[Hiring] Senior Design Director, Design Systems @GitHub, Inc.

Role Description

We’re looking for a senior design leader to redefine what a design system is in an agent-native world. GitHub is looking for a Senior Design Director, Design Systems to lead the evolution of our design system into an AI-compatible, agent-ready platform. This leader will be responsible for transforming Primer from a traditional component library into a system that enables both humans and AI agents to generate high-quality, accessible, and cohesive user experiences.

You will lead a multidisciplinary team of designers and engineers, with the opportunity to grow the team through open headcount, and drive alignment across design, product, and engineering. This role requires a leader who can operate with clarity, cut through complexity, and deliver systems that scale across one of the most widely used developer platforms in the world.

Responsibilities

• System Vision and Foundations:
  • Defines and leads the evolution of Primer into an agent-native design system.
  • Drives efforts to eliminate redundancy and reduce accumulated complexity.
  • Partners with Engineering to ensure the system integrates into developer workflows.
• Quality and Governance:
  • Advances the quality bar across GitHub experiences by building systems and guardrails.
  • Establishes and enforces standards for consistency, accessibility, and usability.
• Cross-Functional Execution and Impact:
  • Drives alignment and delivery across Design, Engineering, and Product.
  • Defines and tracks success through adoption, efficiency, and quality metrics.
• Team Leadership and Growth:
  • Leads and scales a multidisciplinary team of designers, accessibility experts, and engineers.
  • Develops leaders and fosters a culture of craft, clarity, and execution.
  • Proven ability to manage managers and build a strong leadership layer.

Qualifications

• 12+ years experience in product, platform, or systems development
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years experience
• OR Master's Degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years experience
• OR Doctorate in related field AND 6+ years experience
• OR equivalent experience
• 6+ years experience leading multidisciplinary teams across design and engineering, including managing managers
• Proven experience building or leading design-to-code systems or platforms that bridge design and engineering

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to simplify complex systems, reduce surface area, and make systems more opinionated and scalable
• Strong track record of driving cross-functional alignment across design, engineering, and product
• Experience building systems that support AI-assisted or generative UI workflows
• Experience working on developer tools or technical platforms
• Experience scaling system adoption across large organizations
• Experience driving accessibility and inclusive design at scale

Compensation Range

The base salary range for this job is USD $160,200.00 - USD $425,000.00 /Yr. These pay ranges are intended to cover roles based across the United States. An individual's base pay depends on various factors including geographical location and review of experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant.

GitHub Values

• Customer-obsessed
• Ship to learn
• Growth mindset
• Own the outcome
• Better together
• Diverse and inclusive

Leadership Principles

• Create clarity
• Generate energy
• Deliver success

EEO Statement

GitHub is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We don't discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences.