Sr Design Engineer

Adobe Adobe · Enterprise · San Francisco, CA +1

Senior Design Engineer role focused on building and scaling internal tools and services for Adobe's Design organization. The role involves full-stack development, integrating AI/LLM capabilities into design workflows, and owning technical architecture. Key responsibilities include developing frontend and backend features, architecting AI/LLM integrations, and optimizing AI features for performance and user experience.

What you'd actually do

  1. Develop frontend components using React and Lit (Web Components) that feel polished, performant, and intuitive for designers to use
  2. Build backend services in Node.js to support design workflows, AI integrations, asset management, and collaboration features
  3. Architect and implement AI/LLM integrations (OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face) that augment design capabilities in meaningful ways
  4. Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code that other engineers can build on
  5. Support users with questions and problems they face using our tools

Skills

Required

  • 5–8 years of software engineering experience building web applications and developer tools
  • Strong frontend development skills with React and modern JavaScript/TypeScript
  • Experience with Web Components (Lit or similar) or willingness to learn quickly
  • Solid backend development experience with Node.js and REST APIs
  • Hands-on experience building with AI/LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, or similar)
  • Understanding of design systems and component library architecture—you've built or contributed to one before
  • Experience with build tools, package management (npm), and modern development workflows
  • Strong grasp of Git workflows and collaborative development practices
  • Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with designers, product managers, and other engineers
  • Design sensibility, you understand what makes a good user experience and care about the details

Nice to have

  • Experience with TypeScript in production codebases
  • Familiarity with design tools like Figma and understanding of design-to-code workflows
  • Experience with prompt engineering, RAG architectures, or AI agent frameworks
  • Background in developer experience (DX) or building tools for other engineers/designers
  • Familiarity with Adobe's creative tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Firefly, Express)
  • Experience with Vite, Rollup, or other modern build tooling
  • Understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design practices

What the JD emphasized

  • AI/LLM integrations
  • prompt engineering
  • RAG pipelines
  • agent workflows

Other signals

  • integrating AI/LLM capabilities into design workflows
  • building applications that feel intuitive to use
  • optimizing AI features for performance, cost, and user experience
  • design prompt engineering strategies, RAG pipelines, and agent workflows