Director of Engineering, Design Systems

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Job Category

User Experience

Job Details

About Salesforce

We’re Salesforce, the Customer Company, inspiring the future of business with AI+ Data +CRM. Leading with our core values, we help companies across every industry blaze new trails and connect with customers in a whole new way. And, we empower you to be a Trailblazer, too — driving your performance and career growth, charting new paths, and improving the state of the world. If you believe in business as the greatest platform for change and in companies doing well and doing good – you’ve come to the right place.

Salesforce is seeking an exceptional engineering leader to join our Design System Engineering organization as a Director. In this pivotal role, you will lead and inspire engineering teams responsible for building and evolving our next-generation design system technology that powers experiences for millions of users. You will drive the technical strategy, architecture, and execution of our design system components, tools, and frameworks while upholding our commitment to accessibility, performance, and developer experience.
You'll be a strategic partner to cross-functional stakeholders, including UX leadership, product management, and engineering teams across Salesforce. Your leadership will empower teams to deliver cohesive, scalable, and innovative design system solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers and developer community.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Vision & Leadership: Define and execute the technical vision and roadmap for our design system engineering organization, aligning with broader company objectives and UX strategy.
• Team Development: Build, mentor, and lead high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous growth.
• Technical Architecture: Guide architectural decisions that ensure our design system is scalable, maintainable, and adaptable to emerging technologies and business needs.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with UX design, product management, and engineering leaders to ensure alignment and successful delivery of design system initiatives.
• Platform Evolution: Drive innovation in our component library, build tools, and developer experiences to increase adoption and enhance efficiency across the organization.
• Quality & Standards: Champion engineering best practices, accessibility standards, and performance optimization throughout the design system.
• Community Engagement: Represent the design system engineering organization in technical forums, fostering relationships with the broader design systems community.
• Resource Management: Effectively allocate team resources, manage priorities, and balance tactical delivery with strategic initiatives.

Your Impact

• Drive the execution and delivery of design system features by collaborating with multi-functional teams, architects, product owners and engineers
• Make critical technical decisions that contribute to the success of Salesforce's design system ecosystem
• Proactively identify potential issues and implement solutions before problems escalate
• Partner with Product and Design leadership to align objectives, priorities, and trade-offs
• Empower engineering teams to self-coordinate while ensuring clear direction and priorities
• Develop engineering talent through mentorship, career guidance, and growth opportunities
• Maintain high team morale and motivation, inspiring teams to exceed expectations
• Advocate for technical excellence and help teams make sound engineering decisions
• Participate in architecture discussions and long-term technical planning
• Maintain our engineering culture by hiring exceptional talent and fostering an inclusive environment

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
• 5+ years of experience leading and managing engineering teams
• Strong technical background in modern web technologies and frameworks
• Experience building and evolving design systems or component libraries at scale
• Deep understanding of front-end architecture, web standards, and development best practices
• Proven track record of delivering complex technical projects with cross-functional teams
• Experience with agile development methodologies and modern engineering practices
• Excellent communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts to diverse audiences
• Demonstrated ability to recruit, develop, and retain engineering talent

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with the Salesforce platform and ecosystem
• Background in accessibility implementation and standards (WCAG)
• Knowledge of design tools and workflows (e.g., Figma)
• Experience with design tokens and theme systems
• Familiarity with modern JavaScript frameworks and Web Components
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines, testing strategies, and developer tools
• Active participation in design systems or open source communities
• Experience managing geographically distributed engineering teams

Technical Skills

• Expert knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Experience with component-based architectures and frameworks
• Understanding of build systems, package management, and modern web tooling
• Familiarity with testing frameworks and quality assurance methodologies
• Knowledge of performance optimization techniques
• Experience with Git-based workflows and collaboration

Why You'll Love Working Here

• Opportunity to shape the future of enterprise design systems
• Lead teams creating technology used by millions of developers and users
• Collaborative, inclusive environment focused on innovation
• Strong emphasis on professional growth and leadership development
• Work on cutting-edge web technologies with industry experts
• Make a significant impact on products used by Fortune 500 companies worldwide

Join us in building the next generation of Salesforce's design system, creating the components, tools, and frameworks that enable developers to build beautiful, accessible, and high-performance applications at scale.

Accommodations

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Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

For California-based roles, the base salary hiring range for this position is $230,800 to $334,600.

Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, benefits. More details about our company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.