UX/UI & Design Systems Designer

Tech client is seeking a UX/UI & Design Systems Designer to work with their team and help build and evolve a thoughtful, scalable design system from the ground up. This is a 40 hour/week, contract opportunity extending through January 2027. Fully remote.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

You will partner closely with the Product Design Manager to bring structure and consistency to a growing body of work while helping the team scale through it’s next phase of growth. The right person understands that a successful design system lives at the intersection of design and code and can collaborate effectively with developers and cross-functional stakeholders. This is not a general UI design role. The team is looking for someone who can think holistically, solve complex UX problems, document their thinking, and clearly demonstrate how they arrived at a solution.

IDEAL CANDIDATE:

You are equal parts systems thinker, UX practitioner, documentation specialist, and collaborative problem solver. You are highly organized, technically curious, and comfortable moving between research, design, documentation, and implementation. You can translate ambiguity into clear systems, explain the reasoning behind your decisions, and use AI thoughtfully as part of an evolving design workflow.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

-Help build, maintain, and evolve the Design Systems Library, including components, patterns, styles, variables, tokens, and documentation.

-Audit the existing system and identify opportunities to improve consistency, scalability, usability, and efficiency.

-Partner with developers to define, build, test, and refine reusable UI components.

-Maintain alignment between Figma components and coded components in Storybook.

-Define component behaviors, variants, states, responsive rules, accessibility requirements, and usage guidelines.

-Create and maintain design tokens for color, typography, spacing, sizing, and other foundational design decisions.

-Develop user flows, wireframes, prototypes, high-fidelity interfaces, user personas, customer journey maps, and information architecture.

-Lead or participate in design-thinking exercises and workshops.

-Create clear UX documentation, design specifications, interaction guidelines, and developer-ready documentation.

-Apply UX best practices and research-driven problem solving throughout the design process.

-Participate in design reviews, development discussions, implementation, and design QA.

-Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Research, and other stakeholders throughout the product lifecycle.

-Use AI as part of the ideation and documentation process.

-Take ownership of projects from concept through implementation while managing shifting priorities and competing deadlines.

REQUIRED EXPERIENE AND SKILLS:

-4+ years of professional UX/UI, Product Design, or related experience, with flexibility based on portfolio quality and depth of experience.

-Hands-on experience creating, maintaining, or contributing to a design system.

-Strong systems thinking and the ability to create well-considered, scalable solutions.

-Strong understanding of UX principles, design methodologies, information architecture, interaction design, responsive -design, usability, and UX best practices.

-Understanding of Hicks Law, Fittss Law, and usability effects.

-Experience creating documentation, user flows, customer journey maps, user personas, and developer-ready design specifications.

-Ability to understand technical concepts and collaborate directly with developers on UI implementation.

-Basic coding knowledge, particularly HTML and CSS.

-Strong knowledge of Storybook and how design-system components translate into coded components.

-Strong understanding of design tokens, variables, component architecture, variants, states, and reusable patterns.

-Advanced Figma proficiency, including Components, Variants, Auto Layout, Variables/Tokens, Libraries, and Prototyping.

-Familiarity with accessibility and WCAG principles.

-Excellent organization, communication, and problem-solving skills.

-Ability to take initiative, work independently, and bring structure to ambiguous problems.

-Willingness and comfort using AI for ideation and documentation.

-Ability to adapt and pivot as tools, priorities, and the working environment change.

Interested? Reply with your resume, portfolio/samples and the top 3 reasons with concrete examples of why you’re a…