Staff Design System Lead
Ritchie Bros. · Westchester, IL, United States ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Staff
- Category
- Design
- Experience
- 9+ years
RB Global is hiring a hands-on Staff Design System Lead to set the strategy and advance our existing MUI (Material UI) and React design system. The foundation is in place; we need a senior leader with a proven record of evolving design systems that work for product designers and engineers—not just in a style guide.
You will turn feedback from designers across the organization into a scalable, consistent, and intuitive system while elevating the craft to feel polished, distinctive, and unmistakably RB rather than out-of-the-box Material Design.
Working at the intersection of design and engineering, you will partner closely with front-end engineers on architecture and implementation. You will also own the intake, triage, and prioritization of design system requests, ensuring the roadmap reflects meaningful product needs and delivers measurable value across teams.
What You'll Do
- Set the strategy. Define the multi-year vision and roadmap for the design system, translating business and product priorities into decisions that hold up as RB Global scales.
- Own the system end to end. Lead foundations, components, patterns, tokens, and documentation as a single, coherent system — building on the existing MUI/React foundation rather than starting over.
- Design for real usage. Partner directly with product designers to understand where the current system falls short, gather input, and continuously evolve components and guidelines based on that feedback — not in a vacuum.
- Build in Figma, connect to code. Maintain a component library (variants, auto layout, variables/tokens) that stays tightly synced with the MUI/React implementation in production.
- Push past default Material Design. Theme, extend, and override MUI's out-of-the-box components and patterns so the system reads as distinctly RB, not generic Material Design.
- Architect the token system. Establish a token structure that supports theming, scale, and long-term consistency across products.
- Elevate the craft. Bring a high bar for visual polish, detail, and motion so the system feels slick and modern — not just functional.
- Own illustration and imagery. Develop and maintain an illustration style, icon system, and imagery guidelines that reinforce and extend brand identity.
- Set governance that scales. Define contribution models, versioning, and decision-making processes so the system holds up as more teams adopt it.
- Document relentlessly. Create clear usage guidelines and onboarding resources so designers and engineers can self-serve with confidence.
- Partner closely with engineering. Work hand-in-hand with front-end engineers on component architecture, implementation, and release planning — you're a co-owner of the system with them, not just a handoff.
- Manage intake and prioritization. Own the process for how new component requests, bug reports, and change proposals come in, get evaluated, and get sequenced on the roadmap — balancing designer needs, engineering capacity, and system integrity.
- Democratize the system with AI. Connect the design system to Claude — building structured documentation (e.g., CLAUDE.md-style files) and custom agents/skills so any designer, PM, or engineer can query, apply, and extend the system correctly without being a design systems expert.
- Bake in accessibility. Treat WCAG-aligned accessibility as a default, non-negotiable part of every component.
- Represent the system. Be the org-wide voice for design system strategy — influencing decisions and trade-offs with design and engineering leadership, not just answering questions as they come in.
9+ years in product design, including significant time setting strategy for and maturing a design system at a product company — taking something that already exists and materially leveling it up, not just standing one up on a blank canvas or executing someone else's roadmap.
Hands-on experience with MUI (Material UI) and React-based component libraries — comfortable theming, extending, and overriding MUI's defaults to produce something distinctive, rather than settling for the out-of-the-box look.
A portfolio that demonstrates systems thinking: token architecture, component libraries, documentation, and real adoption across multiple teams.
Deep fluency in Figma (variables, component variants, auto layout) and familiarity with design-to-code workflows (e.g., Code Connect, Storybook).
Strong visual craft — typography, layout, color, and motion — with an eye for making systems feel considered and slick, not generic.
Real, hands-on experience partnering with engineering — you can speak to component architecture, technical constraints, and implementation trade-offs, not just hand off Figma files.
Experience running an intake and prioritization process for a shared platform or system (design or otherwise), balancing competing requests against roadmap and capacity.
A track record of taking input from many designers and stakeholders and distilling it into coherent, scalable decisions — with the influence to make those decisions stick without needing formal authority over a team.
Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and how to build them into a system by default.
Comfort balancing structure with flexibility — opinionated enough to keep things consistent, flexible enough to stay usable.
An avid, hands-on AI user who brings it into the daily workflow — e.g., Claude, Figma's AI/MCP integrations, or similar — and has experience (or strong interest in) writing documentation and agents/skills that make a design system self-serve for people who aren't designers, not just using AI as a novelty.
What You'll Bring
- 9+ years in product design, including significant time setting strategy for and maturing a design system at a product company — taking something that already exists and materially leveling it up, not just standing one up on a blank canvas or executing someone else's roadmap.
- Hands-on experience with MUI (Material UI) and React-based component libraries — comfortable theming, extending, and overriding MUI's defaults to produce something distinctive, rather than settling for the out-of-the-box look.
- A portfolio that demonstrates systems thinking: token architecture, component libraries, documentation, and real adoption across multiple teams.
- Deep fluency in Figma (variables, component variants, auto layout) and familiarity with design-to-code workflows (e.g., Code Connect, Storybook).
- Strong visual craft — typography, layout, color, and motion — with an eye for making systems feel considered and slick, not generic.
- Real, hands-on experience partnering with engineering — you can speak to component architecture, technical constraints, and implementation trade-offs, not just hand off Figma files.
- Experience running an intake and prioritization process for a shared platform or system (design or otherwise), balancing competing requests against roadmap and capacity.
- A track record of taking input from many designers and stakeholders and distilling it into coherent, scalable decisions — with the influence to make those decisions stick without needing formal authority over a team.
- Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and how to build them into a system by default.
- Comfort balancing structure with flexibility — opinionated enough to keep things consistent, flexible enough to stay usable.
- An avid, hands-on AI user who brings it into the daily workflow — e.g., Claude, Figma's AI/MCP integrations, or similar — and has experience (or strong interest in) writing documentation and agents/skills that make a design system self-serve for people who aren't designers, not just using AI as a novelty.
Nice to Have
- Illustration or icon design skills, or experience directing an illustration system.
- Experience evolving an existing brand identity through a design system, rather than building on a blank canvas.
- Familiarity with motion and interaction design principles.
- Experience with design token tooling (e.g., Style Dictionary, Tokens Studio).
What Success Looks Like
- Product designers reach for the system by default because it's faster and easier than building from scratch.
- The system reduces visual and interaction inconsistency across RB products without slowing teams down.
- The system is recognizably, distinctly RB — not a generic off-the-shelf look.
- The system evolves on a steady cadence based on real designer feedback, with clear versioning and communication.