Staff Designer, Design Systems Lead
About Faire
Faire is an online wholesale marketplace built on the belief that the future is local — independent retailers around the globe are doing more revenue than Walmart and Amazon combined, but individually, they are small compared to these massive entities. At Faire, we're using the power of tech, data, and machine learning to connect this thriving community of entrepreneurs across the globe. Picture your favorite boutique in town — we help them discover the best products from around the world to sell in their stores. With the right tools and insights, we believe that we can level the playing field so that small businesses everywhere can compete with these big box and e-commerce giants.
By supporting the growth of independent businesses, Faire is driving positive economic impact in local communities, globally. We’re looking for smart, resourceful and passionate people to join us as we power the shop local movement. If you believe in community, come join ours.
About this role
Faire is seeking a Staff Designer (Design Systems Lead) to drive the evolution of Slate, our design system, at a pivotal moment in its growth. Reporting to the Head of Product Design, you’ll define the vision for Slate, align stakeholders across design and engineering, and ensure its adoption as a core enabler of product development. This role blends strategic leadership with hands-on execution—you’ll craft components, patterns, and tools that empower our designers and engineers to build cohesive, high-quality experiences efficiently. You’ll be part of a small, dedicated team of designers and engineers, working collaboratively to make Slate an indispensable asset for Faire’s product development. With strong leadership support and a renewed investment in our system, this is a rare opportunity to shape a system that directly impacts the speed, consistency, and quality of Faire’s marketplace. If you thrive at the intersection of design, systems thinking, and cross-functional collaboration, we’d love to hear from you.
What you’ll do
- Define a clear and inspiring vision for Slate (Faire’s Design System) that aligns with Faire’s product development goals and sets the foundation for long-term success.
- Establish and lead the team’s rituals and practices, creating an effective team operating system in collaboration with current members.
- Refine and execute a prioritized roadmap, focusing on high-impact updates to components, patterns, and tooling that meet immediate designer and developer needs.
- Drive adoption of and contributions to Slate across product design and engineering teams to ensure widespread usage and engagement.
- Build cross-functional alignment, partnering with engineering, design, and leadership to ensure Slate supports Faire’s business goals and provides visibility into its plans.
- Increase product development velocity by streamlining workflows through Slate, delivering measurable improvements in speed and experience consistency.
- Deliver hands-on contributions to Slate, executing high-priority objectives
- Measure and improve user satisfaction with Slate, achieving a significant increase in satisfaction scores among designers and developers within the first year.
Qualifications
- Proven expertise in design systems leadership: Demonstrated experience leading the definition, execution, and adoption of design systems at scale, including executing strategy and implementation of high-quality solutions tailored to business needs.
- Hands-on execution and craft excellence: Demonstrates exceptional ability to directly contribute to the design system by refining components, patterns, and tooling with meticulous attention to detail, usability, and accessibility. Brings deep expertise in Figma, leveraging it as a core tool for building and maintaining robust, scalable design libraries.
- Strategic thinker with a product mindset: Approaches the design system as a product, balancing user needs, business goals, and technical constraints to deliver practical, high-impact, and ever improving solutions.
- Seamless integration into product design and development workflows: Extensive experience partnering with designers and developers to understand their needs, integrate the design system seamlessly into their workflows, and empower them to deliver at high velocity and consistency.
- Data-driven decision-making: Skilled at using metrics, user feedback, and other data to guide priorities, measure Slate’s value, and make compelling cases to stakeholders for investment and adoption.
- Strong stakeholder management: Adept at building trust and alignment across cross-functional teams, including engineering, design, product, and leadership, while effectively managing competing priorities.
- Advocate for adoption and contribution: Proven ability to champion the design system within the organization, driving widespread adoption while establishing clear processes for team contributions and system evolution.
- Team leadership and operational efficiency: Experienced in establishing team rituals and practices that foster collaboration, accountability, and seamless execution.
- Outcome-oriented with a focus on impact: Operates with a results-driven mindset, ensuring Slate accelerates development velocity, enhances consistency, and improves designer and developer satisfaction.
Salary Range
San Francisco, CA / New York, NY: the pay range for this role is $195,500 - $269,000 per year.
This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule - Faire employees will be expected to go into the office 2 days per week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, effective the week of January 13, 2025. Additionally, in-office roles will have the flexibility to work remotely up to 4 weeks per year.
Applications for this position will be accepted for a minimum of 30 days from the posting date.
Why you’ll love working at Faire
- We are entrepreneurs: Faire is being built for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. We believe entrepreneurship is a calling and our mission is to empower entrepreneurs to chase their dreams. Every member of our team is taking part in the founding process.
- We are using technology and data to level the playing field: We are leveraging the power of product innovation and machine learning to connect brands and boutiques from all over the world, building a growing community of more than 350,000 small business owners.
- We build products our customers love: Everything we do is ultimately in the service of helping our customers grow their business because our goal is to grow the pie - not steal a piece from it. Running a small business is hard work, but using Faire makes it easy.
- We are curious and resourceful: Inquisitive by default, we explore every possibility, test every assumption, and develop creative solutions to the challenges at hand. We lead with curiosity and data in our decision making, and reason from a first principles mentality.
Faire was founded in 2017 by a team of early product and engineering leads from Square. We’re backed by some of the top investors in retail and tech including: Y Combinator, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and DST Global. We have headquarters in San Francisco and Kitchener-Waterloo, and a global employee presence across offices in Toronto, London, and New York. To learn more about Faire and our customers, you can read more on our blog.
Faire provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Faire is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. To request reasonable accommodation, please fill out our Accommodation Request Form (https://bit.ly/faire-form)
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By
Faire
Faire is an online wholesale platform that leverages technology to empower local boutiques and independent businesses globally, facilitating their access to unique worldwide products and driving positive economic impact in their communities.
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