Design System & Operations Manager in Leeds

The Streaming department is responsible for the strategy, development, and operation of our digital streaming platform, delivering high‑quality, on‑demand content to audiences across multiple devices and markets. The team drives innovation in user experience, content delivery, and platform technology, ensuring our streaming service remains competitive and aligned with evolving consumer expectations.

The Design System & Operations Manager will own, scale, and continuously improve our cross‑platform design system (big screen/OTT, mobile, and desktop) and work in partnership with Editorial, Brand, Marketing and Audience Optimisation to drive and apply consistency across the full end‑to‑end experience. The role will lead the charge on ensuring we stay ahead of accessibility standards and that all customer touchpoints adhere to them. They will lead the product & design operations to enable high quality, efficient product and design delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the multi‑platform design system (foundations, tokens, components, patterns, motion), ensuring parity across mobile, desktop and big screen.
• Establish and evolve design system governance: contribution model, review gates, versioning, and release notes.
• Create clear documentation, guidance and usage examples to drive adoption across Product, Design, Engineering, Editorial and CRM.
• Champion accessibility as non‑negotiable; embed standards into foundations, components and patterns.
• Partner with Brand and Marketing to ensure brand guidelines translate into systemised tokens and components that are usable across the full end‑to‑end experience and devices.
• Collaborate with Editorial and CRM teams to embed design system elements into templates, campaigns and content workflows, ensuring consistency and performance.
• Manage design tooling (e.g. Figma libraries, plugins), file hygiene, naming conventions, branching and library publication.
• Facilitate cross‑functional rituals (crits, pattern reviews, design/dev syncs, accessibility clinics) to align decisions and unblock teams.
• Support discovery and delivery by enabling reusable assets (journey maps, templates, flows) and promoting evidence‑based decision‑making.
• Coach Product Designers and Product Owners on design system usage, experimentation and accessibility, driving a balance with creativity, efficiency and consistency.
• Define KPIs for the design system (adoption, duplication reduction, build velocity, accessibility compliance, NPS of internal users).
• Use insights and feedback loops to iterate the system; run A/B or MVT where relevant to validate pattern efficacy.
• Publish regular reports on system impact, risks and opportunities to leadership and stakeholders.
• Coordinate with Technology, QA and third‑party development partners to ensure feasibility, performance and accessibility of components across platforms.
• Work cross‑functionally to validate patterns and optimise key journeys.

Capabilities

• Strategic planning and delivery – Leads strategically, translating organisational goals into clear priorities, plans and measurable outcomes.
• Performance and commercial acumen – Demonstrates strong commercial awareness and accountability for delivering sustainable performance.
• Viewer and customer centric mindset – Places audiences, customers and partners at the heart of decision‑making and solution design.
• Data‑led and analytical decision making – Uses data, insight and evidence to drive decisions, evaluate impact and improve outcomes.
• Cross‑functional collaboration and agile leadership – Leads collaboratively across boundaries, fostering agility, experimentation and shared ownership.
• Market awareness and innovation – Scans the external environment to anticipate change, identify opportunities and drive innovation.

Behaviours

• Growth mindset (Grow) – Seeks challenge with a curious mindset and a strong desire to learn, grow and continually improve.
• Accountability (Get stuff done) – Delivers results and takes responsibility for outcomes.
• Collaboration (Include) – Uses empathy and encourages co‑creation and inclusive partnerships to achieve better outcomes.
• Transformation (Innovate) – Embraces and proactively drives change, with resilience and tenacity.

Key Stakeholders

• Product Director
• Product Team
• Streaming Business Director
• Marketing and Brand
• Content and Editorial
• Growth and Audience Optimisation
• Channel 4+
• Technology (internal and third‑party)
• Audience Insights

Essential Experience

• Proven experience in defining, maintaining and scaling multi‑platform design systems (foundations, tokens, components, patterns, motion) in the media industry.
• Strong understanding of design system governance (contribution models, review gates, versioning, release notes).
• Deep knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG, EAA) and embedding accessibility into design systems and workflows.
• Experience facilitating cross‑functional rituals (design critiques, pattern reviews, accessibility clinics) and leading cross‑functional teams driving design system adoption.
• Experience driving governance, tooling and workflows across product and design teams to improve efficiency and quality.
• Skilled in managing design tooling (e.g. Figma libraries, plugins), file hygiene, naming conventions and branching strategies.
• Ability to create clear, comprehensive documentation and usage guidelines for design systems.
• Strong stakeholder communication skills, including reporting on KPIs, adoption metrics and system impact.
• Experience using insights and feedback loops to iterate and improve design systems.
• Experience translating brand guidelines into systemised tokens and components for use across marketing and editorial workflows.
• Familiarity with user research, journey mapping and data‑driven decision‑making to inform design system evolution.
• Ability to coach designers and product owners on design system usage, accessibility and experimentation.

Desirable Experience

• Experience operationalising accessibility testing (manual and automated) with QA and engineering teams.
• Understanding of front‑end development frameworks and ability to partner with engineering teams on feasibility and performance.
• Familiarity with automated testing tools and processes for design system components.
• Experience running A/B or multivariate tests to validate design patterns and improve user experience.
• Experience working with external development partners to ensure design system consistency and accessibility compliance.

Salary

Basic salary per annum starting from £75,250.00

Benefits

• Private medical insurance
• Free Virtual GP access for employees
• Free female health hormone test each year
• Free Tastecard membership
• Access to financial wellbeing resources
• Discounted gym memberships
• Pension
• Life assurance
• Income protection
• Holiday purchase

Hybrid working: From September 2023, Channel 4 has operated a 60/40 working pattern, equating to three office days per week. Employees then have the flexibility to decide where they spend the rest of the working week.

Equal Opportunities

Channel 4's purpose is to create change through entertainment; by representing unheard voices, challenging with purpose and delivering content which reflects the diversity of different communities across the UK. We are only able to deliver on this remit by having a workforce rich in diversity of thought, background and lived experience. As an employer we encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds and do not discriminate based on disability, age, gender reassignment, gender expression, criminal history, age, length of time spent unemployed, marriage or civil partnership status, national origin, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

Channel 4 is a member of the Business Disability Forum and has also maintained the highest level of the Department of Work and Pension's Disability Confident scheme - Level 3: Leader.

Disability Confident Scheme

Under the Disability Confident Scheme, we aim to offer an interview to all candidates who have a neurodiverse condition, impairment or long‑term condition and who meet the essential criteria for an advertised job. If you wish your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, please select yes when completing the application questions.

Care Leaver Friendly Employer

Channel 4 is a Care Leaver Friendly Employer. By signing the Care Leaver Friendly Employer Charter and adopting its principles, we are supporting an immensely talented yet often under‑served and under‑represented community of young people and adults. We commit to offering an interview and constructive feedback to applicants who identify as care experienced and meet the essential criteria for the role as outlined on the job description.

Workplace Adjustments

We are committed to providing disabled applicants a level playing field when applying for a job and support whilst employed to perform to the best of their ability and develop their careers. If you have a neurodiverse condition, impairment or long‑term condition and require any adjustments, additional support or alternative arrangements during the recruitment and wish to discuss this confidentially, please let us know.