Staff Product Designer, Design Systems & Foundations

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Staff Product Designer, Design Systems & Foundations

Company: HighlightTA (on behalf of Zipline)

Location: Canada

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / Design Systems

Date Posted: 2026-06-18

Experience Level: 10+ years

Remote Status: Remote Solely

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the strategic evolution and governance of Zipline's design system (ZUI), encompassing component architecture, design tokens, and accessibility standards.

• Establish and drive adoption of shared interaction patterns, mental models, and design principles to ensure product consistency and scalability.

• Develop comprehensive documentation, guidance, and decision-making frameworks to empower designers, engineers, and PMs in their product development efforts.

• Contribute to complex product initiatives, influencing long-term product direction, and exploring the integration of emerging technologies like AI within design workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the primary title is "Staff Product Designer, Design Systems & Foundations," the role's responsibilities strongly align with a senior Design Systems Lead or Principal level position. The emphasis on owning and evolving the design system, establishing foundational infrastructure, and influencing product strategy indicates a significant scope of influence and decision-making authority within the design and product development lifecycle. The mention of AI integration points towards a forward-thinking approach to design operations and product development.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own and continuously evolve ZUI, Zipline's comprehensive design system, including its component architecture, design tokens, accessibility standards, documentation, and implementation quality assurance.

• Partner closely with engineering leadership to ensure the design system remains synchronized with product development and underlying technical architecture.

• Define and champion shared interaction patterns, user mental models, and core design principles to foster consistency and a cohesive user experience across the entire Zipline product.

• Translate insights and learnings from product-specific work into reusable systems, frameworks, and foundational elements that can be effectively scaled across multiple product teams.

• Develop and maintain robust documentation, clear guidance, and structured decision-making frameworks to enable designers, engineers, and Product Managers to work autonomously and consistently.

• Drive