Design Systems Manager

Details

Design plays a critical role here. To succeed in our mission, it’s crucial that we make our technology intuitive and accessible. We’re hiring a product designer to create products that are easy to use, beautiful, and push the boundaries of what’s possible. As an early team member, you’ll have a huge part in shaping our product direction and design culture.

About the Role

We are looking for a Design Systems Manager to lead the evolution of ChatGPT and other OpenAI products' design system. This role will oversee the creation, maintenance, and adoption of the components, patterns, and guidelines that power ChatGPT’s product experiences across surfaces (web, mobile, voice, interactive modules). You’ll ensure design and engineering teams work from a consistent, scalable foundation that supports rapid iteration while maintaining quality and coherence. You will be responsible for upleveling and holding a high bar for craft across all of our surfaces.

This is both a leadership and hands-on role: you’ll manage a small team of designers, partner deeply with the entire design team, as well as engineering and product.

Responsibilities

• Define the vision and roadmap for ChatGPT’s design system.
• Lead and mentor a hybrid team of designers, design engineers, iconographers and more.
• Establish component libraries, accessibility standards, and interaction guidelines that support multimodal experiences (text, voice, image, video, interactive modules).
• Partner with Product Design, Research, and Engineering to ensure adoption and alignment.
• Build contribution models so new patterns and components flow back into the system.
• Define governance processes that balance consistency with product velocity.
• Ensure accessibility, internationalization, and performance are baked into every component.
• Advocate for system-driven workflows across design and engineering orgs.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in product design, design systems, or front-end engineering.
• 3+ years of experience leading teams (designers, engineers, or cross-functional).
• Expertise in Figma, component libraries, and modern design system practices.
• Strong technical fluency in React, CSS, and accessibility standards.
• Experience building systems that scale across multiple surfaces (desktop, mobile, web, voice).
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience in fast-paced product environments with multiple priorities.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law. For US-based candidates, qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered consistent with applicable laws (including local San Francisco / Los Angeles ordinances and the California Fair Chance Act). Some job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

Benefits

• Base pay may vary depending on market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to base salary, total compensation includes equity and performance-related bonus(es) for eligible employees.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer contributions to Health Savings Accounts.
• Pre-tax accounts for Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and commuter expenses.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer match.
• Paid parental leave and paid medical/caregiver leave.
• Flexible PTO for exempt employees and paid days off for non-exempt employees.
• 13+ paid company holidays and multiple coordinated office closures.
• Mental health and wellness support; employer-paid basic life and disability coverage.
• Annual learning and development stipend; daily meals in offices and meal delivery credits as eligible.
• Relocation support for eligible employees and other fringe benefits such as charitable donation matching and wellness stipends.