Senior Design Engineer, Relay

• You're well-versed in React, JavaScript (TypeScript), HTML, and modern CSS
• You work in a real engineering environment. You’re comfortable using Git, writing PRs, reviewing code, and contributing directly to a shared codebase
• You can identify what's wrong (or right) with a design or component, articulate the specific reason why, and know how it could be improved
• You have strong opinions about craft, you hold yourself to a high bar, and your portfolio or GitHub shows it. You sweat the details and truly care about the last 10% that makes great software
• You prioritize speed, reusability, accessibility, cross-browser support, functional motion as you build, not as an afterthought
• You have genuine curiosity about AI tooling and a grounded enough understanding of how these tools work to build with them
• You push relentlessly for reinvention: You're always asking "how can this be better?" -- in your work, in your craft, in yourself. Comfort is a signal to push harder, not coast. You'd rather build something better than defend something familiar
• You crave autonomy: We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you’re someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you’ll find the freedom here empowering
• You own your work: You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks
• You build with AI, not just use it: You're actively embedding AI into how you work, pushing what's possible, and bringing your team along with you
• You care about impact, not noise: You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition, and you let your work speak for itself
• You’re energized by complexity and ambiguity: You enjoy tackling problems that don’t come with a playbook. You’re comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward
• You seek out feedback: You see directness as respect, not criticism. You actively seek input, sit with hard truths, and use feedback as fuel for improvement
• You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't perfectly match the job description -- your perspective and drive matter more

Desirable

• Design Engineering is a small, deliberate function with a clear mandate: own the front-end across the product, hold a high bar of quality, and raise it over time
• The team works directly with product and design, responsible for the UI, the interactions, and the design systems that everything is built on top of
• We're expanding the team and hiring two design engineers who will have real ownership across the product
• You'll work on the hardest things to get right: the details that make an interface feel intentional, the systems that make quality consistent at scale, and the problems that require someone who thinks in both design and code
• This is a formative moment for the Design Engineering function at Relay while it’s still relatively new
• You’ll have the chance to make an outsized role in shaping how it grows, how it integrates across product teams, and what it means for how Relay builds product going forward
• Set a high bar of quality across the product by owning the front-end. Identify and systematically reduce UI and UX debt, improve implementation patterns, and raise the overall level of craft across the application
• Embed within product teams to lead UI implementation for new features from concept through launch. Partner closely with product managers, designers, and engineers to ensure shipped experiences meet a high standard for quality, usability, and polish
• Own and evolve Telegraph, our design system. Define and maintain component APIs, composition patterns, interaction standards, and documentation that enable teams to build consistent, scalable interfaces efficiently
• Champion accessibility and performance as core product requirements. Ship experiences that are fast, resilient, and accessible by default through semantic implementation, keyboard support, focus management, testing, and ongoing performance optimization
• Partner closely with designers throughout the product development process. Work collaboratively in code and design tooling to iterate on concepts, refine interactions, and reduce the gap between design and implementation. Help evolve a workflow that replaces traditional handoffs with continuous collaboration
• Create leverage for the broader organization by translating intent into scalable implementation: reusable components, guidelines, sandboxes/playgrounds, and “how to use it” documentation that reduces drift
• Build the infrastructure and workflows that support AI-accelerated product development. Some areas we’re currently exploring include: automating QA and code review processes, connecting design and engineering tools, and setting up prototyping templates

• Stage 1: A 30-minute Google Meet call with a member of the People team
• Stage 2: A 60-minute Hiring Manager interview (Design Engineering Discussion & Work Showcase - we want to see something cool you've built!)
• Stage 3: A 60-minute technical interview (React component critique and improvement session)
• Stage 4: A 45-minute live front end coding challenge (working on a React component problem in real-time)
• Stage 5: A 45-minute virtual interview with a member of Relay’s executive team