Product Designer (Design Systems)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer (Design Systems)

Company: TEKsystems

Location: Menlo Park, California, United States

Job Type: CONTRACTOR

Category: Design Operations / Product Design

Date Posted: April 06, 2026

Experience Level: 4+ Years

Remote Status: Fully Remote (US-based)

🚀 Role Summary

• This role focuses on supporting a large global tech company's social experiences by ensuring design assets are polished, scalable, and production-ready, directly impacting billions of users.

• It requires advanced proficiency in design systems and production design to maintain high craft, consistency, and efficiency across a broad portfolio of high-visibility surfaces.

• The position involves close collaboration with product, content, and marketing designers, as well as art directors and design program managers, to streamline design workflows.

• Key responsibilities include preparing and organizing design assets, creating and maintaining component libraries, and ensuring adherence to established design standards and guidelines for AI-enabled product surfaces.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is specifically for a Production Designer with a strong emphasis on Design Systems, a specialized area within product design operations. While the title is "Product Designer," the core function is ensuring design scalability and production readiness, making it highly relevant to operations professionals focused on efficiency and standardization within design. The "AI-enabled product surfaces" mention indicates a need to understand and adapt design systems for emerging AI features.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Prepare, organize, and maintain high-quality design assets for internal and external use, ensuring scalability and consistency.

• Create and maintain robust component libraries and design systems within Figma, adhering to established standards and guidelines.

• Produce product mockups, prototypes, and presentation decks for reviews, workshops, and global presentations, including the creation of engaging deck templates.

• Maintain up-to-date design documentation as a definitive source of truth for design standards and processes.

• Provide detailed design specifications and communicate them effectively to partners involved in producing in-product artwork.

• Troubleshoot issues related to file structure, organization, and design handoff processes to ensure smooth collaboration.

• Translate and adapt designs across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, and web, considering platform-specific nuances.

• Support the design and production of AI-related or AI-enabled product surfaces, ensuring system alignment.

• Collaborate closely with product, content, and marketing designers, art directors, and design program managers to uphold design quality and efficiency.

• Assist with additional production and design tasks as required to support the broader design team's initiatives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "preparing, organizing, and maintaining" assets, "creating and maintaining component libraries," and "troubleshooting file structure and handoff" are core operations functions within a design context. The responsibility to "translate designs across multiple platforms" highlights the need for systematic design thinking and execution, critical for design operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, Computer Science, or a related field is often preferred for roles requiring this level of expertise and experience. However, demonstrable skills and portfolio are paramount.

Experience: 4+ years of relevant design experience, with a strong emphasis on production, systems, or design support work.

Required Skills:

• Advanced proficiency in Figma, including expert-level skills in component libraries, file organization, and system maintenance.

• Proven experience working with design systems and understanding the principles of reusable components for scalability and consistency.

• Strong production design capabilities, ensuring assets are polished, efficient, and ready for implementation.

• Demonstrated experience in prototyping using Figma or similar advanced tools to convey user flows and interactions.

• Expertise in presentation and deck design, including creating and maintaining clear, engaging templates for stakeholder communication.

• Experience designing for multiple platforms: web, Android, and iOS, with an understanding of platform-specific design patterns and guidelines.

• Comfort and experience working with AI-related or AI-enabled product surfaces, adapting design systems for new technological paradigms.

• Proficiency with Google Workspace tools (Drive, Slides, Docs, Sheets) for collaboration and documentation.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with mobile and web product design beyond pure production support, indicating a broader design perspective.

• Familiarity with large-scale consumer platforms and the complexities of designing for a global audience.

• Prior experience supporting AI-native products or features, demonstrating adaptability to cutting-edge technology.

• Exposure to system-driven, horizontal design teams, indicating an understanding of complex organizational structures.

• Experience using advanced prototyping tools such as Origami Studio.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of "Advanced proficiency in Figma, including component libraries and file organization" and "Experience working with design systems" points to a deep need for expertise in managing design infrastructure, a key aspect of design operations. The requirement to work with "AI-related or AI-enabled product surfaces" suggests an evolving landscape for design systems.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase projects that demonstrate a strong command of design systems, including examples of component libraries, style guides, and system documentation.

• Include case studies highlighting your role in production design, detailing how you ensured scalability, consistency, and efficiency in asset preparation and delivery.

• Present examples of complex Figma file organization, illustrating how you structure files for optimal team collaboration and maintainability.

• Demonstrate your ability to create high-fidelity prototypes and detailed design specifications that facilitate seamless handoff to engineering.

Process Documentation:

• Document your approach to maintaining and updating design systems, including version control, contribution guidelines, and quality assurance processes.

• Illustrate your methods for translating designs across platforms (iOS, Android, Web), ensuring consistency while respecting platform conventions.

• Detail your workflow for troubleshooting design file issues and design handoff problems, emphasizing proactive solutions and clear communication.

• Showcase your experience in creating and managing design specifications and ensuring their accurate implementation by development teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a role focused on design systems and production, a portfolio must explicitly demonstrate the candidate's ability to manage and scale design assets and processes. This involves showcasing not just visual design skills, but also the organizational and systemic thinking required for efficient design operations.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $50.00 - $90.00 per hour.

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental & Vision insurance plans.

• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital Insurance coverage.

• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contribution options.

• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for employee and dependents).

• Short-term and Long-term Disability coverage.

• Health Spending Account (HSA).

• Transportation benefits.

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support services.

• Time Off/Leave policies including PTO, Vacation, or Sick Leave.

Working Hours: Approximately 40 hours per week, typical for a full-time contract role, with a flexible work environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range of $50-$90/hr for a Production Designer with 4+ years of experience in a high-cost-of-living area like Menlo Park (even for a remote role within the US) is within the expected market range for specialized contract design roles. This range reflects the demand for expertise in design systems and production efficiency, particularly within large tech companies. The benefits listed are typical for contract roles through a staffing agency like TEKsystems, providing a comprehensive package.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology Services & Staffing (TEKsystems is a leading provider of business and technology services). The role is with a Top Global Tech Company.

Company Size: TEKsystems is part of Allegis Group, employing 80,000+ people globally, working with over 6,000 clients. The client company is implied to be a very large tech organization.

Founded: TEKsystems was founded in 1983. The client company's founding date is not specified but is implied to be a long-standing, large-scale tech firm.

Team Structure:

• The role supports a broad portfolio of social experiences, indicating a focus on user interaction and community features within a large platform.

• The team operates with a strong systems-thinking mindset, emphasizing interconnectedness and efficiency in design solutions.

• It functions as a horizontal team, meaning it likely collaborates across various product lines or departments rather than being siloed within a single product.

Methodology:

• Emphasis on design systems and reusable components to ensure scalability and consistency across products.

• Focus on production design to deliver polished, production-ready assets efficiently.

• Systems thinking is applied to ensure holistic design solutions that consider the entire user experience and platform architecture.

• Data-driven insights are implied to guide design decisions, particularly in optimizing user experiences and feature adoption.

• Cross-functional collaboration is a core operational strategy to align design efforts with product, engineering, and marketing goals.

Company Website: https://careers.teksystems.com/us/en (TEKsystems)

📝 Enhancement Note: While TEKsystems is the staffing agency, the role is within a "Top Global Tech Company" focused on "social experiences." This implies a fast-paced, innovative environment common in large social media or platform companies, where design operations and systems are crucial for managing complexity and rapid iteration.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role sits at an intermediate to senior level within the design production and systems specialization. It requires significant hands-on expertise and the ability to work independently on complex tasks, contributing to the efficiency and scalability of a large design organization.

Reporting Structure: The Production Designer will likely report to a Design Manager, Design Lead, or Design Program Manager within the social experiences team. They will work collaboratively with various design disciplines.

Operations Impact: The Production Designer's work has a direct impact on the efficiency of the entire design team by providing standardized assets and components. This allows other designers to focus on higher-level strategic and creative work, ultimately accelerating product development and ensuring a consistent, high-quality user experience for billions of users. Their efforts in maintaining design systems contribute to brand consistency and reduce development overhead.

Growth Opportunities:

• Specialization Advancement: Deepen expertise in design systems, production design, and potentially AI-driven design tools, becoming a go-to expert in these areas.

• Cross-functional Leadership: Develop stronger project management and leadership skills by coordinating design production efforts and collaborating with diverse teams.

• Broader Design Scope: With proven success in production and systems, opportunities may arise to contribute to more strategic design initiatives or product strategy.

• Mentorship: Potential to mentor junior designers or production artists on best practices for design systems and asset creation.

• Industry Trends: Opportunity to stay at the forefront of design technology, particularly in AI-enabled product design and advanced prototyping.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is a specialized path within design, focusing on the operational aspects of design execution. Growth typically involves becoming a deeper expert in design systems, production efficiency, and platform scaling, rather than necessarily moving into broader UX strategy roles, though that can be a potential lateral move with additional skill development.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is a fully remote position, allowing individuals to work from anywhere within the United States.

Office Location(s): While the role is remote, the "Contract position based out of Menlo Park, CA" implies a connection to a major tech hub, suggesting the client company has a significant presence there.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The role emphasizes close partnership with various design disciplines and cross-functional teams, requiring strong communication and teamwork skills even in a remote setting.

• Operations Tools & Technology: Access to and proficiency with industry-standard design tools like Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Google Workspace is essential. The company likely provides necessary software licenses.

• Team Interaction: Regular virtual meetings, stand-ups, and collaboration sessions will be part of the remote work experience, fostering team cohesion and alignment. The team operates with a "systems-thinking mindset."

Work Schedule: Approximately 40 hours per week. The role requires adaptability and comfort working in a fast-paced, constantly evolving environment, suggesting a need for efficient time management and the ability to meet tight deadlines.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "fully remote" nature combined with the "Menlo Park, CA" anchor suggests a company that embraces distributed workforces but may still have a core operational base or cultural connection to Silicon Valley. The "fast-paced, constantly evolving environment" is typical of large tech companies, especially those involved in social platforms and AI.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely a review of resume and portfolio by TEKsystems or the client's recruiting team to assess basic qualifications.

• Portfolio Review: A dedicated session where candidates present their portfolio, focusing on design systems, production design, Figma expertise, and cross-platform experience. Be prepared to articulate your process and impact.

• Technical/Skills Assessment: May involve a live Figma exercise or a case study focusing on design system implementation, file organization, or asset scaling.

• Behavioral & Cross-functional Interviews: Discussions with hiring managers and potential team members to assess working style, communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit, particularly regarding collaboration and adaptability.

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

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight Design Systems: Dedicate significant space to showcasing your work on design systems. Include examples of component libraries, style guides, and how you ensured their adoption and maintenance.

• Showcase Production Impact: For production design projects, clearly articulate the problem, your solution, and the quantifiable impact (e.g., improved efficiency, reduced errors, faster design-to-dev handoff).

• Figma Expertise: Demonstrate advanced Figma skills through file structure examples, complex component setups, and efficient workflow demonstrations.

• Cross-Platform Translation: Include examples of how you adapted designs for iOS, Android, and web, explaining your rationale and process.

• AI Integration: If you have relevant experience, showcase how you've applied design systems or production techniques to AI-enabled features or products.

• Storytelling: For each project, tell a clear story: the challenge, your role, the process, and the outcome.

Challenge Preparation:

• Figma Proficiency: Be ready for potential live Figma challenges that test your ability to build components, organize files, or create scalable assets under timed conditions.

• Systems Thinking: Prepare to discuss how you approach building and maintaining scalable design systems that cater to diverse product needs.

• Problem-Solving Scenarios: Anticipate questions about how you would handle common production design issues, such as inconsistent assets, file bloat, or communication breakdowns with engineering.

• Collaboration Scenarios: Be ready to discuss how you collaborate effectively with product managers, engineers, and other designers in a remote, fast-paced environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on Figma, design systems, and production work means the portfolio review and any practical tests will heavily focus on these operational aspects of design execution. Candidates should prepare to defend their systematic approaches and demonstrate practical efficiency.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: The core tool for design creation, component library management, prototyping, and file organization. Advanced proficiency is a must.

• Adobe Creative Cloud: Including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign for asset manipulation, vector creation, and potentially layout work.

• Google Workspace: Drive, Slides, Docs, and Sheets for documentation, collaboration, and presentation creation.

Analytics & Reporting:

CRM & Automation:

• Not directly applicable to the core design production tasks, but understanding how design assets integrate into marketing or product launch workflows could be advantageous.

📝 Enhancement Note: The technology stack is heavily focused on design execution and system management, with Figma being the central pillar. Proficiency here is non-negotiable. The mention of Google Workspace highlights the need for strong documentation and collaboration capabilities within a standard enterprise suite.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Detail-Oriented & Methodical: A core value for production and systems roles, ensuring accuracy and thoroughness in all tasks.

• Efficiency & Speed: The ability to work quickly and produce high-quality output in a fast-paced environment is critical.

• Consistency & Scalability: Maintaining high craft, consistency, and ensuring designs can scale across a vast platform are paramount.

• Collaboration & Communication: Open communication and effective teamwork with cross-functional partners are essential for seamless design execution.

• Adaptability: Comfort with change and evolving priorities in a dynamic tech landscape.

Collaboration Style:

• Partnership: Works closely with product, content, and marketing designers, art directors, and design program managers.

• Systems-Driven: Employs a systems-thinking approach, ensuring integration and harmony across different design elements and products.

• Proactive Communication: Essential for troubleshooting issues and ensuring clear handoffs between design and development.

• Feedback Exchange: Openness to receiving and incorporating feedback to refine assets and systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: The cultural values heavily lean towards operational excellence within design: precision, speed, consistency, and seamless collaboration. These are the hallmarks of effective design operations teams in large organizations.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Maintaining Consistency at Scale: Ensuring design system integrity and asset consistency across a vast portfolio of applications and features used by billions.

• Pace of Change: Adapting to rapid iteration cycles and evolving product roadmaps common in large tech companies, especially with new technologies like AI.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Effectively communicating and collaborating with diverse teams (product, engineering, marketing) who may have different priorities or understanding of design systems.

• Managing Complex Files: Keeping Figma files organized, performant, and up-to-date for a large team requires meticulous attention to detail and robust processes.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Design Systems Expertise: Deepen knowledge in advanced design system methodologies, tooling, and governance.

• AI in Design: Gain experience in applying design systems to emerging AI-powered features and understanding the unique design challenges they present.

• Cross-Platform Design Mastery: Further refine skills in designing and maintaining consistency across iOS, Android, and web platforms.

• Production Workflow Optimization: Contribute to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of design production pipelines.

• Industry Best Practices: Exposure to how leading global tech companies manage their design operations and scale their creative output.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are rooted in the operational complexities of large-scale design. Growth opportunities focus on deepening specialized skills within design operations and adapting to new technological frontiers like AI.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your process for building and maintaining a component library within a design system. What are the key considerations for scalability and reusability?" (Focus on systematic approach, documentation, versioning).

• "How do you ensure design consistency across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Web) while respecting platform-specific guidelines?" (Highlight your cross-platform translation process and rationale).

• "Walk me through a complex Figma file you've organized. What strategies did you employ to ensure efficiency and ease of collaboration for your team?" (Prepare to share screen and demonstrate file structure, component usage, and organization techniques).

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about working on social experiences at a large tech company?" (Connect your skills to user impact and scale).

• "How do you handle working in a fast-paced, constantly evolving environment with shifting priorities?" (Emphasize adaptability, organization, and proactive communication).

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure for Operations: Organize your portfolio to clearly showcase your design systems, production design, and Figma expertise. Use case studies that highlight process, problem-solving, and quantifiable outcomes.

• Demonstrate Figma Mastery: Be prepared to navigate your Figma files, explain your component architecture, and demonstrate prototyping capabilities live.

• Focus on Impact: For each project, clearly articulate the problem you solved, your specific contribution, and the resulting impact on design efficiency, consistency, or user experience.

• Tailor to the Role: Emphasize projects that align with design systems, production, and cross-platform work. If you have AI-related design experience, highlight it.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interviews will heavily scrutinize your practical skills in Figma and your understanding of design systems as an operational framework. Be ready to demonstrate, not just describe, your capabilities.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the TEKsystems careers portal link provided.

• Customize Your Resume: Highlight keywords and experiences directly related to "Production Design," "Design Systems," "Figma," "Component Libraries," "Cross-Platform Design," and "AI-enabled products." Quantify achievements where possible (e.g., "Increased design asset reusability by X%").

• Curate Your Portfolio: Ensure your portfolio prominently features projects demonstrating your expertise in design systems, advanced Figma usage, and production design. Include specific case studies that articulate your process, problem-solving approach, and the impact of your work on efficiency and consistency. Prepare to walk through your Figma files.

• Prepare for Technical Assessments: Familiarize yourself with Figma's advanced features and be ready for potential live design exercises or challenges that test your ability to build components, organize files, and create scalable assets.

• Research the Client: While TEKsystems is the employer of record, understand the nature of the "Top Global Tech Company" and its focus on "social experiences" and "AI-enabled products." 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 should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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