Senior Design Systems Specialist

About the Team:

Grindr is an AI-native platform powering how millions of gay people connect globally. With 15M+ monthly users, 130B+ annual messages, and a team of fewer than 200, we move fast, stay lean, and tackle technical problems at a scale few companies ever see.

The Design team at Grindr operates with a small footprint and an outsized mandate - owning the visual and interaction language of a product used by millions of people daily. This role sits at the foundation of how the team scales its craft: building and maintaining the design system that powers Grindr's core app and, over time, the broader product surface. There is no sprawling design systems org here, no committee sign-off process, and no inherited system too entrenched to improve. What exists is a real ownership opportunity - the kind where the decisions you make show up in the product within weeks, not quarters.

We have a solid foundational design system, and this is a big opportunity to improve quality and visual design, innovate, modernize, and work with AI to accelerate our team.

At Grindr, we operate in Grindr Mode. Moderately hardcore day to day, truly hardcore when it counts. It's about doing great work without burning out. Outcomes over outputs. Smart, driven people who raise your bar, with room to live full lives.

This is a hybrid role based in our San Francisco office and will require you to be in person Tuesdays and Thursdays.

About the Job:

- Own the development, documentation, and ongoing refinement of Grindr's core design system - components, tokens, patterns, and the guidelines that govern how they are used

- Partner directly with product designers and engineers to ensure the system is adopted consistently and evolves to meet real product needs

- Identify and resolve design inconsistencies across the core app, driving toward a more coherent and efficient product experience

- Contribute strong visual design craft to the system - not just structural rigor, but con...