About RentSpree

RentSpree is the nation's leading home rental software. Our award-winning product suite simplifies the entire rental journey—from applications and screening to payments and lease management. Our mission is to bring transparency, efficiency, and trust to agents, landlords, and renters alike.

With over 3 million users, partnerships with 300+ leading real estate companies and MLS platforms, and nine years of consistent growth, RentSpree is at the forefront of proptech innovation. Our award-winning solutions deliver automation and real-time insights that make renting faster, easier, and more secure for our customers.

RentSpree is a proud Forbes' Best Startup Employer and we were also ranked one of BuiltIn Seattle’s Best Places to Work. As one of the fastest-growing property tech startups in the U.S., we’re looking for talented problem-solvers to contribute meaningful impact as we scale.

Staff Design Technologist / Creative Technologist - Seattle, WA (Hybrid)

Join the Product Experience Design (PXD) department at RentSpree as a Staff Design Technologist! You will play a pivotal role in transforming how we approach design systems, AI integration, customer facing experiences, and design productivity tools. This role will be instrumental in delivering department goals through self-serve tools, design and research productivity enhancements, and cutting-edge AI integrations with our front-end.

This position offers a unique opportunity to lead a small but mighty team (1 design technologist and 1 visual designer) while pioneering the future of AI-assisted design workflows, and customer experience. You'll work at the forefront of design systems evolution, creating adaptive experience systems that learn, optimize, and evolve. If you're excited about building the bridge between design and technology—and you're passionate about applying AI research to revolutionize CX, and creative workflows, we want you! Bring your innovative mindset and technical expertise to shape the future of product experiences at RentSpree.

This role is based in Seattle with at least 2 days per week in-office.

What You'll Do

• AI-Driven Design System Leadership: Lead the evolution of our design system from static component libraries to adaptive, AI-powered experience systems. Transform our design tokens with semantic naming systems that enable LLMs and RAG systems to better understand, assemble, and optimize UI patterns.
• Team Leadership & Development: Manage and mentor a focused team of design professionals (1 design technologist, 1 visual designer), fostering innovation while maintaining high standards for design system implementation and tool development.
• Design Systems Architecture: Own the design system roadmap, developing component libraries, design tokens, pattern documentation, and self-serve tools that scales across Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams. Make systems "AI-readable" through metadata, tokens, and semantic tagging.
• AI Integration & Automation: Pioneer AI adoption in design workflows, establishing frameworks that provide design inspection, usability audits, friction logs, and automated improvement suggestions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work autonomously on high-impact projects while collaborating with Product, Engineering, and Data teams where dependencies exist. Bridge technical and creative domains to accelerate product innovation.
• Productivity Tool Development: Create self-serve design tools and templates that enable non-designers across the organization to maintain brand consistency and design quality.
• Future-Forward Innovation: Drive research and implementation of behavior-driven UI that adapts based on user context, personalization layers, and agentic orchestration—moving from fixed variants to dynamic, intelligent experiences.
• Quality Assurance & Standards: Establish design quality metrics, automated testing protocols, and continuous improvement processes that reduce rework and increase design velocity.

Our job descriptions evolve with our business needs and priorities. In addition to the description above, your role may include additional tasks, projects and team support as needed.

Skills You Bring

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Computer Science, HCI, or related field
• 6+ years of hands-on experience in design systems development and maintenance, design operations, or creative technology roles
• Proven track record of leading design technology initiatives and guiding a team (team lead)

Technical Expertise:

• Expert proficiency in Figma (plug-ins, libraries, tokens, auto-layout, variables, advanced functionality)
• Strong front-end development skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React frameworks)
• Experience with design system tools and methodologies (Storybook, design tokens, component libraries)
• Familiarity with AI/ML tools and APIs (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, or similar)
• Knowledge of modern development workflows (GitHub, CI/CD, automated testing)

AI & Automation Skills:

• Experience integrating AI tools into creative workflows and productivity systems
• Understanding of LLM capabilities, limitations, and prompt engineering
• Knowledge of RAG systems, semantic data structures, and metadata frameworks
• Experience with automation tools and workflow optimization

Design Systems Mastery:

• Deep understanding of design system principles, scalability challenges, and adoption strategies
• Experience with design token architecture and multi-platform implementation
• Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design practices
• Track record of successfully rolling out design systems across multiple teams and products

Leadership & Communication:

• Strong leadership skills with experience leading creative and technical team members
• Excellent presentation and communication abilities across technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience influencing stakeholders and driving adoption of new tools and processes
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic vision with tactical execution

Domain Experience (Plus):

• SaaS or proptech industry experience, particularly in real estate, property management, or rental platforms
• Experience working in fast-paced startup environments with rapid iteration cycles
• Background in design operations, creative operations, or design system consulting

Qualities You Practice

These encompass our guiding principles and startup culture competencies:

• Take full ownership and accountability: Drives projects from idea to execution, with pride, urgency, and a “do what it takes” mentality.
• Collaborate with clarity, candor, and respect: Communicate openly and courageously, offer and receive feedback well, and build trust through transparency and reliable partnership.
• Strive for excellence while staying humble: Driven with a bias for action, hold a high bar, think critically, and continuously look to improve.
• Bring a versatile, proactive mindset: Adapt to evolving needs, anticipate challenges, take initiative, be resourceful, and embrace opportunities to achieve high quality results.
• Innovate and learn fast: Experiment, learn from failure, and seek opportunities to introduce new methods or diverse ways of achieving results.
• Engage in healthy debate and commit as a team: Contribute ideas, challenge constructively, and align quickly for decisive action.
• AI is a core skill: Equip yourself to use AI in your daily workflow, boosting productivity, accelerating RentSpree’s growth, and building future-ready career skills in a world where AI literacy is essential.

Why Join Us? Our Award-Winning Benefits & Culture

As a fast-growing startup, our culture is built on collaboration, curiosity, and the drive to build something meaningful together. From most comprehensive benefits starting on day one to an environment built on trust, respect, and belonging, we make sure our team feels supported every step of the way. Here’s what we offer:

• Compensation: $180-210k base
• Equity Options: Share in the value we’re creating—your work makes a real impact.
• Team-First Culture: Join a group of talented, supportive teammates who inspire each other to do their best work and celebrate every win.
• Learning & Development: Ongoing support for your growth through resources, coaching, and career development opportunities.
• Health Coverage: Comprehensive employee + dependent medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as HSA/FSA options. Plus, enjoy additional health perks like access to Headspace Care+, gym membership discounts, and much more — because your well-being matters, inside and out.
• Plan for your future: Life, disability, and Simple IRA retirement plan with company match to support your future.
• Flexible Vacation Policy: We trust you to take the time you need to rest and recharge.
• Holidays: Enjoy 12 holidays throughout the year, as a part of our commitment to honoring culture, history, and time to recharge.
• Events: We make time to connect and celebrate through reimbursable weekly team lunches, game nights, events, and more, both in-person and remotely.
• Recognition Programs: Team members can recognize their peers with Sprees, which are redeemable for gift cards and/or donations to an organization of your choice, or nominate a colleague for a S.P.R.E.E. Award to spotlight above-and-beyond contributions, which may be rewarded with a spot bonus. Our Work Anniversary Program also honors employee milestones with personalized tokens of appreciation!
• Business Expense Allowance & Internet Reimbursement: Get the tools and support you need to do your best work.
• Parental Leave & Fertility Support: Inclusive benefits to support you and your family, wherever you are in life.
• Legal & tax benefits: We offer group legal benefits and tax support through RocketLawyer.
• Seattle HQ: If you’ll be working from our Seattle office, you’ll receive a company-sponsored Orca card to cover the cost of public transportation to and from the office!

Ready to Build Something Big?

We’re a team of talented, kind, and supportive people who take ownership, move with urgency, and strive for excellence. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and take on exciting challenges, we’d love to hear from you, even if you don’t meet every requirement!

EEO Statement

RentSpree is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. RentSpree makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.