Design Systems Designer (Contract)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Design Systems Designer (Contract)

Company: Healf

Location: Remote

Job Type: Full-Time Contract

Category: Product Design / Design Operations

Date Posted: 2026-07-30

Experience Level: Mid-Level (2-5 years)

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end creation and implementation of a robust design system for Healf's native app, codenamed Wellbeing Intelligence.

• Extract and componentize existing UI patterns from the current application to establish a standardized, scalable design language.

• Develop comprehensive documentation for design tokens, components, and usage guidelines to ensure consistency and maintainability.

• Collaborate closely with product designers and engineers to align the design system with production realities and future development needs.

• Drive efficiency and quality in the design and development process through a well-defined and documented design system.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Design Systems Designer," the core responsibilities and required skills clearly position this role within Design Operations and Product Design, focusing on the strategic and technical aspects of building a scalable design system rather than purely UI design tasks. The emphasis on documentation, collaboration with engineers, and handing over a maintainable system points towards a strategic operations function within the design team.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Systematically review existing application screens to identify, define, and extract reusable UI patterns and components.

• Architect and build a comprehensive design system in Figma, encompassing design tokens (variables), components with variants, and auto-layout.

• Define and implement a full spectrum of component states, including default, hover, focus, active, disabled, error, empty, and loading states.

• Collaborate with the existing design team to ensure naming conventions, structure, and token definitions are consistent with current practices and future scalability.

• Partner with engineering teams to align the design system with production code, ensuring feasibility and smooth integration.

• Develop detailed documentation for each component, including usage guidelines, do's and don'ts, accessibility considerations (contrast, focus states, scaling), and specifications.

• Create a maintenance and contribution guide for the design system to facilitate ongoing updates and team adoption post-engagement.

• Onboard the current design team to the new design system, ensuring understanding and proper utilization.

• Work effectively within an AI-assisted design environment, leveraging tools to automate repetitive tasks and focus on strategic decision-making.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities heavily emphasize the creation and documentation of a design system from scratch, implying a need for strong strategic thinking and process definition. The explicit mention of "leaving behind a maintenance and contribution guide" and "onboarding the current design team" highlights the project management and knowledge transfer aspects critical for such a role.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong understanding of design principles, human-computer interaction, and software development lifecycles is expected, often gained through formal education or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: 2-5 years of experience in product design or a dedicated design operations role, with a significant focus on building and maintaining design systems.

Required Skills:

• Proven experience in building and shipping a design system within a collaborative team environment, with tangible examples in a portfolio.

• Advanced proficiency in Figma, including mastery of:

  • Variables and Design Tokens
  • Component Variants and Properties
  • Auto Layout
  • Published Libraries
  • Dev Mode for collaboration with developers

• Strong visual design sensibilities coupled with robust systems thinking capabilities, specifically for a premium consumer health product.

• Excellent documentation habits, capable of producing clear, concise, and actionable guidelines.

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in an AI-assisted design workflow.

• Strong understanding of accessibility principles (WCAG) and their application in component design. Preferred Skills:

• Prior experience building a design system specifically for a mobile application.

• Familiarity with exporting design tokens to code formats like Style Dictionary, Tailwind CSS, or using Token Studio.

• Basic awareness of Code Connect for Figma-to-code integration.

• Exposure to Storybook for component development documentation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Must-haves" section strongly indicates that candidates must have practical, hands-on experience in building a design system, not just using one. The emphasis on "shipped system" and "portfolio" suggests a need for concrete proof of work and impact. The "premium consumer health product" context implies a need for a refined aesthetic and user-centric approach beyond typical internal tools.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A dedicated section showcasing at least one comprehensive design system project. This should not just be a collection of screens, but a deep dive into the system's architecture.

• Detailed case studies demonstrating the process of identifying patterns, defining tokens, building components, and documenting usage.

• Examples of Figma libraries, including well-structured components with variants, auto-layout configurations, and effective use of variables/tokens.

• Clear articulation of how the design system addressed specific product challenges or improved design/development efficiency.

• Evidence of documentation, such as style guides, component documentation, and contribution guidelines. Process Documentation:

• Demonstrate a clear process for pattern extraction and component definition from existing products.

• Showcase how you approach defining and managing design tokens (color, typography, spacing, etc.) and their application across components.

• Provide examples of how you document component states, accessibility considerations, and usage guidelines.

• Detail your process for collaborating