Senior Product Designer, UI Design & Design Systems, CoStar Product at CoStar

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer, UI Design & Design Systems, CoStar Product

Company: CoStar

Location: Richmond, Virginia, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: UI/UX Design, Design Systems

Date Posted: June 10, 2025

Experience Level: Senior (6+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🎨 Role Summary

Lead the creation and evolution of a comprehensive design system, establishing component libraries, visual style guides, and documentation standards.
Define and maintain high standards for UI quality, accessibility, and consistency across a suite of complex real estate products.
Collaborate closely with cross-functional product, design, and engineering teams to ensure the design system is scalable and effectively implemented.
Apply expert-level visual and interaction design skills to create reusable patterns and components that adapt across multiple platforms and screen sizes.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role places a strong emphasis on both UI design craft and strategic system thinking. The focus on building a design system indicates a commitment to scalability, consistency, and efficiency in their product development and design workflows. The Senior level suggests expectations for leadership, mentorship, and significant impact on the design practice.

🖼️ Primary Responsibilities

Create, lead, and evolve the CoStar design system, including developing and maintaining detailed component libraries, comprehensive visual style guides, technical documentation, and governance processes.
Define and enforce a high standard of UI quality, ensuring all interfaces are visually cohesive, meet accessibility standards, and are production-ready across various products and platforms.
Collaborate effectively with product managers, fellow designers, and engineering teams to translate user needs and business requirements into scalable and implementable design solutions leveraging the design system.
Design and build reusable UI patterns and libraries that function seamlessly across diverse products, platforms (web, mobile, desktop), and screen sizes, ensuring a consistent user experience.
Partner directly with front-end engineers to ensure pixel-perfect implementation of design specifications and champion the adoption and utilization of the design system throughout the development lifecycle.
Bring a strong perspective on visual storytelling, brand expression through UI, and responsive design principles to enhance the overall user experience and product identity.
Continuously research and integrate emerging design tools, visual trends, and system technologies (such as design tokens, variable typography, theming, and AI-assisted design tools) to keep the design system at the forefront of industry best practices.
Act as a mentor to other designers, sharing knowledge and expertise in UI design, design systems, and collaborative workflows, contributing to a system-focused design culture within the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities clearly define this as a foundational role for establishing and scaling design practices through a robust design system. The emphasis on collaboration with engineering and mentoring highlights the leadership and enablement aspects expected of a Senior-level system designer. The inclusion of staying current with emerging technologies indicates a forward-thinking approach to design operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or a related field from an accredited, not-for-profit University or College. This indicates a preference for candidates with a formal academic background in design principles and user interaction. A strong portfolio demonstrating the practical application of this education is crucial.

Experience: A minimum of 6 years of experience in product design or interface design is required. The application must include a portfolio that specifically showcases excellence in UI design and demonstrates a strong understanding of system thinking, indicating experience in building or contributing to scalable design frameworks.

Required Skills:

Proven expertise in creating, managing, or significantly scaling a design system, including the development of component libraries, detailed documentation, and collaborative governance processes. Examples from a portfolio demonstrating this experience are essential.
Expert-level proficiency in visual design principles, including typography, layout, spacing, color theory, hierarchy, and motion design, applied to creating aesthetically pleasing and functional user interfaces.
Advanced skills in interaction design, understanding how users interact with digital products and designing intuitive, efficient, and engaging user flows.
Deep knowledge of accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG) and best practices for designing inclusive user interfaces that are usable by people with diverse abilities.
Extensive experience designing for responsive UI across multiple platforms (web, mobile, desktop) and screen sizes, ensuring a consistent and optimized experience regardless of device.
Advanced proficiency with Figma, including extensive experience utilizing its component systems, design tokens, variables, prototyping features, and generating visual specifications for handoff.
A highly collaborative mindset with strong verbal and written communication skills, capable of influencing product, design, and engineering teams to adopt and contribute to the design system.
A demonstrated curiosity about emerging design trends, tools, and the evolving landscape of design systems in product development.

Preferred Skills:

Experience working in a Software as a Service (SaaS) or enterprise environment, understanding the complexities and user needs specific to business-to-business or large-scale applications.
Comfort working with front-end frameworks like React, or a strong familiarity with the technical handoff processes and Quality Assurance (QA) workflows involved in implementing design systems.
Experience supporting or maintaining design systems that need to accommodate multiple brands or themes, demonstrating an understanding of complex system architecture and management.

📝 Enhancement Note: The qualifications are specific and reflect the Senior level focus on design systems. The emphasis on a formal education, significant experience in building systems, and expert-level tool proficiency (Figma) are key indicators. Preferred skills in SaaS/enterprise environments and front-end familiarity highlight the practical, implementation-focused nature of the role within a large product organization.

🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

Your portfolio must prominently feature projects that demonstrate excellence in UI design and a strong understanding of system thinking. Include case studies that specifically showcase your experience in creating, scaling, or significantly contributing to a design system.
Present detailed case studies of your design process, highlighting your approach from problem definition and research through ideation, iteration, and final execution, with a focus on how system components were utilized or created.
Showcase high-fidelity visual designs that exemplify your expert-level craft in typography, layout, spacing, and visual hierarchy, demonstrating attention to detail and a commitment to quality.
Include examples that demonstrate your ability to design responsive interfaces across different platforms and screen sizes, illustrating your understanding of technical constraints and user context.

Process Documentation:

Document your research and discovery phase, explaining how user needs and technical constraints informed the design and structure of system components.
Showcase your ideation and iteration methods, illustrating how you explored different design solutions and refined components based on feedback and technical requirements.
Detail your validation and testing approaches for design system components, explaining how you ensured usability, accessibility, and consistency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are highly specific to the design system focus. Candidates must not only showcase strong UI craft but also demonstrate a deep understanding of building and managing design systems, including the underlying process and technical considerations. Case studies focused on system creation and implementation will be critical.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: While a specific salary range is not provided in the job description, based on industry data for a Senior Product Designer role with a specialization in UI Design and Design Systems in the Richmond, Virginia area, with 6+ years of experience at a large public company like CoStar, the estimated salary range is typically between $110,000 and $150,000 annually. This estimate is based on publicly available salary data from sources like Glassdoor, Salary.com, and industry reports for similar roles in the region and considers the responsibilities of leading a design system initiative, which often commands a higher compensation within the Senior band.

Benefits:

Comprehensive healthcare coverage including Medical, Vision, Dental, and Prescription Drug plans, providing robust health support for employees and their families.
Life, legal, and supplementary insurance options offering additional financial protection and support.
Access to virtual and in-person mental health counseling services for individuals and families, emphasizing employee well-being.
Commuter and parking benefits to assist with the costs associated with traveling to the Richmond office location.
A 401(K) retirement plan with matching contributions, supporting long-term financial planning and retirement savings.
Employee stock purchase plan, offering an opportunity to invest in CoStar Group's growth.
Generous paid time off, allowing for work-life balance and rejuvenation.
Tuition reimbursement program to support continuous learning and professional development in relevant fields like design and technology.
On-site fitness center and/or reimbursed fitness center membership costs (location dependent), with access to amenities like a yoga studio, Pelotons, personal training, and group exercise classes, promoting physical wellness.
Access to CoStar Group’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Employee Resource Groups, fostering a sense of community and belonging within the workplace.
Complimentary gourmet coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fresh fruit, and other healthy snacks available on-site, enhancing the daily work environment.

Working Hours: This is a full-time position, requiring on-site presence Monday through Friday in the Richmond, VA office. While specific daily hours are not detailed, full-time typically implies a standard 40-hour work week. Given the creative and collaborative nature of design work, some flexibility within the standard workday might be possible, but consistent on-site presence is required.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is provided based on publicly available data for similar roles in the specified location and industry, acknowledging the lack of a specific range in the original post. The benefits package is detailed, highlighting offerings relevant to employee well-being, financial planning, and professional growth. The on-site requirement is explicitly stated, which is a key factor for candidates.

🎯Team & Company Context

🏢 Company & Design Culture

Industry: CoStar Group is a leading global provider in the Commercial and Residential Real Estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces industry. This involves working with complex data sets and platforms serving a professional user base, which influences the design challenges and the need for robust, scalable, and data-informed design solutions.

Company Size: CoStar Group is a large public company with over 9,600 employees. Working within a large organization means the design team likely operates within established processes and structures, emphasizing collaboration across numerous teams and departments. The design system will be critical for maintaining consistency and efficiency at scale.

Founded: Founded in 1986, CoStar Group has a long history in the real estate information space. This suggests a mature company with established products and a deep understanding of its market, while also emphasizing a mission to digitize real estate and drive innovation.

Team Structure:

The design team is part of the CoStar Product organization, indicating a close alignment with product management and engineering.
As a Senior Product Designer focused on Design Systems, you will likely be part of a specialized team or function dedicated to building and maintaining the system, collaborating closely with product designers embedded in feature teams.
The role requires cross-functional collaboration with product, design, and engineering teams, suggesting a matrixed or collaborative team structure where the design system team supports various product initiatives.

Methodology:

Given the focus on product design and scalability, the methodology likely incorporates elements of Agile development, with iterative design and development cycles.
Emphasis on user-centered design principles is implied by the focus on UI quality and accessibility, suggesting research and testing are part of the process.
The creation and maintenance of a design system indicate a commitment to a systematic approach to design, leveraging reusable components and documented patterns.

Company Website: https://www.costargroup.com

📝 Enhancement Note: Company and industry information from the provided data is integrated with design-specific context. The size and maturity of the company suggest the importance of scalable solutions like design systems. Assumptions about team structure and methodology are based on the role's focus and typical practices in large product organizations.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Design Career Level: This is a Senior-level Product Designer role, specifically focused on UI Design and Design Systems. At this level, expectations include not only strong individual contribution and design craft but also leadership in a specific domain (design systems), mentorship of more junior designers, and significant influence on design strategy and practice across the organization. The scope of responsibility involves defining standards and enabling other teams.

Reporting Structure: While not explicitly stated, a Senior Product Designer specializing in Design Systems would typically report to a Design Lead, Design Manager, or Head of Design, likely within the central product design organization or a dedicated design operations function. This structure would facilitate the cross-functional influence required for the role.

Design Impact: The role has a direct and significant impact on design quality, consistency, and efficiency across all CoStar products. By leading the design system, this designer will empower the entire product and engineering organization to build better, more consistent interfaces faster. The impact extends to brand expression, accessibility, and the overall user experience for millions of users.

Growth Opportunities:

Design System Leadership: Potential to grow into a lead role specifically focused on Design System strategy, governance, and team management as the system matures and the team expands.
Design Operations Specialization: Opportunities to delve deeper into Design Operations (DesignOps), focusing on tools, processes, and infrastructure that support the design team's efficiency and scalability.
Mentorship and Team Leadership: Potential to take on formal mentorship responsibilities or move into a Design Management role overseeing a team of product designers, leveraging the experience gained in enabling other designers through the system.

📝 Enhancement Note: The career analysis is based on the "Senior" level designation and the specific focus on Design Systems, which is a specialized and high-impact area within product design. Growth opportunities are mapped to typical progression paths for system-focused designers in large organizations, emphasizing both specialization and leadership.

🌐 Work Environment

Studio Type: This position is based in a traditional office environment, requiring on-site presence Monday through Friday in Richmond, VA. This indicates a preference for in-person collaboration and team interaction. The office likely serves as a central hub for the product and design teams.

Office Location(s): The primary location is Richmond, VA. CoStar Group has multiple office locations, but this role is specifically tied to the Richmond office. The job description mentions "On-site fitness center and/or reimbursed fitness center membership costs (location dependent)" and "Complimentary gourmet coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fresh fruit, and other healthy snacks," suggesting amenities are available at the Richmond site to support employee well-being and provide a comfortable working environment.

Design Workspace Context:

The on-site requirement facilitates close collaboration and spontaneous interactions with product managers, engineers, and fellow designers, which is particularly beneficial for developing and maintaining a design system that requires constant communication and feedback.
The office environment likely provides dedicated collaboration spaces, meeting rooms equipped for presentations and workshops, and potentially specialized equipment or software for design work.
Being on-site allows for more direct participation in team meetings, design critiques, and whiteboarding sessions, fostering a strong team dynamic and shared understanding of design system goals and challenges.

Work Schedule: The schedule is full-time, Monday through Friday, on-site. While the exact hours per day are not specified, a standard 40-hour work week is typical. The on-site nature implies a fixed daily presence is required, though some flexibility might be possible depending on team norms and project needs, provided the Monday-Friday on-site requirement is met.

📝 Enhancement Note: Information about the work environment is derived directly from the job description's emphasis on being "in office Monday through Friday." Context about how an on-site environment impacts creative collaboration and design system work is added based on general industry practices.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Design Interview Process:

Initial screening likely involves a review of your resume and portfolio to assess your experience, skills, and the quality of your design work, with a specific focus on design system experience.
Expect one or more interviews with hiring managers and members of the design team to discuss your background, experience with design systems, and approach to UI design and collaboration. Be prepared to walk through your portfolio, focusing on case studies related to system building.
A design challenge or take-home exercise related to design systems or complex UI problems is highly probable. This will assess your problem-solving skills, system thinking, and ability to apply design principles under constraints.
Further interviews will likely include discussions with cross-functional partners (product managers, engineers) to evaluate your collaboration skills, communication style, and ability to advocate for design system adoption.
A final interview round may involve meeting with design leadership to discuss your career goals, leadership potential, and how you can contribute to the overall design organization and culture.

Portfolio Review Tips:

Structure your portfolio case studies to clearly articulate the problem you were solving, your design process (especially as it relates to system thinking), your role in the project, key decisions made (particularly regarding component design and system architecture), and the impact of your work.
For design system projects, specifically highlight your contribution to component libraries, documentation, governance, and how you collaborated with engineering for implementation. Show examples of how the system improved efficiency or consistency.
Showcase the depth of your UI craft with high-fidelity mockups and prototypes. Explain your visual design decisions, including typography, color, layout, and interaction patterns, linking them back to system principles.
Prepare to discuss the technical aspects of your design system work, including familiarity with design tokens, variables, and handoff processes, demonstrating your ability to bridge the gap between design and engineering.

Challenge Preparation:

Understand the typical format of design challenges for Senior-level roles, which often involve designing for complex scenarios or existing product flows. Focus on demonstrating your strategic thinking and ability to apply system principles.
Practice articulating your design process and rationale clearly and concisely. Be prepared to explain your decisions, especially how they align with user needs, business goals, and system constraints.
For design system challenges, focus on scalability, flexibility, and ease of use for designers and developers. Consider how components would be documented and maintained.

ATS Keywords: Design System, UI Design, User Interface, Product Design, UX Design, Component Library, Style Guide, Figma, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Accessibility, Responsive Design, Prototyping, User Research, Design Thinking, SaaS, Enterprise Software, Cross-functional Collaboration, Design Handoff, Design Tokens, Information Architecture, Usability Testing, Wireframing, Mockups, Design Documentation, Mentorship, Design Leadership, Agile, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (less likely primary), HTML, CSS, React (familiarity), Governance, Scalability, Consistency, Brand Expression, Visual Storytelling, Mobile Design, Desktop Design, Web Design, Case Study, Portfolio, Design Process.

📝 Enhancement Note: The application process section is expanded with design-specific interview stages, portfolio review guidance tailored to a design system role, and preparation tips for potential design challenges. The ATS keyword list is comprehensive and categorized for better resume optimization by design candidates.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Design Tools:

Figma: Advanced proficiency is explicitly required. This is the primary tool for UI design, component creation, prototyping, and generating specifications. Expect to be deeply involved in utilizing Figma's advanced features like component systems, variables, and tokens for design system management.
Prototyping Tools: While Figma includes prototyping capabilities, familiarity with other tools like Principle, After Effects, or InVision for more complex animations or interactions might be beneficial, though Figma is likely the core tool.

Collaboration & Handoff:

Figma: Serves as a central hub for collaboration and handoff. Features like commenting, shared files, and developer handoff views are likely used extensively.
Documentation Platforms: Tools like Zeroheight, Storybook, or internal platforms might be used to house design system documentation alongside code components, ensuring designers and developers have a single source of truth.
Version Control: Knowledge of version control concepts, potentially within Figma or integrated with development workflows, is important for managing design system updates.

Research & Testing:

User Research Platforms: Tools for conducting user interviews, surveys, and usability testing (e.g., UserTesting.com, SurveyMonkey, or in-house tools) might be used to gather feedback that informs design system decisions.
Analytics Tools: Familiarity with analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics) to understand how users are interacting with existing interfaces can inform design system priorities and effectiveness.

📝 Enhancement Note: The tools section focuses heavily on Figma, as explicitly stated in the requirements, and expands on how other categories of tools fit into a design system workflow. The connection between design tools, collaboration/handoff platforms, and research tools is explained in the context of building and maintaining a robust system.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Design Values:

Craftsmanship and Quality: A strong emphasis on high-quality UI design is evident, suggesting a value for pixel-perfect execution, attention to detail, and a commitment to delivering polished interfaces.
System Thinking: The core of this role is system building, indicating a value for scalable, reusable, and consistent design solutions that can be applied across a large product suite.
Collaboration and Enablement: The need to collaborate with product and engineering and mentor other designers highlights a value for teamwork, knowledge sharing, and empowering others through the design system.
Innovation and Adaptability: Staying ahead of emerging trends and technologies (AI tooling, design tokens) suggests a value for innovation within the design practice and a willingness to adapt to evolving tools and methods.

Collaboration Style:

Cross-Functional Partnership: Close collaboration with product managers and engineers is essential, implying a collaborative style where design is integrated early and often in the product development lifecycle.
Design Critique Culture: A "system-focused design culture" likely involves regular design critiques where work is shared and refined collaboratively, with feedback focused on system adherence and component design.
Knowledge Sharing: Contributing to documentation and mentoring other designers points to a culture of knowledge sharing and collective growth within the design team.

📝 Enhancement Note: Design values and collaboration style are inferred from the core responsibilities and required skills, particularly the emphasis on design systems, collaboration, and quality. These inferences provide candidates with insight into the expected behavioral norms and priorities within the design team.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Design Challenges:

Establishing and Scaling the Design System: A primary challenge will be building the design system from the ground up or significantly scaling an existing one within a large organization, requiring strong leadership, technical understanding, and change management skills to ensure adoption across numerous teams.
Ensuring Consistency Across a Large Product Suite: Maintaining consistency across a diverse and extensive portfolio of commercial and residential real estate products presents a significant challenge, requiring meticulous attention to detail and robust governance processes for the design system.
Balancing System Rigidity and Flexibility: Finding the right balance between establishing clear guidelines and components within the design system and allowing for sufficient flexibility to meet unique product needs and foster creative problem-solving for feature teams.
Integration with Existing Workflows and Technologies: Integrating the design system seamlessly into existing product development workflows, engineering practices (especially front-end frameworks like React), and legacy systems can be complex and require strong technical collaboration.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

Design System Specialization: Deepen expertise in design system architecture, governance models, technical implementation (design tokens, etc.), and the strategic role of systems in large organizations.
Technical Skills Development: Enhance understanding of front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript frameworks like React) to improve collaboration with engineering and contribute more effectively to the technical aspects of the design system.
Leadership and Mentorship: Develop leadership skills by guiding the design system initiative and mentoring other designers on system best practices and UI quality standards.

📝 Enhancement Note: Challenges are identified based on the inherent complexities of building and scaling design systems in large, established companies. Growth opportunities are linked to the challenges, highlighting how overcoming these obstacles directly contributes to professional development and specialization in high-demand areas of design.

💡 Interview Preparation

Design Process Questions:

Be prepared to discuss your end-to-end design process, specifically highlighting how you approach problem definition, user research, ideation, iteration, and validation, with examples from your portfolio. Focus on how system thinking influences each stage.
Explain your experience in creating and managing design system components. Be ready to discuss your approach to component architecture, variant management, and documentation. Use specific examples from your portfolio case studies.
Describe a time you had to make a difficult design decision within a system context. Explain your rationale, the factors you considered (user needs, technical constraints, system principles), and the outcome.

Company Culture Questions:

Research CoStar Group's values and recent product developments. Be prepared to discuss how your design philosophy and experience align with their mission to digitize real estate and their emphasis on data and analytics.
Ask thoughtful questions about the current state of their design practice, the level of maturity of their existing design system (if any), and how design collaborates with product and engineering teams. This shows your interest and understanding of the role's context.
Be ready to discuss your experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments and how you effectively communicate design decisions and advocate for design system adoption among non-designers.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

Select 2-3 case studies that best demonstrate your expertise in UI design and, critically, your experience with design systems. Focus on projects where you played a key role in creating, contributing to, or utilizing a design system effectively.
For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the process you followed (emphasizing system application or creation), key design decisions (especially those related to components or patterns), and the impact of your work.
Dedicate a significant portion of your presentation to showcasing your design system work. Walk through component documentation, explain the system's structure, and demonstrate how it's applied across different use cases. Be prepared to discuss the technical considerations and collaboration involved.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation advice is highly specific to the role's focus on design systems and the Senior level. Questions are framed around process, system thinking, and collaboration. Portfolio presentation tips emphasize showcasing design system work and articulating its impact.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this design position:

Submit your application through this link on the CoStar Group careers portal.
Carefully review your design portfolio. Select case studies that compellingly demonstrate your expertise in UI design and, most importantly, your experience in creating, scaling, or significantly contributing to design systems. Ensure your portfolio clearly articulates your process and the impact of your work in a system context.
Optimize your resume to include relevant design keywords, highlighting your experience with UI design, design systems, Figma, accessibility, responsive design, and cross-functional collaboration. Tailor your experience descriptions to align with the responsibilities and required skills listed in the job description.
Prepare for the interview process by practicing articulating your design process, discussing your design system experience with specific examples, and preparing thoughtful questions about CoStar's design culture and product development practices. Practice walking through your portfolio presentation, focusing on clarity and impact.
Conduct thorough research on CoStar Group, their products (especially the CoStar product suite), their industry position in commercial and residential real estate, and their stated mission and values. Understand how design fits into their overall business strategy.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and design industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

Senior Product Designer, UI Design & Design Systems, CoStar Product