Design systems at enterprise scale
One system serving React, Angular and Tailwind without three sources of truth: tokens as the contract, component APIs that stay stable across frameworks, documentation that product teams use.
Design systems · ZEISS · München
Akash Manjunath
Design systems at enterprise scale.
Lead engineer of Beyond, the ZEISS design system: shared React, Angular and Tailwind libraries that keep ZEISS’s digital products consistent. The writing here covers tokens, monorepos, codemods, AI that generates on-brand UI, and the cognitive biases that shape engineering decisions. Research background at TUM, published at ICSA 2018.
Lead Software Engineer · Expert Ladder, Staff
- ZEISS Expert Ladder
- StaffZEISS Expert Ladder
- Frameworks, one system
- 3Frameworks, one system
- Years building
- 12+Years building
Focus
Three problems, one system
The themes behind the work at ZEISS, the side products and the writing.
Migrations that happen
Monorepos, so a change is visible against every consumer. Codemods, so a breaking change ships with the transform that applies it. A version is retired when nobody imports it.
AI inside the design system
The system made legible to AI tools: tokens, APIs and rules exposed as context, so generated front-end code is brand-compliant by default. Compliance is measured in the output, not assumed from the prompt.
Toolkit
- TypeScript
- React
- Angular
- Next.js
- Vue
- Tailwind CSS
- Node.js
- Contentful
- Vercel
- GCP
- Supabase
- Flutter
Career
Work experience
Digital products since 2014, in healthcare, fintech and entertainment. Since 2022, the design system and front-end platforms at ZEISS.
Carl ZEISS AG
January 2022 – Present
Lead Software Engineer · Expert Ladder – Staff
Design systems and front-end platforms at ZEISS Digital Partners, Digital Customer Experience, München.
- Tech lead for the Online Experience of Beyond, the ZEISS design system, since 2023: shared UI libraries in React, Angular and Tailwind for product teams across ZEISS
- ZEISS Expert Ladder for front-end technologies: Senior in April 2024, Staff in April 2026
- Introduced monorepos, then codemod-based migrations, so that a breaking change in a central library ships with the transform that applies it
- Leads the adoption of AI in the design system, in the internal design and development process and for product teams generating design-system and brand-compliant front-end code
- Built the new ZEISS brand portal for the 2026 brand evolution: headless content in Contentful, a Next.js front end, deployed on Vercel
- Joined in January 2022 as Senior Software Engineer on the company-wide authorisation solution
Kirinus Digital GmbH
June 2020 – January 2022
Lead Frontend Developer
DiGA product providing trainings and content modules related to depression.
- Responsible for UI/UX architecture, feature development, maintenance, CI/CD and task management
- Led migration of web product from React 16 to 17 with TypeScript and hooks
- Improved test coverage from 0% to 95%+
- Set up the patient-side mobile application using Flutter
MindDoc Health GmbH
January 2018 – June 2020
Lead Full Stack Developer
Web platform for online psychotherapy.
- Responsible for UI/UX architecture, feature development, maintenance, CI/CD
- Led establishment of cooperation with company in India for global growth
- Established university collaboration with TUM SEBIS chair, mentoring students
SpreadMix
July 2017 – December 2017
Interim CTO & Full Stack Developer
A live audio streaming platform for DJs.
- Development of desktop application for live audio streaming from DJ Mix equipment
- Additional responsibilities include interim CTO, SRE and product audit
SkySports Accelerator PlayHub
March 2017 – August 2017
Solution Architect & Product Developer
Chatbot for football queries and media information.
- Core team responsible for product architecture
- Designed the NLP model
- Product IP acquired by SkySports on completion
ESCON Consulting GmbH
March 2016 – May 2017
Lead Frontend Developer
Web application for fundamental financial analysis of German companies.
- Lead frontend developer responsible for architecture setup, feature development, CI/CD
J.P. Morgan India
July 2014 – July 2015
Full Stack Developer
ETL application for High-net-worth Individuals data for Risk Metrics team.
- Web and middleware application development
- Extract, transform and load data processing
Work
Work
The public face of the ZEISS work, and the products built and maintained outside it. Every entry is live.
At ZEISS
Beyond Design System, Online Experience
The ZEISS design system for the web: shared UI libraries in React, Angular and Tailwind, with the tokens and documentation behind them. Used by product teams across ZEISS.
Engineering lead since 2023 · beyond.zeiss.com
ZEISS Brand Portal
Home of the 2026 ZEISS brand evolution. Headless content in Contentful, a Next.js front end on Vercel, and a new content model for ZEISS.
2026 · brand.zeiss.com
Side products
Cognitive Biases in Software Architecture
A catalogue of 33 cognitive biases classified into the OODA decision loop, and the decision-making models they distort. Companion to a TUM master thesis, published at ICSA 2018.
software-bias.akash-m.com
DeutschLern
Learn German from A1 upwards: grammar modules with exercises, vocabulary flashcards and Einbürgerungstest practice.
learngerman.akash-m.com
HealthTrack
Track medicine, habits, stress, weight and cycles in one calm place.
ht.akash-m.com
Research and background
How architects decide
A TUM master’s thesis catalogued the cognitive biases behind software-architecture decisions. The catalogue still frames design reviews today.
Peer-reviewed publication
Decision Making and Cognitive Biases in Designing Software Architectures
With Manoj Bhat, Klym Shumaiev, Andreas Biesdorf and Florian Matthes · IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C), Seattle, 2018
Maps three decision-making models onto the OODA loop and catalogues 33 cognitive biases, selected from more than 200, that systematically distort how architects observe, orient, decide and act. The catalogue is published as a companion site.
Education
M.Sc. Informatics
Technische Universität München
Germany
B.E. Computer Science
B.M.S College of Engineering
Bengaluru, India
Recognition
Entrepreneurship certificate
Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Product Development, Hubert Burda Summer School, 2017.
Hackathon winner
Member of the winning team at the LMU app@night hackathon 2016, SkySports track.
Agile & Scrum certifications
Professional certifications at J.P. Morgan India, 2014.
Football journalist
Contributor for Goal.com India, 2014.