Senior Designer, Design Systems (Brazil and Argentina ONLY)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Designer, Design Systems

Company: Niche

Location: Remote (Brazil and Argentina ONLY)

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Design Operations / Design Systems

Date Posted: April 24, 2026

Experience Level: Senior (6+ years)

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead the evolution and maintenance of Niche's comprehensive design system, known as Expedite, ensuring a cohesive and high-quality user experience across web and mobile platforms.

• Drive the integration of atomic design principles and modern front-end concepts into the design system, enhancing scalability and consistency.

• Collaborate extensively with engineering and product teams to translate design vision into production-ready components and patterns, optimizing the design-to-implementation workflow.

• Champion accessibility standards (WCAG AA) and visual design excellence throughout the system, ensuring compliance and a strong Niche brand identity.

• Proactively identify and implement opportunities for system improvement, including the exploration and adoption of AI-assisted design tools and design-to-code automation.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is explicitly focused on Design Operations, specifically within the domain of Design Systems. The emphasis on "Expedite" as the system name, the integration of AI tooling, and the collaboration with engineering for design-to-code workflows are key differentiators. The role requires a blend of strong visual design craft, systems thinking, and a builder's mindset.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define, evolve, and meticulously maintain Niche’s core visual language, encompassing typography, color palettes, iconography, and established UI patterns.

• Design and refine reusable UI components, design tokens, and interaction patterns that empower product teams to deliver consistent, high-quality user experiences across both web and mobile applications.

• Implement and champion atomic design principles to structure and scale the design system effectively.

• Foster strong collaboration with engineering partners to ensure seamless translation of designs into functional code, leveraging technical understanding to navigate trade-offs.

• Enhance the design system's contribution model to enable product teams to efficiently propose, build, and scale new components based on real product needs.

• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation, clear guidelines, and supporting tooling to facilitate confident adoption and usage of the design system by all teams.

• Actively advocate for and enforce accessibility compliance (WCAG AA), usability best practices, and overall design quality throughout the system.

• Ensure strict alignment with Niche's brand guidelines to maintain a consistent and recognizable brand presence across all user touchpoints.

• Provide robust support and guidance to product teams utilizing the design system through design reviews, constructive feedback, and collaborative problem-solving sessions.

• Proactively identify opportunities for system enhancement and drive implementation with a strong bias for action, focusing on efficiency and scalability.

• Serve as a key advocate for systems thinking and design consistency across the entire design organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a hands-on, strategic role in building and scaling a design system. The inclusion of "AI-assisted design" and "design-to-code" workflows indicates a forward-thinking approach to design operations, requiring the candidate to be comfortable with emerging technologies and potentially engaging with code.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong foundation in Design, HCI, Computer Science, or a related field, demonstrated through experience and portfolio, is expected.

Experience: Minimum of 6+ years of progressive experience in product design, with a significant focus on establishing and scaling design systems, driving adoption, and measuring their impact.

Required Skills:

• Demonstrated ability to set design system vision and strategy, with a proven track record of driving successful adoption and measuring key metrics.

• Exceptional visual design skills and sophisticated product thinking, with meticulous attention to detail in areas such as component states, interaction patterns, visual consistency, and accessibility compliance (WCAG AA standards).

• High proficiency in Figma, specifically utilizing features like auto layout, nesting, constraints, responsive layouts, components, variants, and properties.

• Familiarity with modern front-end concepts, including primitives, semantic and component-level tokens, states, and responsive behavior.

• Experience designing for both mobile and web platforms.

• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with product management and engineering partners.

• Capacity to balance system scalability requirements with practical product needs, making informed trade-offs.

• Strong communication and articulation skills, essential for conveying design decisions and system rationale.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience exploring and implementing AI-assisted design workflows and design-to-code automation, including familiarity with tools like MCP servers.

• Willingness to engage with code and explore technologies like Storybook for design-to-code implementation.

• Experience establishing design system governance and contribution models.

• Understanding of how to integrate accessibility compliance into the design system's contribution process by default.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for Figma proficiency is standard, but the explicit mention of exploring a move away from Figma dependency towards Storybook + code and AI tooling indicates a desire for a candidate who is not only skilled in current tools but also forward-thinking and willing to experiment with new technologies and workflows. The "builder" aspect is emphasized by the expectation to "get into code."

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A dedicated section showcasing your work on design systems, clearly illustrating your role, contributions, and impact.

• Examples of how you have defined, evolved, and maintained visual languages, component libraries, and UI patterns.

• Case studies demonstrating the application of atomic design principles and systems thinking.

• Evidence of designing reusable components, tokens, and interaction patterns for both web and mobile.

• Documentation examples, guidelines, or tooling created to support design system adoption.

Process Documentation:

• Showcase examples of process documentation for design system contribution models, including how teams propose, build, and scale components.

• Illustrate how you have collaborated with engineering on design-to-implementation workflows, including discussions on technical trade-offs.

• Present case studies that detail the process of identifying pain points and opportunities within a design system and implementing solutions.

• Include examples of how you have measured design system health, adoption, and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio is a critical component. The emphasis is not just on the visual output but on demonstrating a deep understanding of systems thinking, process improvement, collaboration with engineering, and the ability to articulate the impact of the design system. A strong portfolio will highlight strategic thinking, problem-solving, and a builder's approach to system development.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on industry benchmarks for Senior Design System roles in regions with a similar cost of living to Brazil and Argentina, and considering the 6+ years of experience and specialized skills required, the estimated annual salary range is between $65,000 - $100,000 USD. This range accounts for the remote nature of the role and the demand for expertise in design systems, AI tooling, and front-end concepts.

Benefits:

• Competitive health insurance plans tailored for international remote employees.

• Generous paid time off (PTO) and public holidays observed in Brazil and Argentina.

• Professional development budget for conferences, courses, and certifications relevant to design systems and emerging technologies.

• Home office stipend to ensure a productive and comfortable remote work setup.

• Opportunities for stock options or equity, reflecting Niche's growth and employee commitment.

• Access to Niche's internal learning and development programs.

• Flexible working hours to accommodate different time zones and personal needs.

Working Hours: The role is expected to require approximately 40 hours per week. While Niche operates with flexible working hours, candidates will need to coordinate with engineering and design teams, suggesting a need for overlap during core business hours relevant to the team's primary operational time zones.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary estimates are based on general market data for senior design system roles in Latin America and international remote positions. Actual compensation may vary based on specific experience, negotiation, and the company's internal compensation structure. Benefits are inferred based on standard offerings for remote tech roles targeting international talent.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Niche operates in the EdTech and Information Services sector, focusing on school search and providing comprehensive data and reviews on educational institutions. This industry requires a strong emphasis on user trust, data accuracy, and user experience for both students/families and educational institutions.

Company Size: Niche is a growing company, likely falling into the medium-sized category (e.g., 200-500 employees, based on typical tech company growth trajectories). This size offers a balance between the agility of a startup and the structure of a more established organization, providing opportunities for significant impact without excessive bureaucracy.

Founded: Niche was founded in 2012. This relatively recent founding means the company is in a growth phase, continuously evolving its product and internal processes. The mission-driven aspect of helping people find where they belong is likely a core tenet of its culture.

Team Structure:

• The Design team is likely structured to support product development across web and mobile. This role will sit within or work very closely with the core Design Systems team, potentially including other designers and dedicated engineers.

• The Design Systems team likely reports into a Head of Design or VP of Product.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Iteration: Niche likely employs data analysis to understand user behavior, identify pain points, and measure the success of design initiatives.

• Agile Development: Expect a methodology that emphasizes iterative development, rapid prototyping, and continuous feedback loops.

• User-Centric Design: The company's mission underscores a commitment to understanding and serving the needs of students, families, and schools.

• Systems Thinking: This role specifically demands a systems-thinking approach to design and development, ensuring scalability and consistency.

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

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's mission and growth stage suggest a dynamic environment where design systems play a critical role in enabling efficient product development and maintaining user trust. The focus on "Expedite" and the integration of AI point to a company that is investing in modernizing its design and engineering practices.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior-level position. It signifies an individual contributor role with significant autonomy and strategic influence over a critical area of product development. The role is expected to be a builder and a leader in the design systems space, driving vision and execution.

Reporting Structure: The Senior Designer, Design Systems will report to a design leadership role, such as a Design Manager or Head of Design. They will work very closely with engineering leads and product managers.

Operations Impact: The impact of this role is substantial, directly influencing the speed, quality, consistency, and accessibility of Niche's web and mobile products. By providing a robust design system, this role empowers hundreds of product features and millions of users to have a better experience. The successful implementation of AI-assisted workflows and design-to-code automation will have a measurable impact on engineering efficiency and product release cycles.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Design Systems: Potential to grow into a Lead or Manager of Design Systems role, overseeing a team and setting broader strategy.

• Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in AI-assisted design, design-to-code technologies, and front-end development principles, becoming a recognized expert in these emerging fields.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Opportunity to lead cross-functional initiatives that integrate the design system into broader product development processes.

• Strategic Influence: Contribute to the long-term product and technology strategy of Niche through the lens of design systems and efficiency.

• Mentorship: Mentor junior designers and engineers on design system best practices and adoption.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers significant growth potential for someone passionate about design systems. The emphasis on AI and automation suggests a path towards roles at the forefront of design technology and operational efficiency within product development.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is a fully remote position. Niche has embraced a remote-first or remote-friendly culture, especially for this specific role targeting candidates in Brazil and Argentina.

Office Location(s): While the job posting specifies Brazil and Argentina, Niche's headquarters are in Philadelphia, USA. The remote nature means candidates will work from their home offices.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Digital Environment: Expect a highly collaborative digital workspace, utilizing tools like Slack, Zoom, Figma, and project management software to communicate and co-create.

• Access to Tools: Niche will provide access to necessary design and development tools, including Figma licenses and potentially cloud infrastructure for AI/automation workflows.

• Team Interaction: Regular virtual meetings, stand-ups, design critiques, and pair programming sessions with designers and engineers will be common.

Work Schedule: The position is full-time (approximately 40 hours/week). While Niche offers flexibility, candidates will need to align with the broader team's working hours to facilitate effective collaboration with colleagues in different time zones. This might involve some early morning or late afternoon meetings depending on team distribution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The fully remote nature requires self-discipline, strong communication skills, and proactive engagement to build relationships and stay connected with the team. The focus on Brazil and Argentina suggests potential for building a localized remote team hub.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Video Screen with Talent Acquisition Partner (30 mins): Initial screening to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and understanding of the role. Be prepared to briefly discuss your design systems experience.

• Video Interview with Hiring Manager (45 mins): A deeper dive into your experience, design philosophy, and approach to design systems. Expect questions about your strategic thinking and leadership capabilities.

• Case Study Presentation (60 mins): This is a critical stage. You will be asked to present a case study from your portfolio, focusing on a design systems project. Prepare to discuss your process, challenges, solutions, and the impact of your work. This is where you showcase your systems thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Panel Interview (Design - 30 mins, Engineering - 30 mins): You will meet with both designers and engineers. The design portion will likely focus on your design craft and systems thinking. The engineering portion will assess your technical understanding, collaboration approach with engineers, and familiarity with front-end concepts and design-to-code workflows.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight Design Systems Work: Ensure your portfolio prominently features your design system projects. Clearly articulate your role, the system's goals, your contributions, and the outcomes.

• Showcase Process: Detail your design process, from research and ideation to component creation, documentation, and adoption strategies. Emphasize how you applied atomic design principles.

• Demonstrate Technical Understanding: Include examples that show your grasp of front-end concepts, responsiveness, and how designs translate to code. If you have experience with Storybook or similar tools, highlight it.

• Quantify Impact: Where possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your design system work (e.g., increased design/development speed, improved consistency, reduced bug rates, adoption rates).

• Accessibility Focus: Clearly illustrate how you incorporated accessibility best practices (WCAG AA) into your design system.

• AI/Automation Examples: If you have any experience or conceptual work related to AI-assisted design or design-to-code automation, be ready to discuss it, even if it's experimental.

Challenge Preparation:

• Case Study Selection: Choose a design system project that best showcases your strategic thinking, problem-solving skills, collaboration with engineering, and impact. Be prepared to discuss trade-offs, challenges, and lessons learned.

• Technical Discussion: Anticipate questions from engineers about component states, responsive design, token implementation, and the feasibility of design-to-code workflows. Be ready to discuss your comfort level with code and automation tools.

• Strategic Vision: Prepare to articulate your vision for evolving Niche's design system, considering AI integration, accessibility, and scalability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is structured to evaluate a candidate's strategic thinking, technical acumen, collaborative spirit, and practical application of design systems principles. The case study and panel interviews are key opportunities to demonstrate deep expertise.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: The primary design tool for UI design, component creation, and prototyping. Proficiency in its advanced features (auto layout, variants, properties) is essential.

• Storybook (Exploratory): Mentioned as a potential future tool for component development, documentation, and testing, indicating a move towards design-to-code integration.

• Design System Management Tools: Tools for organizing, documenting, and distributing design system assets (e.g., Zeroheight, Confluence, or internal wikis).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics Platforms (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics): Likely used to track user behavior, feature adoption, and the impact of design changes.

• Data Visualization/Dashboarding Tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker): Potentially used to monitor design system health metrics and product performance.

CRM & Automation:

• Project Management Tools (e.g., Jira, Asana, Trello): Essential for managing design system tasks, sprints, and feature development.

• Collaboration Platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams): For real-time communication and team coordination.

• AI-Assisted Design Tools (Exploratory): Candidates are expected to be familiar with or eager to explore AI tooling for design generation, automation, or efficiency gains.

• Cloud Infrastructure (e.g., AWS EC2): Mentioned in the context of setting up environments for AI/automation, suggesting comfort with cloud technologies might be beneficial.

📝 Enhancement Note: The technology stack emphasizes a modern approach to design systems, blending established tools like Figma with emerging technologies like AI and design-to-code frameworks. The role requires a candidate who is comfortable with this evolving landscape and willing to experiment.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Mission-Driven: A strong commitment to Niche's mission of making school research easy, transparent, and free, fostering a sense of purpose.

• User-Centricity: Prioritizing the needs and experiences of students, families, and schools in all design and product decisions.

• Collaboration & Transparency: Open communication, knowledge sharing, and a willingness to work cross-functionally to achieve common goals.

• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Encouraging the exploration of new technologies (like AI) and processes to enhance efficiency and product quality.

• Ownership & Accountability: Taking responsibility for one's work, driving initiatives forward, and being accountable for outcomes.

• Accessibility & Inclusivity: A commitment to building products that are usable and accessible to everyone.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Emphasis on close collaboration between Design, Engineering, and Product Management to ensure alignment and efficiency.

• Feedback-Oriented: A culture where constructive feedback is welcomed and used for continuous improvement of both products and processes.

• Systems-Oriented Thinking: Encouraging a holistic view of how components and patterns fit together to create a unified user experience.

• Proactive Communication: Active participation in team discussions, stand-ups, and design critiques to share progress, challenges, and insights.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture appears to be a blend of a mission-driven mission with the pragmatic execution needs of a growing tech company. The emphasis on collaboration and innovation is key, especially for a role focused on a foundational element like the design system.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Scaling a Mature System: Evolving an existing design system ("Expedite") to meet the growing needs of the company while ensuring scalability and maintainability.

• Driving Adoption: Encouraging and supporting product teams to effectively adopt and contribute to the design system, overcoming potential resistance or inertia.

• Integrating New Technologies: Successfully incorporating AI-assisted design and design-to-code workflows into the existing process, which may involve technical hurdles and learning curves.

• Balancing Vision with Reality: Aligning ambitious design system goals with immediate product development needs and engineering constraints.

• Maintaining Accessibility: Ensuring that the design system and all its components consistently meet WCAG AA standards as it evolves.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Cutting-Edge Technologies: Deep dive into AI for design, generative design, and advanced design-to-code automation techniques.

• System Architecture: Develop expertise in the architecture and governance of large-scale design systems.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Gain experience leading initiatives that span design, engineering, and product management.

• Industry Best Practices: Stay abreast of the latest trends and best practices in design systems, accessibility, and product development workflows.

• Mentorship: Opportunity to mentor junior designers and contribute to the growth of the design team's capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are typical for a senior role focused on design systems, particularly those involving the adoption of new technologies and driving organizational change. The growth opportunities are substantial for individuals looking to specialize in the evolving field of design operations and technology.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your approach to defining the vision and strategy for a design system. How do you align this with business objectives and product roadmaps?" (Focus on strategic alignment, user needs, and measurable outcomes.)

• "How do you foster collaboration and drive adoption of a design system across diverse product teams and engineering disciplines?" (Highlight communication strategies, documentation, training, and relationship-building.)

• "Walk us through a challenging situation where you had to make trade-offs between system scalability and immediate product needs. What was your process and outcome?" (Emphasize problem-solving, negotiation, and a balanced approach.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "Based on your research, what excites you about Niche's mission and how do you see design systems contributing to it?" (Show your understanding of the company's purpose and the role's strategic importance.)

• "How would you approach integrating AI-assisted design tools into our current workflow? What are the potential benefits and challenges you foresee?" (Demonstrate forward-thinking and an understanding of emerging technologies.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Case Study: Begin with the problem/opportunity, your role and approach, the solutions you designed/implemented, the challenges you faced, and the measurable impact.

• Highlight Systems Thinking: Clearly explain how your work contributes to a larger system, focusing on reusability, consistency, and scalability.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals (screenshots, prototypes, documentation snippets) to illustrate your points effectively.

• Quantify Results: Wherever possible, present data and metrics that demonstrate the success and ROI of your design system initiatives.

• Be Ready for Technical Deep Dives: Anticipate questions from engineers about component states, interaction patterns, token implementation, and your comfort level with code.

• Articulate Your Vision: Be prepared to discuss your future vision for Niche's design system, including the role of AI and automation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation focuses on demonstrating strategic thinking, technical understanding, collaborative capabilities, and a proactive approach to design systems and emerging technologies. The portfolio presentation is a key opportunity to showcase practical application and impact.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Designer, Design Systems position:

• Submit your application: Utilize the provided application link to submit your resume and portfolio.

• Tailor your Resume: Ensure your resume highlights your 6+ years of experience, specifically emphasizing your contributions to design systems, your proficiency in Figma, your understanding of accessibility, and any experience with AI or design-to-code workflows. Use keywords from the job description.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest design system projects. For each, clearly articulate the problem, your role, your process, the solutions you implemented, and the measurable impact. Ensure it showcases your visual design skills, systems thinking, and understanding of front-end concepts.

• Prepare Your Case Study Presentation: Select one compelling design system project to present in detail during the interview process. Practice articulating your process, challenges, solutions, and the outcomes, paying close attention to demonstrating your strategic thinking and collaborative abilities.

• Research Niche: Familiarize yourself with Niche's mission, products, and recent news. Understand their user base and the impact of their platform. This will help you tailor your answers and demonstrate genuine interest.

• Prepare for Technical Discussions: Review modern front-end concepts, atomic design principles, and the role of tools like Storybook. Be ready to discuss your comfort level with code and AI/automation tools.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and industry-standard assumptions. Specific details about salary, benefits, and the interview process should be confirmed directly with Niche during the application and interview stages. All applications and resumes must be submitted in English.