Overview

Step into a pivotal role at one of South Africa's leading banks as a Design System Lead, where you will be the architect behind the app’s design blueprint. In this critical position, you will develop, refine, and oversee a comprehensive design system that serves as the cornerstone for consistency, scalability, and excellence across diverse Agile teams.

Your expertise will bridge UX/UI Design, Service Design, product management, and technical development, creating a unified and adaptable design infrastructure that supports rapid, high-quality development and design execution. As the steward of the design system, you will ensure it acts as the definitive guide for UI components, interaction patterns, accessibility standards, and responsive behaviours.

You will empower teams to accelerate their workflows and enhance collaboration, maintaining rigorous quality standards and alignment across various features and user journeys. Your oversight will ensure that every design element conforms to the highest standards, facilitating a seamless integration of design and development efforts.

Tasks include:

• Own and evolve the design system, ensuring consistency, scalability, and high-quality execution across squads.
• Collaborate with UX/UI Designers, ensuring newly designed components integrate into the system.
• Drive alignment across Service Designers, product teams, and technical/development teams, ensuring a cohesive approach.
• Govern design quality across Agile squads, reviewing and auditing UI to maintain high standards.
• Ensure accessibility and responsiveness, optimising designs for all users and devices.
• Facilitate design critiques and governance processes, ensuring adherence to best practices.
• Work closely with technical/development teams, ensuring efficient implementation of design components.
• Manage contribution workflows and documentation, ensuring the design system is scalable and well-maintained.

Requirements: 

• Willing to work on a 12 month contract with the possibility of renewal 
• Expertise in design systems, component libraries, and scalable UI frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of Figma and other design system management tools.
• Experience in multi-platform responsive design (desktop, mobile, tablet).
• Strong understanding of WCAG accessibility guidelines and usability best practices.
• Proven experience in cross-functional collaboration with designers, developers, and product managers.
• Governance and quality control expertise, ensuring consistency across squads and teams.
• Familiarity with design tokens, frontend handoff, and development integration (e.g. Figma Dev Mode).
• Experience working in Agile teams, participating in sprint cycles, backlog refinement, and iterative design.