Senior Product Designer (Design Systems) at Smartrecruiters

We are looking for a Senior Product Designer to join the Design System team. In this role, you will own the design of components, patterns, and templates that scale across a complex product landscape, ensuring they are visually consistent, accessible, and ready for implementation. You will work embedded in a team with a Design Technologist and Engineers across domains such as Design Language, Design System Foundations, Accessibility, AI-powered workflows, and Front-end platform to define, evolve, and maintain the visual and interaction language on which the entire product is built. You will bring strong UI and interaction craft, a genuine care for accessibility, and the systems thinking needed to make decisions that hold up at scale. You are equally comfortable crafting a detailed component spec and collaborating with a developer on what is feasible in production. You will be proactive, thorough, and highly collaborative, working closely with Product Designers and Front-end Engineers in product teams to ensure the system reflects real needs and is adopted with confidence. Always looking for ways to make the system clearer, more consistent, and easier for every team to use. What you will do: • Component, pattern and template design: Own the end-to-end design of system components, patterns, and templates, from concept through specification and handoff. Ensure every piece is visually consistent, interaction-sound, accessible, and implementation-ready • Accessibility leadership: Champion WCAG 2.1/2.2 compliance across the design system. Partner with the Design Technologist to embed accessibility into component specs, documentation, and contribution workflows. Run accessibility reviews and raise the bar for inclusive design across the organization • Design and code alignment: Collaborate closely with the Design Technologist and front-end engineers to ensure design decisions are technically feasible and faithfully implemented. Engage with Storybook, design tokens, and production components to close the loop between design intent and shipped product • AI-powered design workflows: Actively use and contribute to AI-assisted design tools and workflows, from design-to-code handoff automation and token generation to AI-powered prototyping, helping the team work faster without sacrificing quality or consistency • Documentation and governance: Create and maintain clear, thorough component documentation, usage guidelines, and contribution specs. Help product teams understand when and how to use system components and when to propose new ones • Cross-functional collaboration and Design System advocacy: Act as a visible design system advocate across the organization, running presentations, sharing progress, and influencing how product teams adopt and contribute to the system. Collaborate across product design teams to understand emerging component needs and ensure consuming team voices shape system evolution • Mentorship and feedback: Share expertise in design system craft, interaction design, and accessibility with peers. Provide structured, actionable feedback in design critiques and reviews. Contribute to a culture of continuous learning within the teamExamples of deliverables: • End-to-end component, pattern, and template designs with usage guidelines, interaction specs, and handoff documentation • Defined and maintained design process for components, patterns, and templates, covering how they are proposed, designed, reviewed, and kept up to date • Accessibility audits and remediation plans for components and product flows • Design token definitions and theming specs in collaboration with the Design Technologist • Interaction prototypes that validate component behavior and visual enhancements before engineering handoff • Contribution guidelines and component request evaluations for product teams. • Platform-wide design system audits and migration plans to drive full DS coverage across product surfaces • Design critique feedback and structured reviews that elevate the craft of the broader team • Documentation updates and usage guidance that help consuming teams work independently