<div>Role summary </div><div>We’re hiring a Head of Design Systems to lead the strategy, technology, and creative direction of our enterprise-wide design system that powers digital experiences across businesses and functions. This leader will be both a seasoned design craft practitioner and a strong engineering-minded platform owner—accountable for the visual digital brand, the system’s component library and code, governance, documentation, and adoption. You’ll manage a global, multi-disciplinary team of designers, design technologists/developers, strategists, writers, and producers, and you’ll own our design and research tool portfolio (e.g., Figma Enterprise, research/analytics platforms). A deep understanding of AI (generative AI and agentic AI) and digital accessibility is essential to transform our platform into an AI-powered, scalable foundation that accelerates innovative, creative, compliant delivery in a regulated environment. <div><div>What you’ll do </div><div>Vision, strategy, and governance </div><div><ul><li>Set the multi-year vision and roadmap for the enterprise design system—covering design tokens, components, patterns, documentation, and platform services—aligned to business priorities, risk, digital accessibility, and engineering strategy. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Establish and chair cross-functional governance (Design, Product, Engineering, Brand, Accessibility, Compliance, Security, and Architecture) with clear contribution and change-management models. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Define adoption strategy, KPIs/OKRs, and incentives to drive measurable outcomes across lines of business and functions. </li></ul></div><div>Platform consolidation &amp; migration (multi-system → unified platform) </div><div><ul><li>Inventory and assess existing/legacy design systems across businesses/functions (tokens, components, code stacks, documentation quality, accessibility posture, and adoption). </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Define a convergence strategy: token mapping &amp; theming, component equivalence matrix, de-duplication rules, and brand harmonization guidelines. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Create a phased migration plan with success criteria, deprecation timelines, risk controls, and a documented rollback path. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Provide tooling and automation (e.g., codemods, lint rules, UI audits, visual-regression baselines) to accelerate safe migration. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Stand up a contribution/exception process and a comms plan, with dashboards to track migration progress and impact. </li></ul></div><div>System architecture &amp; engineering excellence </div><div><ul><li>Lead engineering for the system’s codebase (e.g., Web Components/React/Angular, TypeScript, Storybook, CI/CD, package distribution/registries) and partner with Architecture on standards: design tokens, theming, motion, internationalization (i18n) and right-to-left (RTL) support. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Ensure quality through automated testing (unit/visual regression), performance budgets, security scans, and a versioning/release strategy (safe migrations, deprecation policies). </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Integrate the system into product pipelines (e.g., GitHub/GitLab and internal developer portals) to reduce design-to-engineering friction and improve time-to-market, with opinionated pull/merge templates, required reviewers, and branch protections. </li></ul></div></div><div><div>Art direction &amp; brand stewardship </div><div><ul><li>Serve as the art director and custodian of our digital visual brand—color, typography, iconography, motion, and imagery—ensuring brand consistency and accessibility across channels. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Guide creative expression across retail, commercial, institutional, and employee experiences, balancing brand distinctiveness with regulatory and accessibility requirements. </li></ul></div><div>AI-powered platform &amp; automation </div><div><ul><li>Agentic workflows for design-to-code, pattern suggestions, component development and migration, unit testing, and knowledge &amp; documentation playbooks. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Automated accessibility controls (e.g., token-level contrast rules, Axe/Lighthouse CI, alt-text and content checks) embedded in design and build pipelines. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Knowledge &amp; retrieval over documentation and usage guidelines (RAG), plus evaluation frameworks, guardrails, and auditability to meet model-governance expectations. </li></ul></div><div>Design operations, tooling, and research </div><div><ul><li>Own the portfolio of design and research tools (e.g., Figma Enterprise libraries /branching /tokens plugins; platforms like Matomo / UserTesting / Qualtrics) including licensing, supplier management, financials, and workflow standards. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Define contribution workflows, templates, and content standards for documentation sites; ensure discoverability and self-service onboarding. </li></ul></div><div>Accessibility, compliance, and risk </div><div><ul><li>Embed WCAG (latest versions) and regional requirements into tokens, components, patterns, and governance—treating accessibility as a default. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Partner with Legal/Compliance, InfoSec, Model Risk, and In-Business Risk &amp; Controls on standards, audits, and evidence to support internal controls, SOX/PCI/data-privacy, and AI model governance. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Establish telemetry and reporting that links design-system adoption to risk reduction and customer outcomes. </li></ul></div><div>Content systems &amp; CMS integration </div><div><ul><li>Partner with Content Design and Engineering on CMS strategy (e.g., headless CMS such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)), ensuring components, patterns, and editorial workflows are integrated, versioned, and accessible. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Define guidance for localization (L10n)—the translation and regional adaptation of content—alongside i18n foundations, including pluralization rules, date/number/currency formats, time zones, and RTL layout mirroring (using CSS logical properties). </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Provide standards for personalization, disclosure content, and omnichannel publishing to maintain brand and compliance at scale. </li></ul></div><div>People leadership and culture </div><div><ul><li>Lead, grow, and mentor a global team of designers, developers, strategists, writers, and producers; build clear career ladders and communities of practice. </li></ul></div></div><div><div><ul><li>Foster an inclusive, accountable, and outcomes-oriented culture grounded in craft excellence, technical rigor, and measurable impact.</li></ul><div><div>What you’ll bring:</div><div>Must-have </div><div><ul><li>10–15+ years in digital product design and systems; 5+ years leading enterprise design systems at scale, ideally in regulated industries (banking/fintech/insurance). </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Portfolio that demonstrates design craft (UI/visual/interaction) and system leadership (tokens/components/patterns, brand evolution, before/after impact). </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Hands-on fluency with modern front-end stacks (TypeScript, React/Angular or Web Components, Storybook, design tokens, theming) and CI/CD practices; ability to set PR standards and release/versioning policies. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Proven art direction experience with a strong visual sensibility and motion principles applied to systemized UI. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Practical experience applying generative/agentic AI to design and engineering workflows (code generation/review, unit testing, documentation playbooks, migration support, RAG) with guardrails, evaluations, and governance. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Deep knowledge of digital accessibility and WCAG, assistive tech, and how to embed accessibility into tokens/components and SDLC gates. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Tooling leadership: Figma Enterprise (libraries, tokens, branching, audit), research/analytics platforms (e.g., Matomo, UserTesting, Qualtrics), documentation sites, analytics/telemetry. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Experience shipping products across multiple businesses and functions with i18n, L10n, and RTL considerations and regulatory/locale constraints. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Exceptional stakeholder management and communication; ability to partner with CIO/CTO, Design Leadership, CMO, Enterprise Architecture, Risk/Compliance, and Product leadership. </li></ul></div><div>Nice-to-have </div><div><ul><li>Experience with headless CMS (AEM), structured content modeling, and editorial workflows. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Familiarity with developer portals, npm/private registries, monorepos, and visual regression testing. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Understanding of data lineage/quality as it impacts design integrity and personalization at scale. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Exposure to design analytics, A/B testing, and tying system adoption to business KPIs. </li></ul></div><div> </div><div>Success measures (first 12–18 months) </div></div><div><div><ul><li>Adoption &amp; coverage: % of journeys using system components; component/pattern coverage vs. top use cases; reduction in bespoke UI. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Efficiency: ↓ design-to-engineering handoff time; ↑ reuse PRs; ↓ front-end defects and rework. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Accessibility &amp; risk: Automated checks at token/component/CI layers; measurable drop in accessibility defects; audit artifacts produced. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>AI impact: Agentic workflows in production (component development/migration tools, unit-test generation, knowledge/playbook automation); measurable cycle-time and quality improvements. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Brand consistency: Measurable increase in consistency across businesses/functions; successful rollout of updated brand tokens and motion. </li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Satisfaction: Improved designer/developer NPS/CSAT; decreased support MTTR; strong contributor pipeline. </li></ul></div><div> </div><div>Key partners </div><div>Design, Product, Business, and Engineering leaders • Brand/Marketing • Enterprise Architecture • Platform Engineering • InfoSec/Privacy • Legal/Compliance • Risk &amp; Control • Data/ML</div></div></div></div></div>------------------------------------------------------Job Family Group: Technology------------------------------------------------------Job Family:Digital Design Engineering------------------------------------------------------Time Type:Full time------------------------------------------------------Most Relevant Skills Please see the requirements listed above.------------------------------------------------------Other Relevant Skills For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.------------------------------------------------------Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/citi/accessibility/application-accessibility.htm" target="_blank">Accessibility at Citi</a>. View Citi’s <a href="https://www.citigroup.com/global/eeo-aa-policy" target="_blank">EEO Policy Statement</a> and the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12ScreenRdr.pdf" target="_blank">Know Your Rights</a> poster.

Citi

Head of Design Systems (UX) - Director

Citi

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