Design Systems Lead

Wave Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 77,000 - 94,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits package

Job summary

Wave Group in London is seeking a UI / Design Systems Lead to own the Figma-based design system across markets. You will drive adoption, ensure consistency, and oversee QA and handoffs to engineering in a hybrid role.

We are looking for a senior individual contributor who can influence style and standards without direct reports, while collaborating with multiple markets and product teams to scale the refreshed interface.

Qualifications

• Senior IC with cross-market influence.
• Own the design system governance and components.
• WCAG 2.2 AA knowledge.
• Experience collaborating with engineering on handoffs.
• Strong stakeholder management across markets.

Responsibilities

• Own the Figma-based design system: components, tokens, documentation, and governance.
• Drive adoption and consistency across five+ local market design teams
• Run design QA and own the Figma-to-development handoff
• Act as the go-to authority on UI standards, influencing without direct reports
• Push back constructively when markets drift from the system, and assess legitimate local variation

Skills

Figma skills

Design systems

Stakeholder management

WCAG knowledge

Handoff to engineering

Tools

Figma

Job description

UI / Design Systems Lead — B2C Product | £85k | London (Hybrid)

We're working with a fast-growing, PE-backed telecoms brand that's just completed a global brand refresh and full redesign of its digital products. They're now looking for a UI-focused Design Systems Lead to protect and scale that new interface across multiple markets.

This isn't a UX strategy role. There's already a senior UX lead in place. What's needed is someone who can own the design system at an implementation level: driving adoption, consistency, and quality across local market teams who are building on top of it day to day.

What you'll do:

• Own the Figma-based design system: components, tokens, documentation, and governance


• Drive adoption and consistency across five+ local market design teams


• Run design QA and own the Figma-to-development handoff


• Act as the go-to authority on UI standards, influencing without direct reports


• Push back constructively where markets drift from the system, and know when local variation is legitimate

What you'll need:

• Confidence managing stakeholders across multiple teams or markets, ideally without formal authority over them


• Strong Figma skills including variables/tokens and prototyping


• Experience partnering with engineering on handoff and QA


• WCAG 2.2 AA working knowledge

This is a senior individual contributor role. No direct reports, but real influence over how the product looks and works across every market. Open to Senior-level candidates who can operate at lead scope on implementation.

Package:

£85k + bonus, hybrid (3 days office, London), strong benefits package.