Senior Product Designer - Design Systems in London

About us
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Here, you’re given the chance to reach millions, create work that matters and deliver impartial journalism in a polarised world. In our warm, collaborative culture, you’ll connect with a diverse community of experts who support your growth, career aspirations and wellbeing. Your future at the FT will be filled with opportunities that challenge and inspire you. With no fixed path, you’ll discover new skills and forge a career that can take you anywhere. Build a newsworthy career at the FT.

Our commitment to inclusion and fairness
We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to contribute, succeed, and reach their full potential. That means ensuring everyone is heard, respected, and valued, while identifying and removing barriers that may get in the way. Our commitment is to be an employer role model, grounded in inclusion and fairness for all. We want every application to receive fair and thoughtful consideration; therefore, all applications are reviewed by a member of our recruitment team, not by AI.

The Role
We’re looking for an experienced Senior Product Designer to join our Design Systems team, based at Bracken House in London. You’ll play a key role in shaping and evolving Origami, the FT’s design system, helping teams across the business create coherent, accessible and high-quality digital experiences. Working closely with designers, engineers and product managers, you’ll develop shared foundations, components and guidance that make it easier for teams to design and build products that feel distinctly FT. The role spans web and mobile, requiring thoughtful decisions about where shared patterns create consistency and where platform-specific approaches deliver better experiences. You’ll also explore how AI can support the future of design systems. From accelerating component development and documentation to helping teams prototype and build using Origami, you’ll test emerging approaches and identify opportunities to improve how we work.

Key Responsibilities

• Shape and evolve Origami’s shared foundations, components and design guidance, ensuring they meet the changing needs of FT product teams.
• Contribute to the design system’s forward plan, identifying opportunities to improve its value, quality and adoption.
• Collaborate with designers, engineers and product managers to understand product needs, identify gaps and develop practical solutions.
• Lead design work from problem definition and exploration through prototyping, validation and implementation.
• Apply strong visual and interaction design craft to create consistent, accessible and high-quality experiences across web and mobile.
• Work closely with engineers to evaluate technical feasibility and ensure designs translate into reliable implementations.
• Create clear documentation, guidance and examples that help teams understand, contribute to and adopt Origami.
• Support colleagues in using the design system, sharing expertise and building confidence across teams.
• Explore AI-assisted approaches to developing and maintaining components, design foundations and documentation, including generating code for review.
• Experiment with ways AI tools can use Origami’s principles, foundations and components to support prototyping and product development.
• Test AI-enabled workflows with designers and engineers against real product needs, assessing their usefulness, quality and technical suitability.
• Use feedback and evidence to evaluate improvements in adoption, design quality and the experience of working with Origami.

Required Skills and Experience

• Significant product design experience, with strong visual design, interaction design and prototyping skills.
• Experience creating, maintaining or evolving design systems, reusable components or shared patterns across products or teams.
• A portfolio demonstrating high-quality product design and design systems work, clearly explaining your contribution and impact.
• Advanced experience using Figma, including component libraries, variables and design tokens.
• Experience building interactive prototypes using code, with a working knowledge of HTML and CSS.
• Strong technical understanding and confidence collaborating with engineers on feasibility, implementation and design trade-offs.
• Experience designing for web and mobile, with an understanding of platform conventions and when different approaches are appropriate.
• Knowledge of accessibility principles and experience applying them to components, patterns and digital experiences.
• Experience using or exploring AI-assisted design and development tools, with sound judgement about their opportunities and limitations.
• Experience leading cross-functional design work, navigating ambiguity and influencing decisions without formal authority.
• Strong communication and documentation skills, with the ability to explain design decisions and build relationships across teams.
• A collaborative, systems-oriented approach and the ability to help others understand and adopt shared design practices.

Desirable

• Experience supporting the adoption of a design system across multiple product teams.
• Experience exploring how AI tools can use design system guidance, components or code to support product development.
• Experience evaluating the effectiveness of design systems through feedback, usage evidence or measures of quality and adoption.

What's in it for You?
Our benefits vary by location but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available here.

We currently operate a hybrid model which requires staff to work onsite 50% of the time, subject to role requirements & regular review. While flexible working requests will be considered, not all patterns are suitable for all roles. We believe this balanced approach supports flexibility and protects our culture, making collaboration and communication easier, building stronger relationships and team cohesion, and supporting peer learning. We reserve discretion on reasonable notice to change this approach either generally or for specific individuals or teams.

Accessibility
We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.

Further Information
At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications. Candidates should be aware that the use of AI throughout the application process may be monitored to ensure a fair and transparent hiring process for all. Please beware of fraudulent job postings and offers claiming to be from the Financial Times. All legitimate opportunities will direct you to apply through the official Financial Times careers site, and the FT will never ask for financial information, payments, or referrals to third parties during the hiring process. If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of a job posting or suspect any scam activity, please contact talent@ft.com.

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