I read Buffer's engineering blog before applying. Here's what it taught me about the Senior Design Engineer role.

The job seeker applied for Buffer's Senior Design Engineer role before writing any part of their application. They meticulously studied Buffer's engineering practices, starting with their engineering blog and accessibility statement. Buffer's engineers prioritize accessibility as an integral part of their design process, not as an afterthought.

They build accessibility features into their products from the very beginning, such as using aria-hidden for decorative elements and designing motion for prefers-reduced-motion users. This approach is unlike many other companies that prioritize visual appeal over accessibility.

Buffer's transparency and honesty about their accessibility efforts stood out to the job seeker. They openly disclose their partial compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA and publish an email address for accessibility feedback. This level of openness demonstrates a culture that values improvement and acknowledges ongoing work, rather than simply claiming to meet standards.

The job seeker also gained insight into what a design system is at Buffer. For them, it's not just a collection of UI components, but a contract between the engineer creating the component and every engineer who will use it. This contract ensures that using a component from Buffer's design system doesn't require the user to manually handle accessibility considerations like ARIA roles, focus states, or contrast ratios.

The Senior Design Engineer's role involves creating these contracts that make the right choices obvious and easy for all developers to follow. They should also ensure that compliance with accessibility standards is verified in the continuous integration pipeline and that they own prefer-reduced-motion at the token level, not just the component level.