Principal UX Designer, Design Systems

Vanguard; Malvern (Chester County); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard seeks a Principal UX Designer to lead the Advisor Experience System (AXS) architecture and craft, shaping reusable components, tokens, and guidance across products.

You will collaborate closely with front‑end engineers, ensure accessibility, and elevate design quality while aligning with engineering constraints and product needs.

Qualifications

• Deep experience building or evolving design systems and component libraries.
• Strong visual and interaction design craft with attention to typography, layout, hierarchy, and responsive patterns.
• Expertise in reusable system design including components, variants, tokens, patterns, templates, and docs.
• Ability to translate complex product needs into scalable, accessible design solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical design and evolution of AXS components, patterns, tokens, templates, and foundations.
• Translate complex needs into reusable, accessible, scalable solutions across products.
• Own complex component and pattern architecture including states, variants, and responsive behavior.
• Set high quality standards for interaction, visual, and systems design across the library.

Skills

Design system leadership

UX design craft

Figma proficiency

Component architecture

Accessibility

Collaboration with engineers

Token-based design systems

Documentation and guidance

Job description

Who We Are.

The Design Systems and Practices Team (DS+P) brings together systems design, visual strategy, and design practice. DS+P creates the shared foundations, tools, and ways of working that enable teams to build consistent, scalable, and high-quality experiences.

We’re looking for a Principal UX Designer who brings deep technical design-system expertise and exceptional design craft. This person knows how to turn complex experience needs into reusable components, patterns, tokens, templates, and guidance that work across products and platforms.

This is a hands‑on design leadership role. You’ll help set the technical and craft direction of the Advisor Experience System (AXS), FAS's shared design system, solve its most complex design problems, and raise the quality of the system through the work itself. You won’t own the overall product vision or roadmap alone, but you will be a critical voice in shaping what the system can support and how it should be built.

What You Will Do.

• Lead the technical design and continued evolution of AXS components, patterns, tokens, templates, and system foundations.
• Translate complex product and experience needs into solutions that are reusable, accessible, scalable, and practical to implement.
• Own complex component and pattern architecture, including variants, states, behaviors, responsive considerations, and composition.
• Establish a high bar for interaction, visual, and systems design quality across the library.
• Lead design reviews and help the team make sound decisions when requirements, use cases, or technical constraints compete.
• Partner closely with front‑end engineers to keep design and code aligned, resolve implementation questions, and ensure the system works as intended.
• Create and maintain clear documentation, usage guidance, specifications, and examples that help designers and developers use the system correctly.
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities to simplify the system before they become larger problems.
• Design foundations that support modern workflows, including semantic tokens, system‑accurate prototyping, automated documentation, and AI‑assisted design and development.
• Help teams apply the system to real product and marketing experiences without creating one‑off solutions that weaken it over time.
• Coach designers in component thinking, pattern design, accessibility, and the practical application of design‑system standards.
• Explore tools and workflows that improve the team’s efficiency while protecting quality, accessibility, and brand integrity.
• Remain close to the work, stepping into the most difficult design problems and helping bring them through delivery.

What We’d Like To See.

• Significant UX and product design experience, including deep experience building or evolving enterprise design systems, component libraries, or scaled pattern ecosystems.
• Expert knowledge of reusable system design, including components, variants, properties, tokens, patterns, templates, and documentation.
• Strong visual and interaction design craft, with excellent judgment across typography, layout, hierarchy, behavior, responsiveness, and content patterns.
• Experience designing complex components and accounting for states, edge cases, accessibility requirements, and implementation constraints.
• Strong command of Figma, including variables, modes, component architecture, library management, prototyping, and modern design‑system workflows.
• Experience working closely with engineers to evaluate feasibility, clarify intended behavior, and maintain alignment between design and code.
• A practical understanding of front‑end concepts and how design decisions translate into production experiences. This does not need to be a developer role, but technical fluency is important.
• Deep knowledge of accessibility and an ability to incorporate it into system architecture rather than treating it as a final review step.
• Experience producing documentation and usage guidance that is clear, current, and genuinely useful.
• The confidence to make a recommendation, explain the reasoning behind it, and adjust when stronger evidence or constraints emerge.
• The ability to bring structure to ambiguous problems without overcomplicating the solution.
• A collaborative, low‑ego approach to design leadership. This role needs someone who can raise the bar while bringing others along.
• A portfolio demonstrating relevant design‑system work, complex component thinking, and the ability to move from detailed design decisions to scalable solutions.

A bonus if you have.

• Experience with semantic token architecture, theming, or systems supporting multiple brands, products, or templates.
• Experience connecting Figma libraries to engineering environments such as Storybook.
• Experience with design‑system documentation platforms, automated documentation, or workflows that help design and code stay synchronized.
• Working knowledge of AI‑assisted design and development workflows, including where they accelerate work and where human judgment remains essential.
• Experience supporting both product applications and marketing or content‑heavy web experiences.
• Experience building systems within a highly regulated environment where accessibility, compliance, consistency, and risk management matter.
• Experience teaching system concepts or coaching designers and developers in how to use a design system effectively.
• Academic, professional, or life experience outside traditional UX that adds something distinctive to how you solve problems.

Organization.

• DS+P sits within the larger user experience organization in Financial Advisor Services Digital & Analytics.
• You’ll collaborate with UX designers, product teams, engineers, content specialists, marketers, and other partners across Vanguard.

Location.

• Hybrid work based in Malvern, PA or Charlotte, NC
• On‑campus expectations align to team norms and enterprise guidance.
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays on campus.
• Mondays and Fridays remote.

Why Vanguard?

For us, investing doesn’t just end in value. It starts with values. Here, we grow by doing the right thing for the people we serve. And so can you. We want to make success accessible to everyone. This is our opportunity. Let’s make it count.

Sponsorship

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission—we're on a mission.

To work for the long‑term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in‑person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission‑driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long‑term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.