Head of Design Systems

We’re hiring a Head of Design Systems to lead the strategy, technology, and creative direction of our enterprise-wide design system that powers digital experiences across businesses and functions. This leader will be both a seasoned design craft practitioner and a strong engineering-minded platform owner—accountable for the visual digital brand, the system’s component library and code, governance, documentation, and adoption. You’ll manage a global, multi-disciplinary team of designers, design technologists/developers, strategists, writers, and producers, and you’ll own our design and research tool portfolio (e.g., Figma Enterprise, research/analytics platforms). A deep understanding of AI (generative AI and agentic AI) and digital accessibility is essential to transform our platform into an AI-powered, scalable foundation that accelerates innovative, creative, compliant delivery in a regulated environment.

What You’ll Do

• Vision, strategy, and governance : Set the multi-year vision and roadmap for the enterprise design system—covering design tokens, components, patterns, documentation, and platform services—aligned to business priorities, risk, digital accessibility, and engineering strategy.
• Establish and chair cross-functional governance (Design, Product, Engineering, Brand, Accessibility, Compliance, Security, and Architecture) with clear contribution and change-management models.
• Define adoption strategy, KPIs/OKRs, and incentives to drive measurable outcomes across lines of business and functions.

• Platform consolidation & migration (multi-system → unified platform) : Inventory and assess existing/legacy design systems across businesses/functions (tokens, components, code stacks, documentation quality, accessibility posture, and adoption).
• Define a convergence strategy: token mapping & theming, component equivalence matrix, de-duplication rules, and brand harmonization guidelines.
• Create a phased migration plan with success criteria, deprecation timelines, risk controls, and a documented rollback path.
• Provide tooling and automation (e.g., codemods, lint rules, UI audits, visual-regression baselines) to accelerate safe migration.
• Stand up a contribution/exception process and a comms plan, with dashboards to track migration progress and impact.

• System architecture & engineering excellence : Lead engineering for the system’s codebase (Web Components/React/Angular, TypeScript, Storybook, CI/CD, package distribution/registries) and partner with Architecture on standards: design tokens, theming, motion, internationalization (i18n) and right-to-left (RTL) support.
• Ensure quality through automated testing (unit/visual regression), performance budgets, security scans, and a versioning/release strategy (safe migrations, deprecation policies).
• Integrate the system into product pipelines (GitHub/GitLab and internal developer portals) to reduce design-to-engineering friction and improve time-to-market, with opinionated pull/merge templates, required reviewers, and branch protections.

• Art direction & brand stewardship : Serve as the art director and custodian of our digital visual brand—color, typography, iconography, motion, and imagery—ensuring brand consistency and accessibility across channels.
• Guide creative expression across retail, commercial, institutional, and employee experiences, balancing brand distinctiveness with regulatory and accessibility requirements.

• AI-powered platform & automation : Agentic workflows for design-to-code, pattern suggestions, component development and migration, unit testing, and knowledge & documentation playbooks.
• Automated accessibility controls (e.g., token-level contrast rules, Axe/Lighthouse CI, alt-text and content checks) embedded in design and build pipelines.
• Knowledge & retrieval over documentation and usage guidelines (RAG), plus evaluation frameworks, guardrails, and auditability to meet model-governance expectations.

• Design operations, tooling, and research : Own the portfolio of design and research tools (e.g., Figma Enterprise libraries /branching /tokens plugins; platforms like Matomo / UserTesting / Qualtrics) including licensing, supplier management, financials, and workflow standards.
• Define contribution workflows, templates, and content standards for documentation sites; ensure discoverability and self-service onboarding.

• Accessibility, compliance, and risk : Embed WCAG (latest versions) and regional requirements into tokens, components, patterns, and governance—treating accessibility as a default.
• Partner with Legal/Compliance, InfoSec, Model Risk, and In-Business Risk & Controls on standards, audits, and evidence to support internal controls, SOX/PCI/data-privacy, and AI model governance.
• Establish telemetry and reporting that links design-system adoption to risk reduction and customer outcomes.

• Content systems & CMS integration : Partner with Content Design and Engineering on CMS strategy (e.g., headless CMS such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)), ensuring components, patterns, and editorial workflows are integrated, versioned, and accessible.
• Define guidance for localization (L10n)—the translation and regional adaptation of content—alongside i18n foundations, including pluralization rules, date/number/currency formats, time zones, and RTL layout mirroring (using CSS logical properties).
• Provide standards for personalization, disclosure content, and omnichannel publishing to maintain brand and compliance at scale.

• People leadership and culture : Lead, grow, and mentor a global team of designers, developers, strategists, writers, and producers; build clear career ladders and communities of practice.
• Foster an inclusive, accountable, and outcomes-oriented culture grounded in craft excellence, technical rigor, and measurable impact.

Must-have

• 10–15+ years in digital product design and systems; 5+ years leading enterprise design systems at scale, ideally in regulated industries (banking/fintech/insurance).
• Portfolio that demonstrates design craft (UI/visual/interaction) and system leadership (tokens/components/patterns, brand evolution, before/after impact).
• Hands-on fluency with modern front-end stacks (TypeScript, React/Angular or Web Components, Storybook, design tokens, theming) and CI/CD practices; ability to set PR standards and release/versioning policies.
• Proven art direction experience with a strong visual sensibility and motion principles applied to systemized UI.
• Practical experience applying generative/agentic AI to design and engineering workflows (code generation/review, unit testing, documentation playbooks, migration support, RAG) with guardrails, evaluations, and governance.
• Deep knowledge of digital accessibility and WCAG, assistive tech, and how to embed accessibility into tokens/components and SDLC gates.
• Tooling leadership: Figma Enterprise (libraries, tokens, branching, audit), research/analytics platforms (e.g., Matomo, UserTesting, Qualtrics), documentation sites, analytics/telemetry.
• Experience shipping products across multiple businesses and functions with i18n, L10n, and RTL considerations and regulatory/locale constraints.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication; ability to partner with CIO/CTO, Design Leadership, CMO, Enterprise Architecture, Risk/Compliance, and Product leadership.

Nice-to-have

• Experience with headless CMS (AEM), structured content modeling, and editorial workflows.
• Familiarity with developer portals, npm/private registries, monorepos, and visual regression testing.
• Understanding of data lineage/quality as it impacts design integrity and personalization at scale.
• Exposure to design analytics, A/B testing, and tying system adoption to business KPIs.

Success measures (first 12–18 months)

• Adoption & coverage: % of journeys using system components; component/pattern coverage vs. top use cases; reduction in bespoke UI.
• Efficiency: design-to-engineering handoff time; reuse PRs; front-end defects and rework reduction.
• Accessibility & risk: Automated checks at token/component/CI layers; measurable drop in accessibility defects; audit artifacts produced.
• AI impact: Agentic workflows in production (component development/migration tools, unit-test generation, knowledge/playbook automation); measurable cycle-time and quality improvements.
• Brand consistency: Measurable increase in consistency across businesses/functions; successful rollout of updated brand tokens and motion.
• Satisfaction: Improved designer/developer NPS/CSAT; decreased support MTTR; strong contributor pipeline.

Key partners

• Brand/Marketing
• Enterprise Architecture
• Platform Engineering
• InfoSec/Privacy
• Legal/Compliance
• Risk & Control
• Data/ML

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Job Family Group: Technology

Job Family: Digital Design Engineering

Time Type: Full time

Most Relevant Skills: Please see the requirements listed above.

Other Relevant Skills: For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

Accessibility at Citi. Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.

View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.

• Not Applicable

• Full-time

• Design, Art/Creative, and Information Technology
• Industries: Banking, Financial Services, and Investment Banking

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