with ShadCN or Radix UI primitives is a strong plus

Familiarity with accessibility standards (WCAG) is a plus

What We Offer

Competitive salary and meaningful equity in a high-growth company

100% company-paid base medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees + healthcare FSA

401(k) savings plan

Unlimited PTO and paid family leave

Home office & equipment stipend

Daily in-office lunch and dinner provided

Commuter benefits (p