Senior Manager, Design Systems & Foundations

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We’re transforming the grocery industry. At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team. There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.

• Shape the future of IDS: Own the end-to-end strategy, roadmap, and vision for the Instacart Design System across web, iOS, and Android, ensuring a scalable, accessible, and brand-aligned experience everywhere.
• Lead and inspire a high-performing, multidisciplinary team: Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 8 designers and design technologists, fostering a culture of craft, inclusion, learning, and operational excellence.
• Continuously evolve the system: Anticipate trends and proactively adapt IDS to meet emerging business, technology, and user needs while ensuring the system remains robust, engaging, and aligned with Instacart’s brand identity.
• Refine and iterate on scalable systems and processes: Continuously improve established frameworks for governance, contribution, and adoption, ensuring that they are robust, efficient, and aligned with the current and future needs of teams across Instacart.
• Collaborate across disciplines: Build deep partnerships with Product, Engineering, and Brand teams to ensure IDS integrates seamlessly into workflows, tools, and design approaches across the company.
• Elevate design craft and consistency: Champion design excellence and ensure IDS is a foundation for accessible, cutting-edge, and user-first experiences that align with Instacart’s broader mission.
• Communicate and support adoption: Provide transparency and education to stakeholders and teams through office hours, release notes, and community engagements that encourage broad adoption and trust in IDS.

• 10+ years of experience in digital product design, with a track record of delivering user-first solutions, differentiated design language, and strong utility for engineering organizations.
• 3+ years of experience leading teams, with demonstrated success managing both design systems designers and design technologists.
• A proven track record of evolving design systems at scale, ensuring adaptability to both user and organizational needs.
• Expertise in Figma, design tokens, multi-platform systems, and governance processes that facilitate reliable and scalable design operations.
• Strong understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG) and experience building inclusive systems by default.
• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to influence across disciplines and clearly articulate the value of systems design within a larger organizational context.
• Ability to balance functional design with visionary thinking, inspiring teams to explore bold new approaches while driving measurable business value.
• Passion for fostering a community of practice and elevating design culture within an organization.

• Deep curiosity and comfort identifying and pursuing opportunities to work with emerging tools, technologies, and workflows that advance design system capabilities.
• Experience defining and implementing motion design principles, with a track record of creating animations that enhance digital interfaces and align with system guidelines.
• Knowledge of how to integrate motion patterns into a design system while balancing brand identity, usability, and performance considerations.

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here. Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For Canadian based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CAN
$194,000—$215,000 CAD

Director

Full-time

Design, Art/Creative, and Information Technology

Software Development