Platform Design Systems Lead - Remote/Hybrid

System One; Vienna (VA); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

System One is seeking a Platform Design Systems Lead to own the platform design-system roadmap, governance, adoption, and contribution processes across product teams. This long-term contracting role sits between design, front-end engineering, product, accessibility, and leadership, focusing on strategy, guidance, and enablement rather than day-to-day coding.

The ideal candidate has hands-on experience with design-system adoption, strong front-end fluency, accessibility expertise, and the ability

Qualifications

• Experience leading design-system adoption and governance.
• Strong front-end technical knowledge with credibility in engineering.
• Expertise in accessibility and WCAG compliance.

Responsibilities

• Own the platform design-system roadmap, governance, adoption, and contribution processes.
• Translate enterprise CMD+R design-system standards into practical platform-specific guidance.
• Partner with designers and engineers on components, design tokens, accessibility, implementation feasibility, and handoffs.
• Support CI/CD, release, versioning, dependency, and documentation workflows for design-system assets.
• Maintain documentation using tools such as Storybook and Zeroheight and provide training/workshops.
• Conduct design-system, accessibility, code, documentation, and adoption audits and use findings to drive improvements.
• Serve as a cross-functional leader who can identify technical/process gaps and drive adoption without owning the entire enterprise design system.

Skills

Design-system governance

Front-end technical fluency

Accessibility / WCAG

Bridge design and engineering

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

Storybook

Zeroheight

Job description

System One is seeking a Platform Design Systems Lead to own the platform design-system roadmap, governance, adoption, and contribution processes across product teams. This long-term contracting role sits between design, front-end engineering, product, accessibility, and leadership, focusing on strategy, guidance, and enablement rather than day-to-day coding.

The ideal candidate has hands-on experience with design-system adoption, strong front-end fluency, accessibility expertise, and the ability