Lead Designer - Global Design System

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Designer - Global Design System

Company: Manulife

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Design Operations / Design Systems

Date Posted: January 20, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (5-10 years)

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the evolution and maintenance of Manulife's enterprise-wide Common Design System, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and innovation across digital experiences.

• Drive the adoption of design tokens to build scalable components, patterns, and templates supporting digital transformation across Canada, Asia, and the US.

• Partner with global design, engineering, and product teams to define and implement the visual language, interaction patterns, and usability guidelines.

• Manage community feedback, contribution requests, and stakeholder buy-in across complex, multi-jurisdictional business units.

• Champion design excellence, accessibility (WCAG), and superior user experiences for millions of global users.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Lead Designer," the responsibilities heavily lean into "Design Operations" and "Design Systems Management." The role requires not only design expertise but also strong operational, community management, and cross-functional leadership skills to embed a design system within a large, global enterprise. The emphasis on "design tokens," "CMS like AEM," and "design-to-development collaboration" points to a highly technical and operational design function.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design System Library Leadership: Lead the ongoing maintenance, enhancement, and scaling of the Common Design System library, ensuring it meets the needs of diverse business units and supports Manulife's digital transformation objectives.

• Component and Pattern Development: Design and maintain robust components, design tokens, and reusable patterns within Figma, creating variants, edge cases, responsive specifications, and ensuring seamless accessibility integration (labels, focus states).

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with regional design leads, product designers, and engineering teams to align requirements for system components and patterns, ensuring pixel-to-code fidelity and smooth implementation.

• Community Engagement and Enablement: Train, onboard, and enable global teams to effectively leverage the design system, fostering broad and sustained adoption through community feedback management, contribution models, and educational initiatives.

• Governance and Framework Development: Contribute to the definition and implementation of design system governance frameworks in collaboration with Marketing and IT partners, ensuring long-term sustainability, alignment, and adherence to guidelines.

• Stakeholder Management and Influence: Secure buy-in from executives and practitioners across the organization, navigating complex matrixed structures and influencing decision-making to drive design system adoption and strategic alignment.

• User Experience Advocacy: Advocate for design excellence, accessibility (WCAG), and usability guidelines to ensure a consistent, high-quality, and seamless digital experience for millions of users.

• Design Reviews and Audits: Facilitate design reviews and audits to ensure the quality and consistency of system evolution and its application across digital products.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of individual contribution (designing components, creating specifications) and strategic leadership (governance, stakeholder management, community building). This role is critical for operationalizing design at an enterprise scale, requiring a deep understanding of both design principles and the mechanics of system deployment and adoption.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Experience or training in design at a post-secondary, college, or technical institution.

Experience:

• 5-7 years of experience in design, design systems, or enterprise product design, preferably within a global enterprise or multi-jurisdictional organization.

• Proven track record of successfully working on and contributing to an enterprise-wide design system within large, global organizations.

• Experience with design system operations, including processes for contribution, feedback, and governance.

• Experience navigating multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and regulatory complexities in global design and content.

Required Skills:

• Design Systems Expertise: Deep understanding of enterprise design system principles, architecture, and best practices.

• Design Tokens: Proficiency in leveraging design tokens for scalable and maintainable design systems.

• UI/UX Best Practices: Comprehensive knowledge of user interface and user experience design principles.

• Accessibility (WCAG): Strong understanding and practical application of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards.

• Figma Proficiency: Expert-level proficiency in Figma for component design, prototyping, and system documentation.

• Design-to-Development Collaboration: Proven ability to effectively partner with engineering teams to ensure accurate implementation of designs.

• CMS Design Experience: Experience designing patterns and templates for Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).

• Communication & Influence: Excellent stakeholder management, influence, and communication skills, capable of securing buy-in at all levels.

• Problem-Solving: Ability to analyze complex problems and propose effective design and operational solutions.

Preferred Skills:

• Background in IT lifecycle management.

• Expertise in stakeholder management, influence, and communication skills.

• Experience with other enterprise design tools and frameworks (e.g., Zeroheight).

• Familiarity with community engagement strategies and best practices for driving adoption.

• Understanding of global design and content complexities, including regulatory considerations.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Required Qualifications" are extensive and detailed, emphasizing practical, hands-on experience with enterprise-level design systems and a global context. The preferred qualifications point towards a candidate who can hit the ground running with minimal ramp-up time.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Design System Case Studies: Showcase at least 1-2 in-depth case studies demonstrating experience building, scaling, or managing an enterprise-wide design system. Highlight the problem, your approach, the tools used, and the outcomes.

• Component & Token Design Examples: Provide clear examples of designed components, interaction patterns, and the application of design tokens, illustrating scalability and consistency.

• Accessibility Integration: Include examples or descriptions of how accessibility standards (WCAG) were integrated into the design system components and patterns.

• Design-to-Development Handoff: Demonstrate your process for collaborating with developers, including documentation, specifications, and ensuring pixel-perfect implementation.

• System Adoption & Governance: If possible, include examples or metrics related to driving design system adoption, community engagement, or contributing to governance frameworks.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design: Illustrate your process for designing and documenting new components, patterns, and templates within a design system, including version control and change management.

• Collaboration Models: Detail your approach to collaborating with cross-functional teams (design, engineering, product, marketing) to gather requirements, solicit feedback, and ensure alignment.

• Contribution & Feedback Loops: Explain how you manage community feedback, contribution requests, and integrate user needs into the design system's evolution.

• Onboarding & Training Materials: If applicable, showcase examples of training materials or onboarding guides created to enable teams to effectively use the design system.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given this is a "Lead" role focused on an enterprise design system, the portfolio should not just showcase design output but also demonstrate process maturity, operational thinking, and the ability to manage complex systems and stakeholder relationships. Focus on demonstrating impact and scalability.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Estimated Range: $92,900 - $142,900 CAD per year.

• Note: This range is for Toronto, Ontario. If applying from outside this primary location, candidates should contact recruitment@manulife.com for location-specific salary ranges. The actual salary will be determined by local market conditions, geography, and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health & Wellness: Health, dental, vision, and mental health coverage.

• Disability & Insurance: Short-term and long-term disability, life insurance, and Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance.

• Family & Support: Adoption/surrogacy benefits, wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans.

• Retirement & Investment: Retirement savings plans, including a pension plan and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions.

• Financial Support: Financial education and counseling resources.

• Paid Time Off (Canada): Generous program including holidays, vacation, personal days, and sick days. Access to full range of statutory leaves of absence.

• US Benefits: For US-based roles, specific PTO provisions apply; contact recruitment@manulife.com for details.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours, likely around 40 hours per week. The "Hybrid" work arrangement suggests a flexible schedule that balances in-office collaboration with remote work.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is specific to Toronto, Ontario. It's crucial for candidates in other locations to inquire directly. The benefits package is extensive and comprehensive, indicating a strong commitment to employee well-being and long-term financial security, which is a significant draw for experienced professionals.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Financial Services (Insurance, Banking, Wealth Management). Manulife operates globally, providing a broad range of financial advice, insurance, and wealth management solutions.

Company Size: Large Enterprise (Likely 10,000+ employees globally, given its status as a leading international financial services provider).

Founded: 1887. Manulife has a long-standing history, suggesting a stable, established organization that is also undergoing significant digital transformation.

Team Structure:

• Global Design System Team: This role is part of a dedicated Global Design System team.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: You will work closely with design leads, product designers, engineering teams, and potentially product managers across various business units and regions (Canada, Asia, US).

• Reporting Structure: Likely reports into a Head of Design Systems, Director of Digital Experience, or a similar senior design leadership role.

Methodology:

• Design System Management: Focus on establishing and maintaining robust processes for component creation, documentation, governance, and contribution.

• Agile & Lean UX: The company is familiar with Agile and Lean UX methodologies, implying a fast-paced, iterative approach to product development and design system evolution.

• Data-Driven Decisions: While not explicitly stated for this role, large financial institutions typically rely on data for decision-making, suggesting that design system impact will be measured and tracked.

Company Website: https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html

📝 Enhancement Note: Manulife's long history combined with its global digital transformation efforts presents an interesting dynamic. The company values diversity and inclusion, which is crucial for a global design system team. The "Hybrid" work arrangement indicates a modern approach to workplace flexibility.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a "Lead" position, signifying a senior individual contributor role with significant responsibility and influence. It sits above mid-level designers and below a direct management role, focusing on specialized expertise and system-level impact.

Reporting Structure: The role will likely report to a Director or VP level within the Digital Experience or Design organization. Collaboration will be broad, extending across multiple product teams and business units.

Operations Impact: The Global Design System is critical for operational efficiency, brand consistency, and user experience across all digital touchpoints for millions of users. Success in this role directly impacts development velocity, cost reduction, brand perception, and customer satisfaction on a global scale.

Growth Opportunities:

• Deep Specialization: Become a recognized expert in enterprise design systems, design tokens, and design operations within a major financial institution.

• Leadership in Influence: Develop strong leadership skills in influencing stakeholders, driving adoption, and building a global design community.

• Strategic Impact: Contribute to the strategic direction of digital product development by enabling faster, more consistent, and higher-quality user experiences.

• Potential Advancement: Opportunities could lead to senior design leadership roles, management of design operations, or broader product strategy roles within Manulife.

• Skill Expansion: Gain exposure to diverse regional requirements, regulatory landscapes, and advanced technologies within a global enterprise.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a significant opportunity for an operations-minded designer to shape a critical foundational element of a global enterprise's digital strategy. The growth path is focused on increasing influence and strategic impact within the design and digital product organizations.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid. This implies a mix of remote work and in-office collaboration. The specific days in the office will likely be determined by team needs and company policy.

Office Location(s): Primarily Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with potential for collaboration with teams in Asia and the US.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The hybrid model and cross-functional nature of the role necessitate strong collaboration skills, both in person and remotely. Expect a dynamic environment where ideas are shared and iterated upon.

• Tools & Technology: Access to industry-standard design tools (Figma), potentially CMS platforms (AEM), and collaboration platforms.

• Team Interaction: Regular interaction with design, engineering, and product teams will be key to aligning on system requirements and fostering adoption.

Work Schedule: Standard full-time hours, with flexibility offered through the hybrid work arrangement. This allows for managing personal well-being alongside professional responsibilities, which is important for sustained productivity in complex roles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Hybrid" work arrangement is a key aspect, indicating a modern workplace that balances flexibility with the need for in-person collaboration, which is often essential for complex design system work and team alignment.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: HR or recruiter call to assess basic qualifications, experience, and cultural fit.

• Hiring Manager Interview: In-depth discussion about your experience with design systems, leadership style, and operational approach.

• Portfolio Review & Presentation: A dedicated session where you present your portfolio, focusing on relevant design system case studies, design process, and impact. Be prepared to discuss your contributions, challenges, and how you handled them.

• Skills Assessment/Design Challenge: May include a practical exercise or case study related to design system component design, accessibility, or problem-solving within a design system context.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Interviews with design, engineering, and potentially product stakeholders to assess collaboration skills and technical understanding.

• Final Round/Executive Interview: Potentially with senior leadership to discuss strategic alignment and overall fit.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Design Systems: Prioritize case studies that directly showcase your experience with enterprise design systems, design tokens, component libraries, and accessibility.

• Demonstrate Process & Impact: Clearly articulate your design process, the operational challenges you faced, and the measurable impact of your work (e.g., increased efficiency, improved consistency, reduced development time).

• Highlight Collaboration: Show how you collaborated with engineering and product teams, and how you managed feedback from various stakeholders.

• Showcase Figma Skills: Ensure your Figma work is well-organized and clearly demonstrates your ability to build scalable, accessible components and manage design tokens.

• Accessibility Integration: Be ready to explain your approach to ensuring WCAG compliance within the design system.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design System Fundamentals: Brush up on core concepts of design systems, design tokens, component libraries, and accessibility standards.

• Figma Proficiency: Practice creating components, variants, auto-layout, and managing styles/tokens in Figma.

• Problem-Solving Scenarios: Prepare to discuss how you would approach common design system challenges, such as driving adoption, managing contributions, or resolving inconsistencies.

• Stakeholder Communication: Practice articulating technical design concepts and their business value to diverse audiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio review is critical for this role. Candidates should prepare a portfolio that not only showcases design quality but also demonstrates operational maturity, strategic thinking, and the ability to manage complex systems in a global enterprise.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: Expert-level proficiency is explicitly required for designing components, patterns, and managing the design system library.

• Design Tokens: Deep understanding and practical application of design token principles and implementation.

• Zeroheight (Preferred): Likely used for design system documentation and communication.

• Adobe Experience Manager (AEM): Experience designing patterns and templates for this CMS is a requirement.

Analytics & Reporting:

CRM & Automation:

Other Potential Tools:

• Prototyping tools (e.g., InVision, Principle, ProtoPie)

• Collaboration tools (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, Confluence)

• Project Management tools (e.g., Jira, Asana)

📝 Enhancement Note: Figma is the cornerstone tool for this role. Proficiency here, combined with an understanding of how design systems translate to CMS platforms like AEM and are documented (e.g., Zeroheight), is crucial.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Design Excellence: A commitment to high-quality, user-centered design that is consistently applied.

• Efficiency & Scalability: Focus on creating systems and processes that enable teams to work more efficiently and scale their efforts.

• Collaboration & Community: Fostering a supportive and collaborative environment where knowledge is shared, and contributions are valued.

• Accessibility & Inclusion: A strong dedication to creating digital experiences that are accessible to everyone, regardless of ability.

• Continuous Improvement: An ongoing effort to refine processes, update systems, and adapt to evolving user needs and technologies.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Working closely with diverse teams (design, engineering, product, marketing) to ensure alignment and successful integration of the design system.

• Empowerment & Enablement: A style that focuses on empowering other teams to use the design system effectively through clear documentation, training, and support.

• Feedback-Driven: An open approach to receiving and acting on feedback from users of the design system to drive its evolution.

• Influence & Diplomacy: Navigating organizational complexity with strong communication and influencing skills to build consensus and drive adoption.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's stated values of embracing diversity, inclusion, and well-being likely extend to the team culture, creating an environment where different perspectives are valued. For this role, a collaborative, systems-thinking approach is paramount.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Global Adoption & Consistency: Ensuring consistent adoption and adherence to the design system across diverse regions with varying technical capabilities, design maturity, and local requirements.

• Organizational Complexity: Navigating a large, matrixed organization with multiple business units, stakeholders, and potentially competing priorities.

• Balancing Standardization with Flexibility: Creating a design system that is robust and standardized enough for efficiency but also flexible enough to accommodate unique regional or product needs.

• Keeping Pace with Evolution: Continuously updating and evolving the design system to incorporate new technologies, design trends, and user feedback while maintaining stability.

• Driving Buy-in and Change Management: Securing and maintaining executive sponsorship and practitioner buy-in for the design system, which requires ongoing communication and demonstration of value.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Expertise in Design Systems: Become a subject matter expert in one of the largest enterprises in financial services.

• Global Design Leadership: Develop skills in leading design initiatives across different cultures and geographies.

• Strategic Influence: Hone your ability to influence product strategy and development processes at an enterprise level.

• Cross-Disciplinary Learning: Gain insights into the intricacies of IT lifecycle management, Agile/Lean UX, and enterprise digital delivery models.

• Community Building: Develop skills in nurturing and managing a global community of designers and developers.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role presents significant challenges related to scale and complexity, but these are precisely where the greatest growth opportunities lie for a motivated design operations professional.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your experience building or contributing to an enterprise-wide design system. What were the key challenges, and how did you address them?" (Focus on your role, specific contributions, and operational aspects.)

• "How do you ensure accessibility (WCAG) is integrated into a design system and enforced across different teams?" (Highlight your process and understanding of standards.)

• "Walk us through your process for designing a new component for a design system, from initial concept to developer handoff." (Emphasize your workflow, documentation, and collaboration.)

• "How do you manage feedback and contributions from a global community of designers and developers?" (Discuss your community management strategies.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What do you know about Manulife's digital transformation efforts, and how do you see a design system contributing to it?" (Research Manulife's digital strategy.)

• "How do you approach working within a hybrid work environment and collaborating with distributed global teams?" (Showcase your adaptability and communication skills.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure: Organize your portfolio logically, ideally starting with your most relevant design system case studies.

• Storytelling: For each case study, clearly define the problem, your role and approach, the solutions you implemented (components, tokens, patterns), and the measurable outcomes or impact.

• Demonstrate Process: Show your Figma files, documentation examples (e.g., Zeroheight excerpts), and any collaboration artifacts.

• Focus on Operations: Emphasize the "how"—how you operationalized design, how you collaborated, how you managed feedback, and how you ensured scalability and consistency.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design decisions, technical choices, and problem-solving methodologies.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will heavily weigh your ability to articulate your experience with design systems in an operational context, demonstrate your practical skills (especially in Figma), and showcase your ability to influence and collaborate within a large, global organization.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead Designer - Global Design System position:

• Submit Your Application: Navigate to the Manulife careers portal via the provided URL and submit your formal application.

• Tailor Your Resume: Ensure your resume clearly highlights your experience with enterprise design systems, design tokens, Figma, accessibility (WCAG), design-to-development collaboration, and any experience with CMS platforms like AEM. Quantify achievements where possible (e.g., "Contributed to a design system that reduced development time by X%").

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 1-3 of your strongest design system case studies. Focus on demonstrating your process, operational contributions, and measurable impact. Ensure your Figma work is well-organized and accessible.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Rehearse presenting your portfolio, focusing on clear storytelling, articulating your operational approach, and being ready for in-depth questions about your design decisions and collaboration methods.

• Research Manulife: Understand Manulife's business, its digital transformation goals, and its commitment to diversity and inclusion. This will help you tailor your responses and demonstrate cultural fit.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details, particularly regarding salary ranges for specific locations and the exact interview process, should be verified directly with the hiring organization or recruiter before making application decisions.