Senior Software Engineer II - Design Systems Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Senior Software Engineer II - Design Systems

The Company You’ll Join

Carta connects founders, investors, and limited partners through world-class software, purpose-built for everyone in venture capital, private equity and private credit. Trusted by 65,000+ companies in 160+ countries, Carta’s platform of software and services lays the groundwork so you can build, invest, and scale with confidence.

Carta’s Fund Administration platform supports 9,000+ funds and SPVs, representing nearly $185B in assets under management, with tools designed to enhance the strategic impact of fund CFOs. Recognized by Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc. and Great Places to Work, Carta is shaping the future of private market infrastructure.

Together, Carta is creating the end-to-end ERP platform for private markets. Traditional ERP solutions don’t work for Private Funds. Private capital markets need a comprehensive software solution to replace outdated spreadsheets and fragmented service providers. Carta’s software for the Office of the Fund CFO does just that - it’s a new category of software to make private markets look more like public markets - a connected ERP for private capital.

At Carta, our employees set out on a mission to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. We believe that the problems we solve today unlock the opportunities of tomorrow.Ink is Carta’s Design System – the underlying foundation for how all of Carta looks and feels. Our focus is to make Financial Technology safe, intuitive, performant, and fun (yes, we said that).

As a Senior Design Systems Engineer, you’ll work to:

• Architect and evolve the Ink component library: You will build and maintain robust, production-ready React components that blend rigorous design system standards, intuitive developer ergonomics, and extensible API design.
• Redefine the Design System for the Agentic Age: You will lead the R&D on how our design system evolves to support AI-driven interfaces. You will update our definition of a design system to accommodate generative workflows, ensuring Ink is optimized for both human developers and AI agents.
• Bridge the gap between design and code: You will act as a technical translator, taking concepts from Figma and turning them into performant UI code, ensuring that the "polish" of the design is never lost in translation.
• Elevate frontend quality and developer velocity: You will drive cross-functional projects to improve animation fluidity, CSS architecture, and system modularity, helping product teams solve 80% of their UI problems instantly so they can focus on the unique 20%.
• Coach and advocate for system adoption: You will mentor engineers and designers across the organization, conducting code reviews and design reviews to ensure best practices are met, while gathering feedback to iteratively improve the system’s flexibility and ease of use.

The Team You'll Work With

You’ll be joining our Design System team “Ink”.Ink is where visual design, user experience best practices, and modern React architecture fuse together to create a beautiful set of tools that allow teams to create great products fast. Our ultimate purpose is to enable great design at scale. We are a team that sits at the intersection of design and engineering; we build the foundational components, tooling, and documentation that empower hundreds of Carta engineers and designers to ship consistent, high-quality, and accessible interfaces.

About You

We are seeking an opinionated but humble builder who cares deeply about the craft of software and the details of design. You have likely built or maintained a component library before and understand the unique challenges of serving other developers as your primary customers.

• 5+ years of relevant experience recommended: Specifically in frontend engineering with a strong focus on design systems, AI-assisted development, or UI infrastructure.
• AI-Forward Innovator: You are actively pushing the limits of what design systems can do with AI. You are eager to explore how component APIs, tokens, and documentation can be optimized to support AI development patterns and the future of agentic UI.
• Systematic Thinker: You have a track record of replacing custom, one-off UI with modular, reusable solutions, and you can articulate the trade-offs of API design decisions to both engineers and designers.
• React & CSS Expert: You possess deep, expert-level knowledge of React (modern patterns, hooks, context), CSS (architecture, scalability), and animation technologies such as CSS Animations, Framer, and D3. You write code that is not just functional, but a joy for other developers to use.
• Design Fluent: You are comfortable working and collaborating inside Figma. You understand the nuances of interaction design and can prototype complex UI behaviors to validate concepts before they reach production.
• Champion of Quality: You have a "polish-oriented" mindset. You sweat the details on accessibility, performance, and visual fidelity, ensuring that our system sets a high bar for the rest of the company.

Disclosures:

• We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to providing a positive interview experience for every candidate. If accommodations due to a disability or medical condition are needed, please connect with the talent partner via email.
• Please note that all official communications from us will come from an @carta.com or @carta-external.com domain. Report any contact from unapproved domains to security@carta.com.