Staff Product Designer, Affirm

• Advanced Figma Expertise: You are a power user. You have deep mastery of Auto-layout, Component Properties, Variables (modes, aliasing), and library management. You know how to structure files for scale
• Design Token Strategy: Experience architecting semantic naming conventions and token taxonomies that bridge design and code (JSON/CSS variables)
• Code Literacy: While you don’t need to write production code, you have a strong understanding of HTML, CSS/SASS, and modern Javascript frameworks (React, React Native). You can speak the same language as front-end engineers
• Native Mobile Knowledge: Strong familiarity with Human Interface Guidelines (Apple) and Material Design (Google), and how to balance native patterns with custom branding
• Experience at Scale: 8+ years of product design experience with significant time dedicated specifically to Design Systems at a large-scale technology company
• Governance Models: Experience establishing contribution models (how other teams add to the system) and governance workflows (how we decide what gets added)
• Visual Craft: Exceptional visual design and information architecture skills. You have an obsessive eye for typography, spacing, color theory, and micro-interactions
• Accessibility: Deep knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and assistive technologies
• Ambiguity & Autonomy: You are able to self-direct, prioritize, and clearly communicate with stakeholders in shifting environments
• Humility & Mentorship: You recognize the efforts of all contributors and are eager to elevate the team around you through critique and mentorship

Desirable

• We are looking for an experienced Staff Product Designer to join our team at a critical juncture to evolve our operational frameworks, mature our visual language, and champion a unified experience across our consumer and merchant products
• The Design Systems team is a small group of systems thinkers and connectors focused on the cohesive strategy of building, scaling, maturing, and improving our Design System
• As Affirm scales, the Design System is an integral piece of ensuring a premium, elegant, consistent, trustworthy, delightful experience for our users
• Strategic Architecture: Be a visual and technical architect of Affirm’s Design System. You will move beyond simple component creation to help define and grow the logic, token strategy, and governance that powers our products
• Visual Evolution: Lead the refinement of the visual language of the Affirm Design System. Design scalable systems and frameworks with a focus on clarity, performance, high craft, and visual luster
• Cross-Platform Parity: Deeply understand the user experience to remove discrepancies across Web, iOS, and Android. You will ensure our system feels native to each platform while remaining distinctly "Affirm."
• Operational Excellence: Collaborate, author and maintain detailed documentation and usage guidelines. You will help grow the "source of truth" that reduces friction for product teams
• Collaboration & Bridge Building: Serve as a primary translator between Design and Engineering. You will work closely with Staff/Principal Engineers to align on API structures for components and token implementation
• Evangelism & Education: Be an internal expert and ambassador for the Design System. You will host office hours, run workshops, and actively mentor senior and mid-level designers on systems thinking
• Metrics & Analysis: Analyze the internal (efficiency) and external (user impact/performance) success of system components. You will define how we measure the ROI of our design system
• Accessibility Leadership: Champion inclusive design standards (WCAG 2.1 AA+), ensuring that accessibility is baked into the core of our components, not treated as an afterthought