---
title: 'Lead Design Engineer at Step'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-design-engineer-step-united-states-yg5bta5ed8mx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-08-31'
---

# Lead Design Engineer at Step

- **Company:** Step
- **Location:** United States
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-08-31
- **Apply:** https://step.com/careers/8694066002?gh_jid=8694066002

## Job description

## About Step

Step's mission is to improve the financial future of the next generation. Millions of people use our banking and borrowing products to manage, build, and grow their money. Now that we're part of Beast Industries – the company behind MrBeast – we're poised for a new phase of growth to deliver financial literacy and tools at massive scale.

## About the Role

At Step, we believe the gap between design and engineering should be as close to zero as possible. We're looking for a Design Systems Engineer to help make that vision a reality.

This role sits at the intersection of design and engineering, owning the systems, tooling, and infrastructure that allow our teams to build beautiful, consistent, high-quality products at speed. You'll work across Figma, code, and AI-powered workflows to ensure our design system isn't just documented—it lives equally in design and production.

You'll partner closely with Product Design and Engineering leadership to evolve our design platform, reduce friction in the product development process, and create a future where moving from an idea to production is faster, more reliable, and nearly lossless.

This isn't a role for someone who simply enjoys maintaining component libraries. We're looking for someone who enjoys building the platform that enables great product teams to do their best work.

In this role, you will:

- Own the connection between our design system and production code, ensuring they evolve together rather than separately
- Build and maintain reusable components, design tokens, and shared foundations across iOS, Android, and Web
- Partner closely with Product Designers to translate high-fidelity designs into production-quality components with exceptional visual accuracy
- Collaborate with Engineering to create scalable component architecture that is flexible, performant, accessible, and easy for teams to adopt
- Continuously improve our design-to-code workflow through better tooling, automation, documentation, and developer experience
- Develop systems that allow designers and engineers to move faster while maintaining an exceptionally high bar for quality and consistency
- Improve governance around component APIs, tokens, naming conventions, versioning, and adoption across teams
- Review implementations, identify opportunities to improve the design system, and raise the overall quality of our products
- Explore and build AI-powered workflows that improve how we design, build, document, and maintain our products
- Help shape the future of how product development happens at Step

You might thrive in this role if you have:

- Significant experience building and evolving design systems for modern consumer software products
- Strong frontend engineering experience building reusable component libraries and design infrastructure
- Deep understanding of design tokens, component architecture, accessibility, documentation, and modern design system best practices
- Strong understanding of Figma and how modern design teams build and maintain systems
- A systems thinker who naturally looks beyond individual components to improve the entire product development workflow
- An exceptional eye for visual detail and a passion for building interfaces that feel polished and intentional
- Someone who enjoys collaborating equally with designers and engineers and can comfortably speak both languages
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence technical and product decisions across disciplines
- Curiosity about AI and emerging design tools, with a desire to continually rethink how products are designed and built
- Experience shipping high-quality mobile or web applications
- A portfolio or examples of work demonstrating both technical execution and thoughtful design systems thinking

Even better if you have:

- Experience with React Native or building cross-platform component libraries
- Experience building token pipelines or design system tooling
- Experience with Storybook or similar documentation platforms
- Experience building Figma plugins or internal developer tools
- Experience using AI to improve design workflows, automate repetitive work, or build design tooling

Logistics

Location: Remote (US) or San Mateo, CA, with occasional travel for team offsites and key meetings

Reports to: Head of Design

Education: Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience

We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single qualification. Strong candidates rarely check every box, and we'd rather meet you than miss you.

## How we're different

We stand for the side hustlers, the creators, the freelancers, and the investors — people who are not afraid to take on challenges, especially when it comes to their finances. Step is focused on disrupting the banking industry by delivering a differentiated, mobile-first consumer experience, and we operate like the customers we serve: customer obsessed, acting as owners, moving with urgency, and breaking the norm.

Step is a wholly owned subsidiary of Beast Industries, the media and entertainment company founded by Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), the most-watched person in the world. Beast Industries spans digital media, consumer products, philanthropy, and new ventures, with an audience reach no consumer company has ever had — and Step is tasked with turning that reach into financial literacy and tools for the next generation at massive scale. With Beast's distribution and brand behind it, Step is positioned to scale significantly over the next 12 months, and joining now means helping shape that trajectory from the inside.

Come work with us!

Step is a remote-first company building banking for the next generation. We offer competitive compensation and stock options, generous medical, dental, vision, and company-paid life insurance, a 401k plan with Safe Harbor company matching, a flexible vacation policy and paid company holidays, 12 weeks paid parental leave with flexible return to work, and a company-provided technology package. If you're looking to join a fast-growing company with a strong mission and vision that puts people first, we want to meet you!

Step is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Step is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and interview process. If you need an accommodation, please let us know at people@step.com and we'll work with you to provide appropriate support.

## About Step

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Step provides an all-in-one banking and financial services app for teens and young adults, offering credit building, savings, investing, and early wage access.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Acquired by Beast Industries in February 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2018 (publicly stated as 2020 on some materials)
- **Founders**: CJ MacDonald (CEO) and Alexey Kalinichenko (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Financial Services / Fintech
- **Target customers**: B2C; primarily teens, young adults, and families (the "next generation" of banking users)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "To help people achieve financial independence as quickly as possible by giving them access to the right tools, education, and opportunities to manage, build, and grow their money confidently." [step.com](https://step.com/about)

## Products & Services
- **Step Account & Visa Card**: A free FDIC-insured bank account with a Visa card (Step Black) that offers up to 10% cashback and helps users build credit with every purchase. Includes 3.00% APY on savings. [step.com](https://step.com/)
- **Step EarlyPay**: Early wage access feature allowing users to borrow up to $250 instantly before payday. [step.com](https://step.com/)
- **Step Investing**: In-app investment capabilities for stocks and ETFs.
- **Step Mobile**: A mobile phone plan launched in May 2025, starting at $15/month, designed to save users up to $600 a year. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (acquired by Beast Industries; prior valuation not public post-acquisition)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of approximately $500 million (over $491M raised per LinkedIn/CB Insights, with a $300M debt facility led by Evolve Bank & Trust and TriplePoint Capital in 2022). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)
- **Annual Revenue**: Estimated at $8 million (per LinkedIn data). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: General Catalyst (led Series C), Stripe (led Series A), Crosslink Capital, Evolve Bank & Trust, TriplePoint Capital, and Beast Industries (acquired). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)
- **Growth Signals**: Over 7 million accounts opened; named to CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2025 list; acquired by Beast Industries (MrBeast) in Feb 2026, signaling major expansion into financial services; launched Step Mobile in 2025. [step.com](https://step.com/about)

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in teen/Gen Z banking**: A dedicated platform for building credit and financial literacy for minors and young adults, with parental controls and no hidden fees.
- **Visa Zero Liability & FDIC insurance**: Up to $1M in FDIC insurance, providing trust and security.
- **High cashback and savings rates**: Up to 10% cashback and 3.00% APY on savings, significantly above national averages.
- **Post-acquisition resources**: Backed by Beast Industries (MrBeast), giving access to massive brand reach, marketing, and distribution to a young audience.

## Strategic Focus
- **Expansion of financial products**: Continuing to launch new services like Step Mobile and deeper lending/investing features.
- **Closing the financial literacy gap**: Using Beast Industries’ platform to amplify financial education and product reach.
- **Scaling the platform**: Growing beyond 7 million users with a focus on credit building, early wage access, and mobile phone services.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: Emphasizes "Team First," "Move with urgency," "Break the mold," and "Be customer obsessed." [step.com](https://step.com/careers/5934882002)
- **Remote/hybrid/office policy**: Flexible work-from-home and time-off policy. [step.com](https://step.com/careers/5934882002)
- **Notable perks**: Competitive medical, dental, mental health & wellbeing benefits; 12 weeks paid parental leave; baby bonus; stock options; 401k retirement plan. [step.com](https://step.com/careers/5934882002)
- **Engineering culture**: Focus on building for scale (mobile, ML, backend) with a team of 63 employees (as of 2026), including strong technical leadership from ex-Google, Stripe, Square, and Affirm engineers. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)
- **Employer rating**: 3.3/5.0 on LinkedIn (29 reviews), with scores for work-life (3.6), compensation (3.3), culture (3.4), and career (3.2). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)

## Sources
1. [step.com - Careers](https://step.com/careers/5934882002)
2. [step.com - About](https://step.com/about)
3. [step.com - Homepage](https://step.com/)
4. [linkedin.com - Step Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stepmobile)
5. [cbinsights.com - Step Mobile Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/step-mobile)

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