We’re hiring a Head of Design Systems to lead the strategy, technology, and creative direction of our enterprise-wide design system that powers digital experiences across businesses and functions. This leader will be both a seasoned design craft practitioner and a strong engineering-minded platform owner—accountable for the visual digital brand, the system’s component library and code, governance, documentation, and adoption. You’ll manage a global, multi-disciplinary team of designers, design technologists/developers, strategists, writers, and producers, and you’ll own our design and research tool portfolio (e.g., Figma Enterprise, research/analytics platforms). A deep understanding of AI (generative AI and agentic AI) and digital accessibility is essential to transform our platform into an AI-powered, scalable foundation that accelerates innovative, creative, compliant delivery in a regulated environment.
Vision, strategy, and governance
Set the multi-year vision and roadmap for the enterprise design system—covering design tokens, components, patterns, documentation, and platform services—aligned to business priorities, risk, digital accessibility, and engineering strategy.
Establish and chair cross-functional governance (Design, Product, Engineering, Brand, Accessibility, Compliance, Security, and Architecture) with clear contribution and change-management models.
Platform consolidation & migration (multi-system → unified platform)
Inventory and assess existing/legacy design systems across businesses/functions (tokens, components, code stacks, documentation quality, accessibility posture, and adoption).
Define a convergence strategy: token mapping & theming, component equivalence matrix, de-duplication rules, and brand harmonization guidelines.
Create a phased migration plan with success criteria, deprecation timelines, risk controls, and a documented rollback path.
Provide tooling and automation (e.g., codemods, lint rules, UI audits, visual-regression baselines) to accelerate safe migration.
System architecture & engineering excellence
Lead engineering for the system’s codebase (e.g., Web Components/React/Angular, TypeScript, Storybook, CI/CD, package distribution/registries) and partner with Architecture on standards: design tokens, theming, motion, internationalization (i18n) and right-to-left (RTL) support.
Ensure quality through automated testing (unit/visual regression), performance budgets, security scans, and a versioning/release strategy (safe migrations, deprecation policies).
Integrate the system into product pipelines (e.g., GitHub/GitLab and internal developer portals) to reduce design-to-engineering friction and improve time-to-market, with opinionated pull/merge templates, required reviewers, and branch protections.
Art direction & brand stewardship
Serve as the art director and custodian of our digital visual brand—color, typography, iconography, motion, and imagery—ensuring brand consistency and accessibility across channels.
Guide creative expression across retail, commercial, institutional, and employee experiences, balancing brand distinctiveness with regulatory and accessibility requirements.
AI-powered platform & automation
Agentic workflows for design-to-code, pattern suggestions, component development and migration, unit testing, and knowledge & documentation playbooks.
Automated accessibility controls (e.g., token-level contrast rules, Axe/Lighthouse CI, alt-text and content checks) embedded in design and build pipelines.
Knowledge & retrieval over documentation and usage guidelines (RAG), plus evaluation frameworks, guardrails, and auditability to meet model-governance expectations.
Design operations, tooling, and research
Own the portfolio of design and research tools (e.g., Figma Enterprise libraries/branching/tokens plugins; platforms like Matomo / UserTesting / Qualtrics) including licensing, supplier management, financials, and workflow standards.
Accessibility, compliance, and risk
Embed WCAG (latest versions) and regional requirements into tokens, components, patterns, and governance—treating accessibility as a default.
Partner with Legal/Compliance, InfoSec, Model Risk, and In-Business Risk & Controls on standards, audits, and evidence to support internal controls, SOX/PCI/data-privacy, and AI model governance.
Content systems & CMS integration
Partner with Content Design and Engineering on CMS strategy (e.g., headless CMS such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)), ensuring components, patterns, and editorial workflows are integrated, versioned, and accessible.
Define guidance for localization (L10n)—the translation and regional adaptation of content—alongside i18n foundations, including pluralization rules, date/number/currency formats, time zones, and RTL layout mirroring (using CSS logical properties).
People leadership and culture
Lead, grow, and mentor a global team of designers, developers, strategists, writers, and producers; build clear career ladders and communities of practice.
Foster an inclusive, accountable, and outcomes-oriented culture grounded in craft excellence, technical rigor, and measurable impact.
Hands-on fluency with modern front-end stacks (TypeScript, React/Angular or Web Components, Storybook, design tokens, theming) and CI/CD practices; ability to set PR standards and release/versioning policies.
Practical experience applying generative/agentic AI to design and engineering workflows (code generation/review, unit testing, documentation playbooks, migration support, RAG) with guardrails, evaluations, and governance.
Tooling leadership: Figma Enterprise (libraries, tokens, branching, audit), research/analytics platforms (e.g., Matomo, UserTesting, Qualtrics), documentation sites, analytics/telemetry.
Exceptional stakeholder management and communication; ability to partner with CIO/CTO, Design Leadership, CMO, Enterprise Architecture, Risk/Compliance, and Product leadership.
Familiarity with developer portals, npm/private registries, monorepos, and visual regression testing.
Success measures (first 12–18 months)
Design, Product, Business, and Engineering leaders • Brand/Marketing • Enterprise Architecture • Platform Engineering • InfoSec/Privacy • Legal/Compliance • Risk & Control • Data/ML
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Job Family Group:
Technology
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Job Family:
Digital Design Engineering
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Time Type:
Full time
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Most Relevant Skills
Please see the requirements listed above.
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Other Relevant Skills
For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.
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