Design Engineer
Spare
Location
Vancouver HQ
Employment Type
Full time
Location Type
Hybrid
Department
Product Design
Compensation
- CA$135K – CA$185K • Offers Equity
Equity offered as a variable dependent on base salary.
We're hiring a Senior UI Developer to report to the Head of Design and lead the evolution of our design language and design systems. We need someone who can design modern UI/UX patterns and implement them directly into our codebase—ensuring every team uses the same components, patterns, tokens, and libraries.
You'll live at the intersection of design and development, shaping the platform-wide systems that power Spare's transportation solutions. While most of your time will focus on platform-wide design systems and technical implementation, you'll also tackle specific user-facing design challenges that benefit from the design-to-code approach.
You'll be instrumental in enabling our team to use AI-assisted prototyping tools to build concepts directly within our design systems and codebase, making it seamless for designers to go from idea to working prototype.
You'll also help upskill our design team on coding concepts, prototyping workflows, and the technical thinking that's becoming essential for modern product design.
This role follows a hybrid schedule: 3 days in-office in downtown Vancouver (Mon/Wed/Fri) with flexibility to work remotely (Tue/Thu), fostering collaboration while providing flexibility.
What You'll Own
Lead the evolution of our design language and systems You'll lead the evolution of our design language into a modern, cohesive system that scales across our entire platform. When you design a new component or pattern, you'll build it directly into our codebase with the right tokens, ensuring global updates and consistency across all teams—eliminating the design-to-dev handoff bottleneck. You'll own design systems, component libraries, and UX patterns that work across multiple product areas.
Enable AI-assisted design workflows You'll build the infrastructure and patterns that allow designers to use AI prototyping tools (like v0, Cursor, Claude) to rapidly create concepts within our existing design language—making it easy for the team to go from idea to working prototype in our actual codebase.
Move from concept to code at startup speed No handoffs, no translation layer—you'll build interactive prototypes that become production features. Your technical skills mean ideas can be tested and validated in real environments, not just static mockups.
Shape the future of product development You'll drive platform decisions that affect how all our products work together. You'll research user needs for both platform-wide patterns and specific product challenges, prototype solutions, and implement them in code—owning the entire journey from problem to solution.
Elevate the team's technical capabilities You'll mentor our design team on coding concepts, technical prototyping, and the evolving skillsets that are becoming essential for modern product design, helping everyone grow their technical skills.
What We're Looking For
You're a builder who thinks in systems
5+ years combining design and software development, with portfolio showing both design thinking and technical execution
Strong React/JavaScript skills and comfort with modern web technologies
Experience building and maintaining design systems or component libraries
Experience with design systems at scale (Material, Ant Design, Radix, etc.)
Experience consolidating disparate design patterns into cohesive, scalable systems
Experience with AI-assisted development tools and workflows (v0, Cursor, Claude, etc.)
You prototype ideas in code, not just in Figma
You solve problems end-to-end
Experience with user research and translating insights into technical solutions
You can balance user needs with technical constraints and performance requirements
Comfortable working directly with customers to understand platform-wide challenges
You thrive in ambiguous, high-impact environments
Experience with platform or infrastructure work that affects multiple product areas
You can prioritize effectively when working on systems that serve diverse use cases
Enthusiasm for hackathons and rapid experimentation
You're a collaborative technical leader and teacher
Strong communication skills—you can explain technical decisions to designers and design decisions to software developers
Experience mentoring designers on technical concepts and helping teams level up their technical skills
Passion for sharing knowledge and building internal capabilities
Understanding of accessibility, performance, and scalable architecture
Nice to Have
Background in B2B SaaS or platform products
Familiarity with design tokens, component APIs, or design system tooling
Experience in transportation, logistics, or mission-critical systems
Ready to build the design system that powers the future of transportation? Let's talk.
Don’t meet every single requirement?
Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification in the job posting.
At Spare, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment so we strongly encourage you to apply even if you don't believe you meet every single qualification outlined. We also do our best to respond to all applications we receive.
Benefits ✨
Purposeful work: Be a part of a mission-driven company that is solving real-world problems and improving the lives of people around the world. Learn more about the impact we're making in our 2024 Global Impact Report
Growth Opportunities: Spare is growing fast and there is uncapped potential for rapid advancement of motivated high performers on our team! 🚀
Market-competitive pay: We benchmark roles annually to attract and retain top talent. For Growth roles, we also offer a competitive commission/bonus structure that rewards strong performance.
Stock options: Enjoy the feeling of ownership. All Spartians are provided stock options, so you can share in the growth and success of Spare!
Home office allowance: We recognize the importance of a productive home office setup to help you do your best work, which is why we provide a CA$1,000 home office allowance.
Team offsites & socials: Each team has an annual budget for travel and accommodations to get together for a team offsite or hackathon. Plus you have access to a CA$50 monthly budget to socialize with other Spartians in your city - go out for a meal or hit up a karaoke spot!
Health insurance: We offer a fully-paid health insurance package for you and your dependents that includes prescription drug, paramedical, mental health, dental, life insurance, travel insurance, and Employee Assistance Program.
Lifestyle Spending Account: We offer CA$500 per year Lifestyle Spending Account (taxable benefit), which you can use to get reimbursed for a variety of expenses including education, wellness, transportation, and childcare/pet care.
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Paid time off: Along with your three weeks of annual vacation, we offer unlimited sick days and have company-wide shut-down days to help you rest and recharge.
About Spare
Spare's mission is empowering everyone to unlock the potential of mobility.
Spare is the future of shared transportation. We’re revolutionizing how the busy mom from Dallas, the retired teacher from Oslo or the aspiring entrepreneur from Tokyo experiences transportation, by partnering with transportation providers around the world to enable worry-free, efficient, flexible, and automated on-demand solutions.
From the daily commute to non-emergency hospital visits, last-minute lunches, and leisurely trips to the museum, our technology makes people’s lives easier and transit more equitable both for those with specialized mobility needs and those without.
With Spare’s Platform, which includes a feature-rich admin web-panel, as well as rider and driver apps, transportation providers can break free from para and microtransit silos and provide holistic demand-responsive services that give each rider exactly what they need. We also help cities easily optimize their transit network so that the entire transportation ecosystem works better together.
At Spare, nothing is impossible. We think safe, affordable, scalable and eventually autonomous transportation is the right way forward. Join us for the ride!
Guiding Principles
At Spare, we don't have a strict set of values, but rather a set of Guiding Principles that represent the most successful people at Spare.
🗝️ Take Ownership
⛰️ Growth Mindset
🚨 Execute with Urgency
🚌 Drive Results
💩 No Assholes
🤩 Customer-Obsession
Culture at Spare
You can read more about our culture (and how we work) here
Compensation Range: CA$135K - CA$185K