Senior Design Engineer

At Relay, we believe that quality and craft are no longer just nice to haves, they’re product requirements. That belief shapes how we build. Design Engineering is a small, deliberate function with a clear mandate: own the front-end across the product, hold a high bar of quality, and raise it over time. The team works directly with product and design, responsible for the UI, the interactions, and the design systems that everything is built on top of.

We're expanding the team and hiring two design engineers who will have real ownership across the product. You'll work on the hardest things to get right: the details that make an interface feel intentional, the systems that make quality consistent at scale, and the problems that require someone who thinks in both design and code.

This is a formative moment for the Design Engineering function at Relay while it’s still relatively new. You’ll have the chance to make an outsized role in shaping how it grows, how it integrates across product teams, and what it means for how Relay builds product going forward.

If you’re curious to learn more about the standard we hold ourselves to, and the kind of work you’d be owning before you apply, check out some of our recent work:

• Telegraph design system documentation: The foundations used by engineers across the company to ship product. The details are intentional, and so is the fact we made it public.

• Relay’s new home page: a collaboration with our marketing design team to introduce a new level of expression to our front door.

What You'll Be Doing

• Set a high bar of quality across the product by owning the front-end. Identify and systematically reduce UI and UX debt, improve implementation patterns, and raise the overall level of craft across the application.

• Embed within product teams to lead UI implementation for new features from concept through launch. Partner closely with product managers, designers, and engineers to ensure shipped experiences meet a high standard for quality, usability, and polish.

• Own and evolve Telegraph, our design system. Define and maintain component APIs, composition patterns, interaction standards, and documentation that enable teams to build consistent, scalable interfaces efficiently.

• Champion accessibility and performance as core product requirements. Ship experiences that are fast, resilient, and accessible by default through semantic implementation, keyboard support, focus management, testing, and ongoing performance optimization.

• Partner closely with designers throughout the product development process. Work collaboratively in code and design tooling to iterate on concepts, refine interactions, and reduce the gap between design and implementation. Help evolve a workflow that replaces traditional handoffs with continuous collaboration.

• Create leverage for the broader organization by translating intent into scalable implementation: reusable components, guidelines, sandboxes/playgrounds, and “how to use it” documentation that reduces drift.

• Build the infrastructure and workflows that support AI-accelerated product development. Some areas we’re currently exploring include: automating QA and code review processes, connecting design and engineering tools, and setting up prototyping templates.

Who You Are

• You're well-versed in React, JavaScript (TypeScript), HTML, and modern CSS

• You work in a real engineering environment. You’re comfortable using Git, writing PRs, reviewing code, and contributing directly to a shared codebase

• You can identify what's wrong (or right) with a design or component, articulate the specific reason why, and know how it could be improved

• You have strong opinions about craft, you hold yourself to a high bar, and your portfolio or GitHub shows it. You sweat the details and truly care about the last 10% that makes great software

• You prioritize speed, reusability, accessibility, cross-browser support, functional motion as you build, not as an afterthought

• You have genuine curiosity about AI tooling and a grounded enough understanding of how these tools work to build with them

Bonus points if:

• You have experience with motion or animation work (motion/react, GSAP, or vanilla CSS animations)

• You've owned or made meaningful contributions to a React component design system (components in code, not just Figma libraries)

The Interview Process:

• Stage 1: A 30-minute Google Meet call with a member of the People team

• Stage 2: A 60-minute Hiring Manager interview (Design Engineering Discussion & Work Showcase - we want to see something cool you've built!)

• Stage 3: A 60-minute technical interview (React component critique and improvement session)

• Stage 4: A 60-minute live front end coding challenge (working on a React component problem in real-time)

• Stage 5: A 45-minute in-person interview with a member of Relay’s executive team

At Relay, we believe Relayers should feel valued for the impact they have on our mission and growth. So we pay fairly and transparently. The annual salary range for this role is $130,500 CAD to $159,500 CAD.

We pay for impact and aren’t tied to yearly reviews. As your contributions to Relay’s mission scale, so do your rewards. Most new Relayers will join at the impactful level, which for this role is $145,000 CAD per year. The range represents the potential for impact within the role, from developing to having an outsized impact.

Our Commitment To You:

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity: Relay employees are Relay owners, complete with equity and a competitive salary.

• Comprehensive health benefits: enjoy full health benefits from day one: no probation period required. We offer flexible Health or Wellness Spending Accounts and medical, dental, and vision coverage for you and your dependents.

• Flexible vacation and time off: every team member starts with 15 vacation days and 5 flex days to use as needed, plus an extra week of office closure during the end-of-year holidays so you can take time off to recharge and come back better for our customers.

• Parental leave with top-up: we offer 12 weeks off with a 100% salary top-up for all full-time employees, regardless of location, and accessible for all parents: birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive.

• Hybrid work environment: we value meaningful collaboration and connection at our Toronto office 3 days a week, with lunch, snacks, and beverages on us.

• Dog-friendly space: can dogs really make you happy and healthy? We don’t know for sure, but since we don’t want to chance it, our office is 100% floof-friendly.

• Personal and professional growth: through ongoing feedback, mentorship, and coaching, work with peers and leaders who are invested in your growth and success.

• Top-tier equipment: as a Mac-first company, our Toronto offices have everything you need to produce your best work comfortably, from multiple screens to ergonomic seating.

• Social connection: we believe in celebrating our wins with two annual company-wide get-togethers, quarterly team events, happy hours, and special events and networking opportunities with industry leaders.

• You push relentlessly for reinvention: You're always asking "how can this be better?" -- in your work, in your craft, in yourself. Comfort is a signal to push harder, not coast. You'd rather build something better than defend something familiar.