Staff Visual Designer - Design Systems

Mercury; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 228,700 - 285,900; Full time

Job summary

Mercury is seeking a Staff Visual Designer to raise the ceiling of craft across its design system and product experience. This senior individual contributor will shape the full UI system and guide its evolution at scale.

Design Foundations is a brand-new team responsible for design systems, brand-in-product, and AI tools, offering real autonomy to define the vision and collaborate with a hungry, growth-focused team.

Qualifications

• :10+ years of experience in visual design, with deep expertise in typography, color systems, and iconography at a product or brand scale.
• :A portfolio showing range across foundational systems and high-craft expressive design.
• :Conviction and language to articulate what makes design successful.
• :Experience coaching/mentoring designers with a clear craft point of view.
• :Systems thinking to balance expressive design with scalable design systems for data-rich products.
• :Strong stakeholder management and ability to win buy-in from executives on high-visibility work.
• :Excellent communication and presence to set direction and defend design decisions.
• :Proficiency in design tools and front-end prototyping with React; motion design is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Redefine and ship large, foundational improvements to Mercury’s design language that scale across product surfaces.
• Partner with Brand and craft leaders to bring expressive moments into the product and align visual language.
• Set the craft bar: define excellence, and build systems, guidelines, and references for repeatable success.
• Coach product designers with direct feedback to raise quality across work and design system.
• Collaborate with design systems designers and engineers to translate visuals into scalable components.
• Represent design systems in conversations with Brand, Engineering, and design leadership.

Skills

Visual design

Typography

Color systems

Iconography

Design systems

Coaching designers

Brand experience

Stakeholder management

Communication

React prototyping

Tools

React

Job description

In 1954, architect Eero Saarinen designed a radically modern bank branch for Irwin Union in Columbus, Indiana. With glass walls, no private offices, and a floor plan that invited openness, it embodied a new kind of transparency in finance. The building was surrounded by trees, furnished by Herman Miller, and featured rustic brick flooring. Today, that space is a conference center, and that spirit of design-forward thinking in banking feels all but extinct.

Mercury believes that level of care and craft in design has been lost in modern finance and we’re building a brand that brings it back. We're a financial technology company building products that feel extraordinary to use. We help people and businesses accomplish more with their money by turning banking from a frustration into a catalyst for their ambitions.

Our Design Systems team sets the visual foundation that every product designer, every UI surface, and every expressive product moment builds on, from the foundations like type and color, to highly expressive brand-in-product moments that make Mercury feel considered.

We’re looking for a Staff Visual Designer to raise the ceiling on craft across Mercury’s design system and product experience. This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who can see the whole UI system and knows how to evolve it at scale.

Design Foundations is a brand-new team at Mercury, responsible for design systems, brand in product, and AI tools to help anyone build. This means this role has real agency to define it: supporting a highly collaborative team that’s hungry to grow its craft, and a clean slate for setting the vision forward.

In this role, you’ll:

• Redefine and ship large, foundational improvements to Mercury’s design language (things like type, color, and iconography) that scale beautifully across every product surface.
• Partner with Brand and other craft leaders to bring expressive moments into the product and set direction for how brand and product visual language work together.
• Set the craft bar for the design org: define what excellent looks like, and build the systems, guidelines, and references that make it repeatable.
• Actively coach product designers on their craft, giving direct feedback that raises the quality bar across both individual work and the design system itself.
• Partner with design systems designers and engineers to make sure visual decisions translate cleanly into scalable, maintainable components.
• Represent design systems and visual craft in conversations with Brand, Engineering, and design leadership.

What you’ll bring:

• 10+ years of experience in visual design, with deep expertise in typography, color systems, and iconography at a product or brand scale.
• A portfolio that shows range: foundational systems work as well as high-craft, expressive visual design.
• Not just taste, but conviction and language to articulate what makes something successful.
• A track record of coaching or mentoring other designers, with a clear point of view on what strong craft looks like and how to teach it.
• Systems thinking, you’re comfortable balancing expressive visual design with the pragmatic needs of a scalable design system for a data rich product.
• Strong stakeholder management, comfortable winning buy-in from executives and cross-functional leaders on high-visibility work, backed by conviction.
• Strong communication and presence: able to set direction, build alignment, and defend opinionated design decisions with both designers and engineers.
• Proficient in design tools and front-end prototyping with React; comfortable working closely with engineers on how visual systems get built and maintained in code. Affinity for AI-assisted prototyping. Motion design skills are a plus.

The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options/RSUs), and benefits. Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers.

Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following:

• US employees (any location): $228,700 - $285,900 USD
• Canadian employees (any location): $216,200 - $270,200 CAD

Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Mercury values diversity & belonging and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All individuals seeking employment at Mercury are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for applicants with disabilities or special needs. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.