Design Lead: Design System + AI-Driven UX (Remote)

Summit K12; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Summit K12 is building a lean, modern design function. As Design Lead, you own the user experience for your product area and co-steward our design system, while staying hands-on in Figma every day.

This player-coach role partners with Product Managers to bridge design and product teams for cohesive, high-quality outcomes. We move fast, validate with in-house educator expertise, and leverage AI tools to multiply output.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product/UX design, including owning a design system.
• Experience leading or mentoring designers while staying hands-on.
• Fluency in Figma and comfort managing design work in Jira.
• Active use of AI tools in your design workflow.
• Strong grounding in user-centered design and Universal Design for Learning.
• Experience with WCAG accessibility standards, including interpreting ACRs and remediation.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and evolve the Summit K12 design system — components, patterns, typography, color, accessibility standards, and interaction behaviors.
• Keep the system documented, versioned, and genuinely used, so teams move faster with it.
• Partner with Engineering to ensure components are technically feasible and consistently implemented.
• Drive adoption — you and your fellow Design Leads share accountability for the system actually being used across teams.
• Decide, jointly with your fellow Design Leads, what enters the system and when projects in your area can deviate from it.
• Act as a design consultant and force multiplier to Product Managers — making AI prototypes shippable: coherent, accessible, and on-system.
• Engage early in discovery to shape solutions, not just review them at the end.
• Make the case for design through outcomes — strong UX reduces rework and churn.
• Be the Design Lead your teams trust for day-to-day design decisions.
• Spend real time in Figma — this is a shipping role, not a pure oversight role.
• Translate platform experience strategy into concrete navigation, workflows, and patterns.
• Leverage AI tools to accelerate design and development workflows.
• Integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into the design system.
• Use lightweight validation and quick feedback loops in place of heavy research.
• Advocate for accessibility, clarity, and simplicity in every experience.
• Set clear expectations for quality, ownership, and accountability.
• Run lean design workflows in Figma and Jira for fast iteration.
• Foster a culture of user empathy, experimentation, and low-ego collaboration.
• Lead, mentor and develop the designers you work with.

Skills

Design system ownership

Mentoring designers

Figma proficiency

Jira familiarity

AI tooling in workflow

User-centered design

Accessibility (WCAG)

Cross-functional collaboration

Lean, fast delivery mindset

Tools

Figma

Jira

AI tools in design

Job description

Summit K12 is building a lean, modern design function. As Design Lead, you own the user experience for your product area and co-steward our design system, while staying hands-on in Figma every day.

This player-coach role partners with Product Managers to bridge design and product teams for cohesive, high-quality outcomes. We move fast, validate with in-house educator expertise, and leverage AI tools to multiply output.