Lead Developer Design Systems

Base Salary Range: $120000 - $160000

Job Title: Lead Developer Design Systems
Job ID: 85922
Location: Toronto, Ontario - Hybrid


Overview:
Our client is a global leader in fund services, corporate governance and related asset services with staff across 80 offices worldwide. World-class software solutions and innovation are at the core of what differentiates our client in the  financial services spaces. Through our network of global development centers, they invest heavily in technology innovation to ensure our clients continue to receive award-winning products.  We are seeking a talented Full Stack Lead Developer, Design System to evolve our company-wide design system. This individual will ensure a cohesive, scalable, and accessible experience across digital products and they will collaborate closely with design and development teams to define, build, and maintain reusable smart and simple UI components, design tokens, and system documentation that reinforce our brand and design language. This individual will also contribute to back-end development for enterprise services that power smart UI components. The position is based in Toronto and may require some international travel to other locations. The Lead Developer, Design Systems will report to the Design Director and join an engineering team that contributes to their Client Portal by partnering with existing engineers and working close with business and designers.


What you will be doing:

• Build, maintain, and document a library of reusable UI components using React (TypeScript) utilizing MUI as the foundation for atomic components.
• Build back-end services to power smart components for the enterprise.
• Establish, manage, and evolve design tokens, theming structures, and other system foundations that ensure brand consistency across multiple products.
• Develop clear, comprehensive documentation, including usage guidelines, component specifications, accessibility notes, and example implementations to support consistent adoption across teams.
• Maintain cross-browser and cross-device compatibility within the component library to ensure high-quality, consistent user experiences.
• Design and develop RESTful APIs using Node/Java
• Perform code reviews and ensure the team upholds a high-quality bar
• Participate in Agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and design reviews, providing design system expertise.
• Contribute to the Client Portal development if time allows

• 5 + years of experience as a Design System engineer, full-stack engineer, or a similar role with substantial involvement in component library or design system development.
• Strong expertise in React (TypeScript) and UI frameworks (Material UI or similar)
• Hands on experience with Figma with ability to interpret design specifications and translate them into maintainable, scalable components.
• Strong understanding of accessibility (WCAG compliance) and responsive design
• Experience creating and maintaining design systems, including establishing sand evolving design tokens, component standards, and documentation practices
• Familiarity with state management basics to support UI component needs
• Knowledge of cross-browser/device testing and performance optimization for smooth user experiences
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills with the ability to work closely with designers, developers, and product managers in agile teams.
• Enthusiasm for design system best practices, frontend performance optimization, accessible design and emerging UI technologies.
• Experience with AWS services such as S3, EC2, Lambda, API Gateway, SQS is an asset
• Experience with NodeJS frameworks, Spring/SpringBoot using Java/Kotlin
• Experience with Relational Databases, Postgres preferred
• Experience with source code management tools (GIT), CICD (Jenkins) are nice-to-have
• Experience using monorepo architecture with Turborepo would be an asset