Penn Interactive is the digital arm of PENN Entertainment, Inc., one of North America's largest integrated entertainment and gaming companies. The Product Designer Design Systems role sits at the intersection of sports media, online gaming, and platform-scale design work. For designers who want their work to matter at scale, this position is worth understanding deeply.
PENN Entertainment operates Hollywood Casino, theScore Bet Sportsbook, and theScore media app. These are not small side projects. They are flagship platforms serving millions of users across North America.
What Penn Interactive Actually Does
Penn Interactive handles the digital side of PENN Entertainment's business. That includes online gaming, sports betting, and sports media content. The company builds everything in-house using proprietary technology, which is central to its strategy.
This in-house approach matters for designers. It means the tools, platforms, and systems you work on are owned by the company. There is no vendor dependency. Decisions happen faster, and design influence goes further.
The broader PENN Entertainment ecosystem spans casinos, racetracks, and digital platforms. Working inside Penn Interactive means your design work connects both worlds.
The Design Systems Role and What It Involves
The specific product this role supports is called Alley-oop, which is Penn Interactive's internal design system. The name reflects the company's sports-first culture. More importantly, it signals how the team thinks about collaboration.
As a Product Designer for Design Systems, your primary focus is scaling and maintaining Alley-oop. You are not designing features directly. Instead, you are building the infrastructure that allows feature designers and developers to work more reliably.
This is a systems-thinking role. It requires attention to detail, strong documentation habits, and a deep understanding of how design tokens, components, and patterns function across multiple products.
Day-to-Day Responsibilities
- Maintaining and evolving the Alley-oop design system
- Creating and documenting reusable components for feature teams
- Collaborating closely with developers to ensure design and code stay aligned
- Auditing existing components for consistency and accessibility
- Supporting feature designers who consume the design system
- Identifying gaps in the system and proposing scalable solutions
The role demands someone who is organized, detail-oriented, and humble. That last word appears directly in the job posting. Penn Interactive is signaling something important about how this team operates.
Company Culture at Penn Interactive
Penn Interactive operates within a large corporate parent, but the digital team maintains a product company mindset. The culture leans toward speed, ownership, and curiosity. People are expected to push boundaries, not maintain the status quo.
The phrase "challenge conventions in gaming, media and entertainment" appears in the job posting. That language reflects a real cultural priority. Teams are encouraged to question how things are done and propose better approaches.
Humility is also part of the culture. The job listing specifically asks for humble designers. In a fast-moving product environment, ego slows teams down. Penn Interactive seems aware of that.
Sports and Gaming as a Cultural Backdrop
Working in sports media and gaming means the culture is energetic and fan-driven. Employees often care deeply about the products they build. The design system named Alley-oop is a small example of how sports culture permeates the work environment.
If you follow sports or enjoy the energy of live gaming, that passion translates into product enthusiasm. Teams tend to feel connected to the end users because many employees are those users.
Work Environment and Remote Setup
This position is fully remote. Penn Interactive has locations throughout North America, but the Product Designer Design Systems role does not require you to be in any specific office. That flexibility is significant for many candidates.
Remote work at a company this size usually comes with structured communication practices. Design systems work especially benefits from clear async documentation. Your ability to write clearly and document decisions well will matter as much as your visual design skills.
PENN Entertainment's digital teams span multiple time zones across the US and Canada. Expect some scheduling flexibility to be part of the deal, particularly when collaborating with teams in different locations.
Team Structure and Collaboration
The design systems team operates as an enablement function within the broader product design organization. This is different from a typical feature design role. You are not shipping screens to end users every sprint. Instead, you are shipping components that help other teams ship faster.
That distinction shapes how you collaborate. Your primary partners are feature designers and frontend developers. Success in this role depends on how well you support those teams, not just how well you design in isolation.
Working With Developers
Design systems roles require unusually close collaboration with engineering. At Penn Interactive, the in-house technology stack means developers and designers work under the same roof, so to speak. There is no outsourced development creating a gap between design intent and implementation.
Expect frequent conversations about component APIs, naming conventions, and tokenization. If those terms are unfamiliar, this role will push you to learn them quickly.
Working With Feature Designers
Feature designers are your internal customers. They consume what you build. Understanding their workflows and pain points is essential. The best design systems teams spend significant time listening to feature designers before building anything new.
At Penn Interactive, this means working across multiple product lines including sportsbook, casino, and media. Each product has unique design needs, and Alley-oop must serve all of them.
Growth Opportunities at Penn Interactive
PENN Entertainment is direct about its commitment to career development. The job posting states that the company "truly cares about your career growth." That language is common in job listings, but the company's structure offers real reasons to believe it.
Working on a design system at scale gives you a broad view of how products are built. You see patterns across multiple teams. That visibility often leads to senior-level thinking earlier than in feature-focused roles.
Design systems expertise is also one of the fastest-growing specializations in product design. Companies across every industry are investing heavily in design infrastructure. Building deep experience at Penn Interactive creates transferable skills that are in high demand.
PENN Entertainment also operates across many product areas. Designers who grow inside the company can move between sportsbook, casino, and media teams. That variety reduces the stagnation that affects many long-tenure roles at single-product companies.
Work-Life Balance at Penn Interactive
Remote work offers the foundation for better balance. Without a commute and with flexible scheduling, many remote employees at large tech-forward companies report stronger control over their daily routines. Penn Interactive's digital team structure supports this approach.
That said, gaming and sports are 24/7 industries. Live events, product launches, and regulatory changes can create bursts of high-intensity work. Balance at Penn Interactive likely requires boundary-setting skills, not just a supportive policy framework.
The design systems function specifically tends to operate on longer planning cycles than feature teams. You are less likely to face the same launch-day pressure that a sportsbook feature designer might experience before a big game weekend.
Is This Role Right for You
This position suits designers who think in systems, communicate clearly with developers, and find satisfaction in enabling others. It is not a role for someone who wants to own a user-facing product end to end.
The Alley-oop design system is already established, which means you are joining a living project, not starting from scratch. That context rewards people who are good at evolving existing systems while maintaining consistency.
Penn Interactive sits at the center of a growing industry. Sports betting continues to expand across new US states and Canadian provinces. The digital platform investment required to support that growth is real, and design systems are foundational to it.
If this role matches your skills and interests, you can find the full application details and apply directly at RemoteOK.
