Principal Design Engineer (AI & Design Systems)

One North seeks a Principal Design Engineer to work at the intersection of AI, design systems, and engineering. The role involves shaping AI-augmented design-to-code pipelines, building agentic workflows, and serving as a Figma SME. This remote-friendly position is open to candidates in the U.S., with a preference for the Chicago area for light hybrid work.

• Partner with agency leadership to define AI-augmented design-to-code pipelines and integrate AI tools into design system work.
• Build agentic workflows that automate component scaffolding, documentation generation, token logic, contract authoring, and QA.
• Develop prompt engineering practices for design system use cases, including structured prompting for component APIs and accessibility annotations.
• Integrate MCP servers and LLM-powered tooling into design and development workflows.
• Serve as an internal Figma SME, keeping pace with Figma platform changes, AI features, Dev Mode, and integrations.
• Architect and maintain Figma-based design systems with production-grade structure, including variables, tokens, component properties, and token pipelines.
• Contribute to internal AI capability-building and train teammates.

• Expert-level Figma mastery: variables, tokens, advanced component architecture, interactive prototyping, Dev Mode, and plugin/API integrations.