Senior Product Designer, Design Systems

Who We Are

Hi, we're DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, our search engine, and the DuckDuckGo subscription. We also offer private, useful, and optional AI, including Duck.ai, which lets you chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other AIs, all in one place. Our culture of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management underpins everything we do, where each team member takes full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you're seeking end-to-end ownership of your work, you've come to the right place!

Your Team and Role

As a Senior Product Designer, Design Systems you'll be the first of its kind at DuckDuckGo. You'll take ownership of our design system at a pivotal moment, with a chance to define both a role and a roadmap from the ground up — helping build the process, not just step into one. You'll audit our existing system, lead projects that move it forward across platforms and products like Duck.ai and Search, as well as shape how we manage and scale it as we grow.

Applying your hands-on design skills, you will autonomously lead highly impactful projects that scale across millions of users, and collaborate with team members at all levels to pioneer new solutions as we build out the privacy layer for the internet. From ideation to execution, you'll assess vague problems, propose high-impact solutions, and execute them against a set of success criteria. You'll have a voice in all product-related design decisions, whether large or small, and an opportunity to work on a team dedicated to our ethical, privacy by design approach. Read more about Design at DuckDuckGo on our blog: https://spreadprivacy.com/ethical-by-design/

About You

• 7+ years of experience in product or design systems roles, including 2+ years in senior-level design positions at significant global consumer brands

• Demonstrable track record of building and scaling complex and established systems

• Ability to lead the future of our design system, from audit, recommending solutions, and planning their rollout via quick wins or large-scale projects

• Ability to communicate recommendations and prioritization with clear documentation, success metrics, resources, and rationale which stakeholders, designers, and engineers can confidently act on

• A knack for balancing structure with scale by creating frameworks (tokens, libraries) that hold up across platforms and teams without sacrificing craft

• Deep knowledge of design tools, such as Figma, that are key to evolving and maintaining the design system

• Experience bridging design and engineering practices, including creating shared nomenclature and workflows that map across tools and platforms

• Accustomed to applying agentic and AI-driven solutions into design system management and maintenance workflows, to both accelerate and elevate how the system scales

• Enjoy pushing creative limits while solving challenging design problems and delivering on delight, craft and exceptional quality

• Ability to communicate visual and interaction recommendations with high-quality mockups, prototypes, and rationale

• Skills to manage ambiguity and wrangle vague problems, propose innovative solutions, and execute them with a focus on metrics

• Ability to take initiative in generating ideas and carrying them forward with urgency and discretion, while working openly and collaboratively

Compensation

$178,500 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is transparent across the organization, and all team members within the same professional level and global region receive the same compensation.

Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States. This program does not extend to team members located in other countries, such as Canada or the UK.

Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.

Hiring Process

Hiring works best when it's a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo, envision your future role here, and find out more about how we hire.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws.

We want to ensure that our hiring process is accessible. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process because of a medical condition or disability, please send an email to careers@duckduckgo.com to let us know the nature of your request.

Please note that:

• You’ll be required to attend meetings on camera via video conferencing

• Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each around 4-5 days). While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance, everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.

• While we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours, expect an average full-time commitment of 40 hours per week.

• A successful candidate must pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.

• By applying for this role, you confirm that all information submitted is accurate and complete. You further acknowledge that providing false or fraudulent information during the application process is cause for denial of an offer, revocation of any existing offer, or other adverse action, up to and including termination after the start of your commencement of work.

Disclosure Statement: Use of AI in Hiring Process

As part of our commitment to enhancing our recruitment process, we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects, including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications, analyze and summarize applicants’ experience, interviews, and project performance, and help streamline our selection process.

Key Principles:

• Data Privacy: All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.

• Human Oversight and Accountability: The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions, however, will be made by our hiring team, who will consider the AI's input alongside other factors.

• Transparency: We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process, please feel free to reach out to us.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process. If you would like to request an alternative selection process, please contact us as at careers@duckduckgo.com. Thank you for your interest in joining DuckDuckGo!