Staff UX Designer

The Staff UX Designer will lead the strategy and maintenance of the design system while collaborating with cross-functional teams. They will also contribute to improving user experiences and advocate for design within the organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy, planning, and roadmap for the design system in collaboration with cross-functional partners
• Manage the documentation infrastructure and versioning process (e.g., Storybook, changelogs)
• Facilitate governance working groups, contribute to component reviews, and manage contribution workflows
• Develop a long-term maintenance model, including sprint planning, intake, and backlog prioritization
• Partner with design leadership to align the system with organizational goals
• Maintain the design system’s design assets, including Figma libraries, tokens, and core components
• Ensure that all components are accessible (WCAG 2.1 AA) and documented for both designers and developers
• Track usage metrics and identify gaps or pain points in collaboration with product teams
• Stay current with tooling and design system best practices to keep the system modern and maintainable
• Design from zero to one and/or improve the end to end user experience across your assigned portfolio
• Contribute interaction patterns, standards, and style guides to a unified design system across our programs and products
• Partner closely with engineering, product, and program teams to find elegant and practical solutions to design challenges
• Work with researchers to plan and run design research and usability tests to evaluate the user experience needs for your projects
• Successfully handle lead responsibilities within your project teams
• Be able to communicate both the front-end and back-end user experience parameters to your cross-functional partners
• Facilitate workshops and co-design sessions with users and stakeholders
• Advocate for design by sharing work and presenting cross functionally, clearly articulating the rationale behind your design decisions
• Engage with clients, government agencies, and community partners to understand your particular landscape and envision new ways of serving those most in need
• Participate in strategy conversations and use insights to guide team's decision making
• Work with program and policy folks to understand how policies contribute to user touch points or requirements
• Develop relationships with and teach other disciplines about design to foster more effective collaboration
• Understand the policies, infrastructure, technology, and system constraints within any given government service
• Understand how/when to use design to push policy
• Act as mentor to support the development of junior design staff
• Act as design lead when projects have staffed multiple designers
• Support design and research staff in their work by pairing, coaching, and raising the quality bar of all outputs

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in product, interaction, and/or UX Design
• Deep understanding of accessibility principles, semantic HTML, and design-to-code handoff
• A portfolio of relevant design work with strong examples of your work, your design process, and your role
• Comfortable working in agile, iterative software development practices
• Able to manage multiple high-priority initiatives, including early-stage product strategy as well as delivery of tactical and incremental design improvements
• Ability to collaborate and facilitate design discussion and workshops in a remote working environment
• Experience mentoring designers and communicating the value of design to stakeholders and cross-functional partners
• High level of professionalism when communicating with clients, partners, and users
• 3+ years managing or contributing to a design system at scale in a cross-functional setting
• Experience owning a system roadmap and leading multi-disciplinary teams through discovery, build, and rollout phases
• Understanding of multi-brand design system documentation needs
• Familiarity with localization, UX writing, or structured content systems
• Cross-functional familiarity with component libraries (React preferred), design token tools (e.g. Style Dictionary), and documentation platforms
• Proficient creating and maintaining component libraries in Figma as well as proficiency with industry tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, Trello, Github, etc.
• Comfortable working in agile design/development methodologies

Key Skills

• Product, interaction, and/or UX Design
• Accessibility principles
• Semantic HTML
• Design-to-code handoff
• Agile, iterative software development practices
• Managing multiple high-priority initiatives
• Collaborating and facilitating design discussion and workshops in a remote working environment
• Mentoring designers
• Communicating the value of design to stakeholders and cross-functional partners
• High level of professionalism when communicating with clients, partners, and users
• Managing or contributing to a design system at scale in a cross-functional setting
• Owning a system roadmap
• Leading multi-disciplinary teams through discovery, build, and rollout phases
• Understanding of multi-brand design system documentation needs
• Familiarity with localization, UX writing, or structured content systems
• Cross-functional familiarity with component libraries (React preferred)
• Design token tools (e.g. Style Dictionary)
• Documentation platforms
• Creating and maintaining component libraries in Figma
• Industry tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, Trello, Github, etc.
• Comfortable working in agile design/development methodologies

Benefits

• Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another
• A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment
• Employee Enablement Support: Laptop provided
• $700 remote environment setup; $200 stipend and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy
• Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month
• $1000 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire
• Up to $1000 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $2000
• Retirement & 401k Plans: Employees under 3 years are eligible for a 100% employer match of up to 3% of employee contribution
• Employees with 3+ years are eligible for an additional 50% employer contribution over 3%, to a maximum of 5%
• Medical: Full benefits package with options up to 100% coverage toward select medical, dental, and vision plans
• Employer contributes up to 80% of the cost towards dependent and family coverage
• Remote Work: Code for America employees may work remotely across the US
• Code for America employees main residence must be within the US
• Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday
• Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours
• Time Off: Open personal time off, a minimum of 16 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day
• Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually
• Competitive paid parental and family leave
• 4 weeks of paid sabbatical after 4 years of service, with an option of up to 4 additional weeks of unpaid time away