UI Design System Lead, DTC 

Leeds or London (3 days/week in office) 

About the role 

SharkNinja is a seeking a highly skilled UX Design System Lead that will be responsible for building, maintaining and evolving SharkNinja's design system across the DTC and ecommerce digital estate. This role sits at the intersection of design, technology and product, ensuring a consistent, scalable and high-quality user interface across all digital touchpoints. The ideal candidate is a hands-on design leader who combines deep UI craft with a systems thinking mindset and the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering, product and marketing teams. 

This is an opportunity to help set the UX standard for a growing global ecommerce business while remaining close to the craft and measurable customer experience. 

Ultimately, you will empower our designers and engineers with a high-leverage single source of truth that multiplies output and streamlines the entire development lifecycle. You are the keeper of shared standards, the person who makes it easier for every designer and engineer to ship better work. 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Design System Ownership 

• Own and evolve SharkNinja's UI design system, ensuring it is scalable, well-documented and adopted consistently across DTC digital properties. 
• Define and maintain design tokens, component libraries, patterns and guidelines that enable teams to build with speed and consistency. 
• Continuously audit and improve the design system based on product needs, accessibility standards and emerging best practices. 
• Balance consistency with flexibility, establishing clear standards while leaving appropriate room for product and market judgment. 

Component & Pattern Development 

• Design, build and maintain a comprehensive library of reusable UI components that can be deployed across web and digital touchpoints. 
• Use Figma variables, component architecture and token structures to create scalable, reusable design foundations that map effectively to coded components. 
• Collaborate closely with front-end engineering teams to ensure design system components are accurately implemented in code and practical tomaintain.
• Establish clear versioning, contribution and governance processes to manage the design system at scale. 

Cross-Functional Enablement 

• Act as the primary point of contact and subject matter expert for the design system across design, engineering and product teams. 
• Develop documentation, guidelines and training resources that enable teams to adopt and contribute to the system effectively.
• Champion design system usage and consistency across all DTC digital projects and workstreams.
• Build alignment across designers, engineers and product managers through clear communication and influence without relying on formal authority.

Quality & Accessibility 

• Ensure all UI components and patterns meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards and deliver an inclusive digital experience.
• Apply accessibility requirements to component behavior, interaction patterns, visual design and documentation. 
• Define and uphold UI quality standards across the DTC digital estate, working with teams to identify and resolve inconsistencies. 
•  Stay ahead of UI trends, tooling and accessibility requirements to keep the design system current and effective. 

Collaboration & Influence 

• Work closely with UX, Product, Engineering and Marketing teams to ensure the design system supports the needs of the broader digital organisation.
• Partner with Engineering on design tokens, component libraries, design-to-code handoff and development workflows. 
• Influence design and engineering decisions to drive consistency, efficiency and quality across digital delivery. 
• Present design system updates, roadmap and impact to senior stakeholders. 

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE 

• A mature, well-adopted design system that enables teams to build consistently and efficiently across SharkNinja's DTC digital estate. 
• Measurable improvements in design and development speed through reusable components, clear guidelines and efficient workflows. 
• High levels of accessibility compliance and UI consistency across all digital touchpoints. 
• A design system recognised internally as a strategic enabler of digital delivery and a trusted single source of truth. 

ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS 

• 5+ years of experience in UX or Product Design, with at least 3 years focused on building, maintaining or scaling design systems. 
• Demonstrated experience building and scaling a design system, ideally within a product-led organisation supporting multiple products, teams or markets. 
• Expert proficiency in Figma, with deep knowledge of variables, component architecture, auto layout and scalable library structures. 
• Proven expertise in how Figma variables and design tokens map to coded token structures and production component libraries. 
• Strong systems thinking, with the ability to identify patterns, spot inconsistencies and design solutions for scale, consistency and reuse. 
• Experience defining and maintaining design tokens, reusable components, patterns, documentation and contribution models. 
• Working knowledge of front-end fundamentals, including HTML and CSS, and an understanding of how UI components are implemented in code.
• Strong understanding of WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards and how accessibility requirements inform component design, interaction patterns and documentation. 
• Ability to balance consistency with flexibility, knowing when the system should establish a standard and when product teams need room for judgment. 
• Comfortable partnering closely with Engineering, with practical understanding of design tokens, coded component libraries and design-to-development handoff workflows. 
• A clear communicator and strong cross-functional influencer, able to build alignment across Design, Engineering and Product without relying on formal authority.
• Comfortable operating in a governance role, setting standards, running reviews, managing contributions and making decisions that protect the integrity and scalability of the system. 
• Detail-oriented and reliable, recognising that designers and engineers depend on the system being accurate, current and well-documented. 
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to advocate for design-system quality and communicate its value to senior stakeholders.
• Experience within ecommerce, DTC or another complex digital product environment is strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Design, Interaction Design or equivalent experience.

Additional nice to have: 

• Hands-on experience with design-token pipelines and associated tooling.
• IAAP/WAS accessibility certification or equivalent accessibility credentials would be a distinct advantage.
• Experience with component-library tooling, including writing or reviewing component documentation at the code layer. 
• Familiarity with Git and how design-system changes move through development, review,releaseand versioning workflows. 
• Experience working with Engineering to establish or evolve design-to-code workflows and shared component governance. 

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