Principal Design Engineer (AI & Design Systems)

One North is seeking an experienced AI practitioner who can build and consult at the intersection of design and engineering. At One North, the Principal Design Engineer is one of the most forward-leaning roles in our practice; a person who uses artificial intelligence as a primary creative and technical instrument, and who brings that capability to bear on the hardest problems in design systems and design-to-code work.

This role will actively shape how One North and our clients work: defining AI-augmented pipelines, building agentic tooling, and demonstrating what’s possible when someone with deep systems thinking and engineering skill treats AI as a first-class collaborator.

The Principal Design Engineer (AI & Design Systems) will ideally be based in the Chicago area for a light hybrid onsite/remote work model, but we are open to remote locations across the U.S.

Responsibilities

• Artificial Intelligence Focus

• Partner with agency leadership on One North’s exploration of AI in design-to-code pipelines: identifying, testing, and integrating tools that meaningfully accelerate or improve design system work

• Build agentic workflows that automate high-friction parts of the design system lifecycle: component scaffolding, documentation generation, token logic, contract authoring, and QA

• Develop and maintain prompt engineering practices for design system use cases, including structured prompting for component APIs, usage guidelines, and accessibility annotations

• Integrate MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and LLM-powered tooling into design and development workflows in ways that are practical, repeatable, and shareable

• Contribute to internal AI capability-building: documenting what you learn, training teammates, and helping the agency develop a point of view on AI in our craft

• Apply AI tools fluidly across your own daily work (code generation, design exploration, documentation, and system scaffolding) and push the boundaries of what those tools can do in a design systems context

• Figma SME

Figma is a strategic platform for One North, and this role requires genuine expert-level command of it. The Principal Design Engineer will operate at the advanced edge of Figma’s capabilities.

• Stay current with Figma’s evolving platform, including AI features, Dev Mode capabilities, and third-party integrations, and bring that knowledge back to the team
• Participate in Figma alpha and beta programs to evaluate new features before general release, forming clear recommendations on readiness and fit for client application
• Monitor and assess Figma product developments (new releases, acquisitions, and platform expansions) and lead the internal process of evaluating, operationalizing, and establishing standards around relevant new capabilities
• Architect and maintain Figma-based design systems with the same structural rigor as a production codebase, including variables, tokens, component properties, advanced auto layout, and the full token pipeline bridging Figma to code
• Advise clients on Figma tools and workflows that extend the value of their platform investment, serving as a credible strategic resource on what the platform can do and where it is headed
• Maintain active engagement with Figma’s broader ecosystem, including community programs, partner channels, and product team relationship, to keep One North informed and well-positioned as the platform evolves
• Act as one of One North’s internal Figma SMEs: setting standards, advising on tool usage, and helping clients get more out of the platform

Must-Haves

• Expert-level Figma mastery — variables, tokens, advanced component architecture, interactive prototyping, Dev Mode, and plugin/API integrations; you are the person others come to with hard Figma questions
• Active, practiced use of AI tools in your daily workflow — code gen, documentation, design exploration, or system authoring (e.g. Cursor, Claude, Copilot, v0)
• Demonstrated experience building AI-powered tooling, agentic workflows, or LLM-assisted pipelines — prompt engineering, MCP integrations, or automated documentation and component generation
• Advanced proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — clean, semantic, accessible markup; CSS architecture at scale
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining design systems or component libraries in production
• Strong working knowledge of design tokens and tooling (Style Dictionary, Theo, or similar)
• Experience with at least one modern JS framework (React, Vue, Svelte) in a component-driven context
• A portfolio or examples of work that demonstrate both engineering quality and design sensibility
• Strong communication skills — you can make technical concepts legible to designers and design concepts legible to engineers

Strong Pluses

• Agency or consultancy experience — working across multiple clients and project contexts simultaneously
• Familiarity with headless CMS architectures and how design systems integrate into CMS-driven builds
• Exposure to design system tooling ecosystems (Storybook, Chromatic, Zeroheight, Supernova)
• Experience with animation and motion tooling (GSAP, Framer Motion, CSS transitions at system scale)
• Comfort in monorepos or multi-package architectures for distributed component libraries
• Formal or informal background in product design or UX

Benefits

• Our comprehensive benefits program includes Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO Health coverage, as well as a health savings account with employer-funded contributions.
• We also offer Dental and Vision insurance. All of our full-time employees are eligible for Life/AD&D insurance and Short/Long Term Disability insurance free of cost, with the option to add additional voluntary coverage if desired.
• One North’s 401(k) plan allows employees to save for retirement through pre- or post-tax contributions along with employer-matched funds for maximized savings potential.
• Our Transportation Benefits enable employees to also make pre-tax contributions to pay for parking and public transit needs.
• We know how important unwinding can be for inspiration, innovation and productivity. Our full-time employees earn 4 weeks of paid time off, in addition to company paid holidays. Employees begin to accrue additional time off once they reach their 3-year and 10-year anniversaries with the business.
• One North also understands how critical it is for parents to bond with their new additions. We provide paid Parental and Primary Caregiver Leave to assist and support employees who experience a new birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.
• We also offer an Employee Perks Program that offers member-only discounts and corporate rates on everything from pizza and the zoo, to movie tickets, car rentals, and hotels.

We reserve the right to pay above or below the base salary range of $156,000-$234,000 based on factors unrelated to sex, race, or any other protected classification.

Additional earnings may be available through incentive programs like annual bonuses, profit sharing, etc.

Please click on the following link to learn more about our full-time internal employment benefits: https://www.teksystems.com/en/careers/benefits.

The expected posting close date is August 24, 2026.

• Clicking the Apply now button will redirect you to apply on TEKsystems.com.

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