Head of Design Systems (UX) - Director

Citi; Mississauga; On-site; CAD 225,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in Canada is seeking a Head of Design Systems to oversee the strategy and creative direction of their enterprise-wide design system. This role requires deep expertise in digital product design and systems, managing a global team while ensuring compliance with accessibility standards. The ideal candidate will have proven experience with modern front-end technologies and applying generative AI to design workflows. Competitive salary based on skills and experience.

Qualifications

• Experience leading enterprise design systems at scale.
• Strong visual sensibility and motion principles applied to UI.
• Hands-on fluency with modern front-end stacks.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy for the enterprise design system.
• Manage global design teams and oversee design tool portfolio.
• Ensure compliance with accessibility and governance standards.

Skills

Digital product design

Systems leadership

Stakeholder management

Accessibility knowledge

Generative AI application

Education

10–15+ years in digital product design

Tools

Figma Enterprise

TypeScript

React

Angular

Job description

Role summary

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.

What you’ll

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.
• Define adoption strategy, KPIs/OKRs, and incentives to drive measurable outcomes across lines of business and functions.

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.
• Stand up a contribution/exception process and a comms plan, with dashboards to track migration progress and impact.

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.
• Define contribution workflows, templates, and content standards for documentation sites; ensure discoverability and self‑service onboarding.

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 & Control on standards, audits, and evidence to support internal controls, SOX/PCI/data‑privacy, and AI model governance.
• Establish telemetry and reporting that links design‑system adoption to risk reduction and customer outcomes.

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).
• Provide standards for personalization, disclosure content, and omnichannel publishing to maintain brand and compliance at scale.

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.

What you’ll bring:

Must‑have

• 10–15+ years in digital product design and systems; 5+ years leading enterprise design systems at scale, ideally in regulated industries (banking/fintech/insurance).
• Portfolio that demonstrates design craft (UI/visual/interaction) and system leadership (tokens/components/patterns, brand evolution, before/after 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.
• Proven art direction experience with a strong visual sensibility and motion principles applied to systemized UI.
• 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.
• Deep knowledge of digital accessibility and WCAG, assistive tech, and how to embed accessibility into tokens/components and SDLC gates.
• Tooling leadership: Figma Enterprise (libraries, tokens, branching, audit), research/analytics platforms (e.g., Matomo, UserTesting, Qualtrics), documentation sites, analytics/telemetry.
• Experience shipping products across multiple businesses and functions with i18n, L10n, and RTL considerations and regulatory/locale constraints.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication; ability to partner with CIO/CTO, Design Leadership, CMO, Enterprise Architecture, Risk/Compliance, and Product leadership.

Nice‑to‑have

• Experience with headless CMS (AEM), structured content modeling, and editorial workflows.
• Familiarity with developer portals, npm /private registries, monorepos, and visual regression testing.
• Understanding of data lineage/quality as it impacts design integrity and personalization at scale.
• Exposure to design analytics, A/B testing, and tying system adoption to business KPIs.

Success measures (first 12–18 months)

• Adoption & coverage: % of journeys using system components; component/pattern coverage vs. top use cases; reduction in bespoke UI.
• Efficiency: ↓ design‑to‑engineering handoff time; ↑ reuse PRs; ↓ front‑end defects and rework.
• Accessibility & risk: Automated checks at token/component/CI layers; measurable drop in accessibility defects; audit artifacts produced.
• AI impact: Agentic workflows in production (component development/migration tools, unit‑test generation, knowledge/playbook automation); measurable cycle‑time and quality improvements.
• Brand consistency: Measurable increase in consistency across businesses/functions; successful rollout of updated brand tokens and motion.
• Satisfaction: Improved designer/developer NPS/CSAT; decreased support MTTR; strong contributor pipeline.

Key partners

Design, Product, Business, and Engineering leaders • Brand/Marketing • Enterprise Architecture • Platform Engineering • InfoSec/Privacy • Legal/Compliance • Risk & Control • Data/ML

Job Family Group: Technology

Job Family: Digital Design Engineering

Time Type: Full time

Primary Location Full Time Salary Range: $160,000.00 - $270,000.00

Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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