Lead Product Designer - Design System

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Product Designer - Design System

Company: BVNK

Location: UK / Bulgaria / Malta / South Africa / Spain

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Product Design / Design Operations

Date Posted: May 28, 2026

Experience Level: 5-10 Years

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end ownership and strategic roadmap for BVNK's design system, ensuring its evolution and adoption across multiple product teams.

• Drive an AI-first design approach, optimizing the design system for seamless consumption by LLMs and AI prototyping tools to minimize prototype-to-production drift.

• Act as a key liaison between Design, Front-end Engineering, and Product Management, fostering a cohesive development workflow and a strong design-to-code handshake.

• Champion the design system's value through clear, data-driven communication and active advocacy across the organization to foster collaboration and efficiency.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is highly specialized within product design, focusing specifically on the strategic leadership and technical governance of a design system. The emphasis on AI integration and LLM consumption is a significant differentiator, requiring a candidate with forward-thinking technical literacy and practical AI workflow experience. The role sits within the Core Platform pod, highlighting its foundational importance to BVNK's technology infrastructure.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design System Ownership & Roadmap: Define, prioritize, and execute the design system roadmap, including the creation of new components, deprecation of outdated elements, and strategic investment areas.

• Technical Integration & Governance: Maintain and tighten the integration between Figma, Storybook, and Zeroheight, ensuring a single source of truth and clear documentation. Manage governance tasks such as audits, deprecations, and documentation hygiene.

• AI-First Design System Development: Architect the design system to be AI-consumable, focusing on component naming, prop structures, and usage documentation that is readable by both humans and AI models.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with front-end engineers to refine contribution flows, component APIs, and the design-to-code handoff. Read and reason about component code to engage in credible discussions about technical tradeoffs.

• AI Workflow Integration: Utilize LLMs (e.g., Claude) for clarifying intent, drafting PRDs, pressure-testing approaches, and surfacing risks. Prototype with AI tools to generate components and patterns, guiding their structure, behavior, and quality.

• Value Articulation & Advocacy: Measure and communicate the design system's impact using metrics like adoption rates, contribution velocity, time-to-ship, and prototype-to-production drift. Actively promote the system through demos, written content, and presentations to designers, engineers, and PMs.

• Mentorship & Community Building: Conduct critiques and reviews of system changes, mentor designers contributing to the system, and help front-end and PMs become more effective consumers of the design system.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a blend of strategic leadership, hands-on design system management, and a strong technical understanding, particularly in relation to AI and front-end development. The expectation to "read and reason about component code fluently" and "prototype in it" suggests a deep collaboration with engineering, moving beyond traditional design roles. The focus on AI integration is a core responsibility, requiring practical, daily use of these tools.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong understanding of Computer Science principles, UI/UX design methodologies, and software development lifecycle is expected.

Experience: Proven track record of successfully shipping and governing a production-ready design system utilized by multiple product teams. Demonstrated experience in a senior or lead product design role with a focus on system design and architecture.

Required Skills:

• Design System Expertise: Extensive experience in shipping, governing, and evolving production design systems.

• Technical Literacy: Fluency in HTML, CSS, and modern JavaScript frameworks, specifically React and TypeScript. Ability to read component code, understand prop APIs, composition patterns, and discuss implementation tradeoffs with engineers.

• Figma Proficiency: Advanced skills in Figma for component design, prototyping, and design system management.

• AI & LLM Workflow: Fluent, daily use of LLMs (e.g., Claude) and AI prototyping tools for design ideation, documentation, and component generation. Ability to demonstrate practical application and thought process.

• Roadmap Management: Proven ability to define, manage, and execute a system roadmap, justifying decisions with relevant metrics and impact analysis.

• Component Architecture & Design Tokens: Strong understanding of atomic design principles, component structure, and design token implementation.

• Written Communication: Excellent written communication skills for asynchronous collaboration, documentation, and knowledge sharing.

Preferred Skills:

• Fintech/Regulated Domain Experience: Familiarity with the nuances of working in fintech, payments, cryptocurrency, or other regulated industries.

• Storybook & Zeroheight: Experience leveraging tools like Storybook for component development and Zeroheight for documentation.

• API Design: Understanding of API design principles as they relate to component interfaces and data structures.

• Prototyping in Code: Experience prototyping directly in code or with AI code generation tools.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "fluently" reading code and "prototyping in it" indicates a need for a designer with a strong engineering mindset, capable of bridging the gap between design and development. The daily, practical use of LLMs and AI tools is a critical requirement, not just theoretical knowledge.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Design System Case Studies: Showcase at least one comprehensive case study detailing the design, implementation, and governance of a production-ready design system. This should highlight the system's architecture, contribution process, and impact on product development velocity.

• AI Integration Examples: Include specific examples or a dedicated section demonstrating how AI and LLMs were integrated into the design system workflow. This could involve AI-assisted documentation, component generation, or pattern auditing.

• Technical Literacy Demonstration: Provide evidence of technical understanding, such as code snippets, explanations of component APIs, or descriptions of collaboration with front-end engineers on technical tradeoffs.

• Roadmap & Metrics: Present a sample design system roadmap and articulate how key decisions were made based on metrics such as adoption rates, consistency improvements, or time-to-market reductions.

Process Documentation:

• System Governance Framework: Illustrate your approach to design system governance, including processes for contribution, review, versioning, and deprecation.

• Design-to-Code Handshake: Detail how you ensure a seamless handoff from design to code, including documentation standards, component specifications, and collaboration protocols with engineering.

• AI Workflow Integration: Document the specific AI tools and methodologies used within your design system workflow, explaining how these tools enhanced efficiency, consistency, or quality.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio must go beyond visual design to demonstrate strategic leadership, technical acumen, and a deep understanding of design system operations. A strong emphasis on AI integration and practical application is crucial, alongside evidence of metrics-driven decision-making and cross-functional collaboration.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on the experience level (5-10 years), the global nature of the role (UK, Bulgaria, Malta, South Africa, Spain), and the specialized skill set (Design System Lead with AI focus), a competitive salary range is estimated. For a Lead Product Designer with this expertise, typical ranges could be:

• UK: £70,000 - £100,000+ per annum

• Spain: €60,000 - €90,000+ per annum

• Malta: €55,000 - €85,000+ per annum

• Bulgaria: BGN 120,000 - BGN 180,000+ per annum

• South Africa: ZAR 800,000 - ZAR 1,200,000+ per annum

Benefits:

• Fair and competitive salary at every stage of your growth.

• Flexible working hours, with hybrid working at its heart.

• A culture built on passionate, growth-minded people.

• A flexible approach to holiday.

• Opportunities to travel to our offices around the world.

• An open and creative environment where you can help define the future of BVNK.

Working Hours: Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours per week) with flexibility, accommodating different time zones across the specified regions.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary estimates are based on general market data for Lead Product Designer roles in these regions, adjusted for the specialized focus on design systems and AI. The specific package will depend on the candidate's location, exact experience, and negotiation. The benefits are directly sourced from the job description, highlighting BVNK's commitment to employee well-being and professional growth.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Fintech / Stablecoins / Financial Services. BVNK operates at the cutting edge of financial technology, leveraging stablecoins to transform global money movement for businesses. This industry demands high levels of security, compliance, and innovation.

Company Size: BVNK is a growing startup (founded in 2021), having secured significant Series B funding and strategic investment from Visa. This indicates a dynamic, fast-paced environment with ambitious growth plans. The team is spread across EMEA, North America, and APAC, suggesting a globally distributed and diverse workforce.

Founded: 2021. This relatively recent founding means BVNK is still in a high-growth phase, shaping its culture and processes.

Team Structure:

• The Lead Product Designer will sit within the Core Platform pod, reporting to the Head of Design.

• This role involves close collaboration with the Principal Designer - Core Platform and Principal Front-end Engineers.

• The design system supports approximately fifty people across Design, Front-end, Back-end, and Product Management.

Methodology:

• AI-First Approach: A core methodology is the integration of AI and LLMs into daily workflows, from initial ideation to prototyping and code generation.

• Design System as Infrastructure: The design system is treated as a foundational layer for financial services, emphasizing consistency, scalability, and efficiency.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Emphasis on articulating impact through metrics and data rather than subjective "vibes."

• Async Communication: Acknowledgment of async communication as a primary mode of work, requiring clarity and conciseness.

Company Website: BVNK Company Website (Inferred from domain_derived)

📝 Enhancement Note: BVNK's culture appears to be innovative, growth-oriented, and globally distributed, with a strong emphasis on leveraging cutting-edge technology like AI. The "Core Platform" focus for this role signifies its critical importance to the company's underlying infrastructure and future scalability.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Lead Product Designer, indicating a senior individual contributor role with significant ownership and strategic influence over a critical area: the design system. It requires not only design craft but also leadership in strategy, governance, and cross-functional evangelism.

Reporting Structure: The Lead Product Designer reports to the Head of Design and works closely with Principal Designers and Engineers within the Core Platform pod. This structure suggests a collaborative environment where strategic direction is set at a high level, and execution is driven by experienced specialists.

Operations Impact: The design system is fundamental to BVNK's ability to ship products quickly, consistently, and efficiently. By owning and evolving this system, the Lead Product Designer directly impacts the velocity of product development, the consistency of user experiences across all BVNK platforms, and the effectiveness of AI-driven development processes. This role is pivotal in scaling the company's design and development capabilities.

Growth Opportunities:

• System Evolution & Leadership: Opportunity to shape the future of BVNK's design system, potentially expanding its scope and influence as the company grows.

• AI & Future of Design: Deep dive into AI-first design methodologies, becoming a subject matter expert in how AI impacts design systems and product development.

• Cross-Functional Expertise: Develop deep working relationships and technical understanding with front-end engineering and product management, enhancing collaboration skills.

• Strategic Influence: Contribute to the core technological infrastructure of a rapidly growing fintech company, with direct visibility to