UX/UI Designer, Design Systems Consultant (AI-Fluent)

Rightsideup; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 83,000 - 131,000; Part time

Job summary

Right Side Up is a talent collective focused on growth for ventures, including design systems work. The role involves auditing and strengthening foundational tokens, variables, and architecture, while building AI-enabled documentation and governance for design-system health.

Contract projects range 10–40 hours per week. Independent engagement with cross-functional design and engineering stakeholders is expected, with a focus on AI-assisted workflows.

Qualifications

• Deep experience with design systems foundations (tokens, variables, architecture).
• Hands-on fluency with AI-assisted design or coding tools and integration setup.

Responsibilities

• Audit design systems for gaps in tokens, variables, docs.
• Improve governance, workflows, and metrics for healthy design systems.
• Document components, patterns, and usage for humans and AI.

Skills

Design systems

AI tooling

Documentation

Tools

Figma

zeroheight

Backlight

Frontify

Job description

Please note, this posting is to highlight joining Right Side Up's talent collective specifically and is not representing an internal full-time role, or a current opportunity with a client.

Right Side Up is a collective of premium marketing talent, with all of the marketing chops, and none of the agency fluff. We're trusted by the most respected early-stage ventures, the fastest-growing tech companies, and well-established Fortune 500 teams to do one thing better: growth. We have over 1,400+ clients including Stitch Fix, Sephora, Yelp, Sun Basket, Crunchbase, DoorDash, Calm, and more.

Key responsibilities

• Audit existing design systems for structural gaps: tokens versus variables, component architecture, and missing or outdated documentation.
• Resolve foundational issues (naming, token structure, variable setup) so a design system translates cleanly into documentation and code, without introducing breaking changes for engineering.
• Build and maintain design system documentation, covering components, patterns, usage guidelines, and variant rules, in a structured format built for AI-fluent workflows and legible to both humans and AI tools.
• Configure and maintain AI-tooling connections between design platforms (Figma, documentation platforms) and AI coding or design assistants (Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Figma Make, GitHub Copilot, and similar), often via MCP-style integrations.
• Extract undocumented institutional knowledge from designers and engineers and turn it into clear, actionable documentation.
• Establish or refine governance models, contribution workflows, and success metrics so a design system stays healthy after the engagement ends.
• Collaborate closely with design and engineering stakeholders, translating between the two without needing to write production code.
• Stay current on evolving AI-assisted design and design-to-code workflows as the tooling landscape shifts.

Requirements and qualifications

• Strong experience in design systems, UX/UI design, or design engineering, with real depth at the foundational level (tokens, variables, component architecture), not just visual component work.
• Genuine, hands‑on fluency with AI‑assisted design or coding tools, and enough technical comfort to configure AI‑tooling connections rather than just use them.
• Strong written communication skills. A lot of this work is turning tribal knowledge into documentation other people (and AI tools) can actually rely on.
• Comfortable working independently on defined, timeboxed engagements with light day‑to‑day oversight.
• Adaptable to different company environments, including regulated or compliance‑sensitive ones where design‑to‑production handoffs stay manual by design.

Tools and platforms

• Figma, including Dev Mode, variables, and component architecture.
• Design system documentation platforms: zeroheight preferred, with Supernova, Backlight, Frontify, or similar also valued.
• AI‑assisted design and coding tools: Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Figma Make, GitHub Copilot, and other MCP‑compatible platforms.
• Familiarity with how design tokens map into code (CSS variables, JSON tokens, Style Dictionary‑style pipelines) is a plus.

Contract details

Contract projects typically range from ten to forty hours per week, depending on client needs and project scope, and often run as focused, timeboxed engagements rather than open-ended retainers.