Design System Lead

Overview

We are seeking an experienced Platform Design Systems Lead to guide the development, governance, adoption, and continuous improvement of design-system practices within an assigned digital product platform. This role ensures platform-specific components, design tokens, patterns, documentation, and implementation guidance align with established enterprise design-system standards while supporting scalable, consistent, accessible, and high-quality digital experiences.

The Platform Design Systems Lead will collaborate with design, engineering, product, accessibility, and enterprise design-system teams to translate organizational standards into practical platform solutions. This position focuses on platform-level strategy, governance, documentation, adoption, technical enablement, and design-to-development workflows rather than ownership of the enterprise-wide design system.

The ideal candidate combines strong design-system expertise with front-end technical knowledge, an understanding of CI/CD and release processes, and the ability to influence cross-functional teams. While hands-on development experience is valuable, the primary focus is on improving design-system adoption, implementation consistency, accessibility, and operational efficiency.

Hybrid in either Vienna VA, Winchester VA or Pensacola FL 3 days per week onsite.

Benefits:• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance• Employer-Paid Life Insurance• Employer-Paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability Insurance• 401(k) • Paid Time Off (PTO) that includes Vacation Leave, Sick Leave, and 11 Paid Holidays• Educational Assistance

Salary: $90-124K

**An In Person interview will be required for this role**

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Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the platform design-system roadmap in alignment with product objectives, platform priorities, accessibility requirements, and enterprise design-system standards.

• Promote adoption of approved design patterns, components, design tokens, documentation, and contribution practices across the assigned platform.

• Represent platform requirements, constraints, and feedback in enterprise design-system discussions to support practical implementation.

• Provide recommendations to leadership regarding design-system priorities, technical gaps, adoption challenges, risks, and opportunities for improvement.

• Collaborate with design, engineering, product, accessibility, and enterprise design-system teams to ensure platform solutions meet business, user, technical, and accessibility requirements.

• Establish and maintain platform-level governance processes, contribution workflows, intake procedures, decision criteria, and implementation standards.

• Facilitate collaboration between designers, developers, and stakeholders to improve design-to-development handoffs, clarify ownership, and align expectations.

• Coordinate with enterprise design-system partners on cross-platform requirements, standards, and decisions.

• Evaluate front-end implementation feasibility and provide technical guidance regarding design-system components, patterns, and design tokens.

• Partner with front-end engineers to ensure components and patterns are accessible, performant, reusable, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise standards.

• Support improvements to CI/CD and release processes for design-system assets, including build, testing, documentation, versioning, dependency management, and deployment workflows.

• Identify technical gaps in component libraries, design token pipelines, documentation, and implementation processes and recommend improvements.

• Develop platform implementation guidance, technical examples, and lightweight prototypes as needed.

• Create and maintain design-system documentation using tools such as Storybook, Zeroheight, and other documentation platforms.

• Develop and deliver training materials, workshops, office hours, and onboarding resources to promote consistent design-system adoption.

• Document component usage guidelines, design token applications, accessibility expectations, contribution processes, and engineering handoff standards.

• Provide guidance to platform teams regarding the appropriate use of enterprise standards and platform-specific implementation practices.

• Conduct platform audits to evaluate design consistency, code alignment, accessibility compliance, documentation quality, and design-system adoption.

• Analyze audit results, adoption metrics, and stakeholder feedback to identify opportunities for improvement.

• Monitor emerging design-system technologies, accessibility practices, documentation tools, and front-end development trends.

• Recommend improvements that reduce rework, strengthen implementation consistency, and improve design-system maturity.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in design systems, product design, design operations, front-end engineering, or a related digital product discipline.

• Demonstrated experience leading, governing, or significantly contributing to design-system adoption within a product area, platform, or large-scale digital environment.

• Working knowledge of front-end technologies, including HTML, CSS/SCSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

• Familiarity with modern component frameworks and libraries such as React, Vue, or comparable technologies.

• Ability to collaborate effectively with engineering teams and evaluate technical implementation feasibility.

• Experience with design token management, theming systems, component-library architecture, and cross-platform implementation considerations.

• Understanding of CI/CD concepts and workflows, including build, testing, release management, versioning, documentation, dependency management, and quality assurance.

• Experience identifying technical and process gaps and translating findings into actionable recommendations.

• Strong understanding of design principles, UI/UX best practices, accessibility standards, and inclusive digital experience practices.

• Knowledge of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

• Experience using design tools such as Figma.

• Experience with design-system documentation platforms such as Storybook, Zeroheight, or comparable tools.

• Strong understanding of design-system governance, contribution models, component documentation, and adoption practices.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, facilitation, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across design, engineering, product, accessibility, and leadership teams.

• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and change-management skills.

• Experience partnering with front-end engineering teams on component libraries, design token pipelines, CI/CD processes, release governance, or documentation automation preferred.

• Hands-on experience developing front-end prototypes, implementation examples, or component documentation using HTML, CSS/SCSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Vue, or similar technologies preferred.

• Experience supporting a hybrid design-system model that incorporates enterprise standards and platform-specific implementation practices preferred.

• Experience with mobile or cross-platform design systems, including React Native, SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, or similar frameworks preferred.

• Background in design operations, design tooling, documentation strategy, or platform-level design-system governance preferred.

• Experience supporting accessibility audits, design-system quality reviews, adoption measurement, or contribution-model improvements preferred.

• Experience contributing to open-source design systems, UI libraries, or reusable internal component libraries preferred.

** BRMi will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.**

**This is a W2 opportunity only**

EOE/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled 

We are an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and commitment at all levels. All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply. Employment policies and decisions on employment and promotion are based on merit, qualifications, performance, and business needs. The decisions and criteria governing the employment relationship with all employees are made in a nondiscriminatory manner, without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, or any other factor determined to be unlawful by federal, state, or local statutes.