Sr. Dir, Design Engineering

About GitHub

GitHub is the world’s leading platform for agentic software development — powered by Copilot to build, scale, and deliver secure software. Over 180 million developers, including more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies, use GitHub to collaborate, and more than 77,000 organisations have adopted GitHub Copilot.

Locations

In this role you can work from San Francisco, California United States

Overview

We’re looking for a Senior Design Engineering leader to redefine the future of design in an agent-native world.

This leader will define the technical and organizational vision for how design, engineering, and AI-powered workflows come together to build world-class developer experiences at scale. As a Senior leader within GitHub Design, you will drive strategy across our design systems, design-to-code ecosystem, and agent-enabled product development practices. You'll partner closely with Design, Product, and Engineering leaders to influence investment decisions, guide long-term roadmaps, and bring clarity to complex customer experience challenges through compelling, executive-ready narratives.

You will lead and grow a team of design engineers and technical leaders, helping GitHub evolve its platform, tooling, and practices for an AI-native future. Success in this role requires the ability to set a clear vision, align diverse stakeholders, elevate technical and design craft, and build the systems, culture, and leadership capability needed to scale across one of the world's largest developer platforms. This is an opportunity to have a lasting impact on how software is designed, built, and experienced at GitHub, while mentoring the next generation of leaders and raising the bar for quality, innovation, and execution across the organization.

Responsibilities

Design Implementation

• Defines a technical roadmap that sets the direction for GitHub-wide front-end architecture, innovating industry-leading user interface (UI) strategies.
• Functions as GitHub’s thought leader on design engineering, shaping the global landscape of front-end architecture and design systems.
• Represents GitHub’s point of view (POV) in external forums, advancing and redefining industry standards through proven technical leadership, shaping GitHub's design implement strategy.

Prototyping & Feasibility

• Innovates scalable design-to-code frameworks that align engineering and design at the organizational level, establishing technical paradigms.
• Pioneers cutting-edge approaches (e.g., artificial intelligence [AI]-assisted user experience [UX], motion/rendering systems), proactively identifying and mitigating risk through strategic prototype development methodologies.

Collaboration

• Champions strategic discussions with design engineering leaders to address GitHub's most complex UI and customer experience challenges.
• Develops and defines the long-term front-end roadmap, aligning Product Management, Design, and Engineering leadership teams on execution plans to meet overarching customer requirements.

Quality & Craft

• Leads collaboration with Engineering, Product, and Design teams to advance GitHub’s core technical capabilities and elevate user experience.
• Establishes organization-wide standards, crafting design and code review strategies that improve design consistency and system fidelity.
• Champions industry-leading methodologies that define customer engagement strategies and establish a new benchmark for GitHub’s interface design.

Curiosity & Initiative

• Directs the development of organizational strategies in partnership with senior leadership, guiding GitHub's most advanced and innovative UI and experience advancements.
• Anticipates future trends and opportunities, ensuring GitHub maintains its leadership position by innovating ahead of market demands.

Team Leadership and Growth

• Empowers high-performing engineers and designers, promoting a robust community of practice and setting high craft and innovation standards.
• Champions innovative technical demonstrations and proof-of-concepts, positioning GitHub as a pioneer in developer experience and AI.
• Fosters excellence across design and code intersections, mentoring design engineers to push the boundaries of UI and design craft at GitHub.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years experience in front-end engineering or development
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Art, Computer Science, Human Factors Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Information Architecture, or related field AND 10+ years experience in front-end engineering or development
  • OR Master's Degree in Industrial Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Art, Computer Science, Human Factors Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Information Architecture, or related field AND 8+ years experience in front-end engineering or development
  • OR Doctorate in Industrial Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Art, Computer Science, Human Factors Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Information Architecture, or related field AND 6+ years experience in front-end engineering or development
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams across design and engineering.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience scaling design systems, integrating AI/ML and accessibility, and delivering measurable business outcomes.
• Experience driving cross-functional alignment across design, engineering, and product.
• Experience building systems that support AI-assisted or generative UI workflows.
• Experience working on developer tools or technical platforms.
• 5+ years people management experience.
• 8+ years of experience shipping products and/or delivering to customers as a result of an end-to-end design process.

Compensation Range

The base salary range for this job is USD $160,200.00 - USD $425,000.00 /Yr.These pay ranges are intended to cover roles based across the United States. An individual's base pay depends on various factors including geographical location and review of experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant. At GitHub certain roles are eligible for benefits and additional rewards, including annual bonus and stock. These rewards are allocated based on individual impact in role. In addition, certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the plan and the employee's role.This position will be open for a minimum of 3 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

GitHub Leadership Principles

GitHub values

• Customer-obsessed
• Ship to learn
• Growth mindset
• Own the outcome
• Better together
• Diverse and inclusive

Manager fundamentals

• Model
• Coach
• Care

Leadership principles

• Create clarity
• Generate energy
• Deliver success

Who We Are

GitHub is the world’s leading AI-powered developer platform with 150 million developers and counting. We’re also home to the biggest open-source community on earth (and 99% of the world’s software has open-source code in its DNA). Many of the apps and programs you use every day are built on GitHub. Our teams are dreamers, doers, and pioneers, leading the way in AI, driving humanitarian efforts around the globe, and even sending open source to Mars (and beyond!). At GitHub, our goal is to create the space you need to do your best work. We’re remote-first and offer competitive pay, generous learning and growth opportunities, and excellent benefits to support you, wherever you are—because we know that people flourish when they can work on their own terms. Join us, and let’s change the world, together.

EEO Statement

GitHub is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We don't discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!