Senior Software Engineer - Design Systems - Frontend
Faire · Waterloo, Canada +1 · 1mo ago
About Faire
Faire is a technology wholesale platform built on the belief that the future is local. Independent retailers around the globe collectively represent a multi-hundred-billion-dollar wholesale market that has historically been fragmented and offline. 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 businesses can grow and local communities can thrive.
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.
Why Design Platform at Faire?
The design platform team provides the foundation that lets every product team at Faire move fast while delivering high quality, consistent products for Retailers and Brands. This team owns Slate, Faire’s design system as well as all of the tools & processes designers and engineers use to prototype and make design decisions. Two flagship initiatives are underway right now: a full visual brand redesign of Faire.com, and strategy to enable agentic use and evolution of our design system. You'd join a lean team of 3 designers, 4 engineers, and a rotating group of co-ops that collaborate closely with other engineers and designers across all areas of the company.
About this role:
As a Senior Software Engineer on the Design Platform team, you'll build and evolve the reusable components that power Faire's web surfaces, help ship a major brand refinement, and build the AI tooling that accelerates the design process at Faire and ensures consistent, high quality application of our design system. You'll partner daily with designers and engineers across the company to drive adoption of shared components and evolve the system based on real usage. This role sits at the intersection of engineering craft and design judgment, and you'll need both to succeed.
What you'll do:
- Design and build reusable, high-quality components that scale across Faire's web surfaces
- Champion accessibility and performance best practices across shared components
- Establish and maintain testing strategies and quality gates for the design system
- Partner with engineers across the company to drive adoption and evolve the system based on real usage
- Contribute to the technical direction of Faire's frontend architecture
- Build AI tooling that accelerates design system application and enables agent-driven self healing
- Support the visual brand redesign of faire.com alongside the design team
- Mentor other engineers, participate in design and code reviews, and raise the bar for frontend craftsmanship across the org
What success looks like:
Within your first 6-9 months, you will:
- Ship meaningful progress on the visual brand redesign of faire.com
- Help evolve the design system to meet emerging product needs
- Contribute to the AI tooling strategy that accelerates design process at Faire
- Drive measurably more consistent component reuse for product UI across the company
- Help establish consistent use of UI rendering frameworks (for example, SDUI)
- Become a trusted technical partner to the designers and engineers you work with daily
Qualifications:
We're looking for engineers who combine strong technical craft with genuine design judgment.
You may be a great fit if you have:
- 4+ years of professional frontend engineering experience, with deep expertise in React, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS
- Strong collaboration skills and experience partnering closely with Product Design and cross-functional engineering teams
- Experience building or maintaining a design system, component library, or shared UI platform used by multiple product teams
- A strong understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG)
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical projects from conception through execution, and to influence technical direction beyond your immediate team
- A passion for creating high-quality, scalable, and maintainable code, and for making other engineers more productive
- A bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering or equivalent industry experience
Bonus points for:
- Experience at a mature tech company with a large-scale, multi-team design system
- A track record of moving fast and iterating quickly, learning from real usage rather than optimizing for perfection upfront
- A background that blends engineering and design (sometimes self-described as "creative technologist")
- Experience with AI-assisted or agent-driven tooling
Don't meet every qualification? We know great candidates come from many different backgrounds and experiences. If you're excited about the role, we'd encourage you to apply.
Technologies we use and teach:
- React, TypeScript, Next.js, NX
- Figma, Storybook, Playwright
- REST and streaming APIs, integrating with backend services written in Kotlin
Salary range:
Canada: the pay range for this role is $160,000 to $220,000 per year.
This role will also be eligible for equity and benefits. Actual base pay will be determined based on permissible factors such as transferable skills, work experience, market demands, and primary work location. The base pay range provided is subject to change and may be modified in the future.
Faire uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to screen and select applicants for this position.
This job posting is for an existing vacancy.
Hybrid Faire employees currently go into the office 3 days per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third flex day of their choosing (Monday, Wednesday, or Friday). Additionally, hybrid in-office roles will have the flexibility to work remotely up to 4 weeks per year. Specific Workplace and Information Technology positions may require onsite attendance 5 days per week as will be indicated in the job posting.
Why you’ll love working at Faire
- Move fast: You'll own meaningful problems that serve customers around the globe with the agency to move fast and see your results clearly.
- Equipped to scale: We invest in what matters, including the latest enterprise AI tools, to help you work smarter and get more out of every day.
- Best in class: Our team is full of sharp, kind, and generous colleagues who care about their craft and about helping you grow in yours.
- Real rewards. Competitive pay, equity, and comprehensive benefits designed to support your life inside and outside of work.
- Belonging: We're intentional about building an environment where every Faire employee has equal access to opportunities, growth, and success.
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. Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process and applicants with a disability may request to be accommodated throughout the recruitment process. We will work with all applicants to accommodate their individual accessibility needs. To request reasonable accommodation, please fill out our Accommodation Request Form (https://bit.ly/faire-form)
Privacy
For information about the type of personal data Faire collects from applicants, as well as your choices regarding the data collected about you, please visit Faire’s Privacy Notice (https://www.faire.com/privacy)