Fractional Design Systems Lead
Overview
Kindred is a members-only home swapping network that unlocks the ability to live a travel-rich lifestyle through the power of community. By exchanging primary residences with trusted peers, renters and owners alike can match with kindred spirits and explore new destinations without breaking the bank.
We are on a mission to build a sharing economy that lives up to the name, and we've raised significant capital from some of the best investors in Silicon Valley, including:
- Index Ventures
- Andreessen Horowitz
- New Enterprise Associates
- Bessemer Venture Partners
- Caffeinated Capital
- Elad Gil
- Founders of Opendoor, Figma, ClassPass, Clubhouse, Divvy, Gem, and Homebound
The co-founders are proven leaders from the early team at proptech company Opendoor ($15B+ exit) and have each separately built and scaled products that today do $1B+ annual revenue combined.
We're looking for the world's top builders, executors, and believers to join us on this ride.
This role is a part-time (~20 hours per week), contract engagement expected to last approximately three months, with no guaranteed extension.
Requirements
This role is responsible for building the foundation of how Kindred ships product, ensuring our design language is inseparable from our codebase.
What You'll Do
- System 2.0 Architecture: Lead the end-to-end creation of a modular system, defining the logic for tokens, components, and patterns that serve both web and mobile.
- The Rebrand Translation: Partner with stakeholders to codify new identity guidelines into a functional, multi-platform UI kit.
- Technical Orchestration: Implement a "Single Source of Truth" workflow, ensuring that when a design changes, the code follows.
- Process Automation: Leverage AI-driven tools and automation to reduce manual handoff, audit component health, and streamline documentation.
Experience & Skills
- Systems Leadership: 5+ years of experience, ideally leading Design Systems at design-forward companies or high-growth startups where you've built systems from the ground up.
- Systems Orchestration: Deep expertise with platforms like Knapsack or Supernova to bridge the gap between Figma and production code.
- Dev-Ops for Design: Experience building or managing custom Figma-to-GitHub actions (or similar CI/CD integrations) to automate token transforms and component updates.
- Modern Figma Mastery: Expert-level use of Figma Variables, Advanced Prototyping, and Code Connect.
- Development Literacy: Fluency in JSON/style dictionaries, React component structures, and the ability to speak the same language as our Engineering team.