What does the state of engineering hiring look like now?

Demand for technical builders remains high, and that pressure is reshaping how teams split the work. IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, a group of around 193,000 workers, sit among the occupations in critical demand, with three out of five indicators in critical demand in 2025 Occupations in Demand 2025 from Explore Education Statistics, GOV.UK.

When architecture and systems design skills are this hard to find, teams stop asking one generalist to do everything. They carve out specialist roles so the scarce skills get used where they count. Design systems work is one of those carve-outs: the shared building blocks every product team relies on now have an owner, rather than being squeezed in between feature deadlines.

Why is design systems work splitting into its own role?

A design system is the shared library of components, tokens, patterns and documentation that keeps an organisation's products consistent. For years it was a side project, maintained by whoever had spare time. That no longer holds once several product squads depend on the same components every day.

The role sits between design and engineering. It calls for strong front-end skills, an eye for accessibility, and the discipline to document and version components so other teams can adopt them without friction. It also needs the systems-design thinking that is in such short supply GOV.UK's Occupations in Demand 2025 data. That mix is why a design systems engineer is now hired as a distinct person, not a borrowed one.

The dynamic is simple. Treat the design system as a product, and it needs product discipline: a roadmap, users (the other engineers), and someone accountable for quality. The people who do this well reduce duplicated work across every squad that consumes their components.

How do you hire well for a design systems role?

Start with the problem, not the job title. Write down who will consume the design system, how many teams depend on it, and what good looks like in six months. That clarity turns a vague front-end advert into a sharp brief.

• Test for component thinking: ask candidates how they would version a shared button or deprecate an old pattern without breaking downstream teams.
• Check communication skills, because this role lives on clear documentation and buy-in from other engineers.
• Look for accessibility fluency, since shared components set the baseline for every product that uses them.
• Give a realistic exercise, such as reviewing a messy component, rather than abstract puzzles.
• Involve the engineers and designers who will actually use the system in the interview.

With specialist skills in critical demand according to GOV.UK's Occupations in Demand 2025, speed matters too. The strongest people move fast, so a slow, vague process loses them. Keep your stages tight and your feedback quick.

Where does our AI recruitment agent fit in?

When the skills are scarce, reach and speed decide who you hire. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people with the right front-end and systems-design background, then rank a shortlist for you to review. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. Tell us what your design system needs and we'll start building your shortlist today.

Sources

• Occupations in demand 2025, Explore Education Statistics, GOV.UK