UX Designer - Design systems

Canonical is a leading provider of open source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Our platform, Ubuntu, is very widely used in breakthrough enterprise initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. Our customers include the world's leading public cloud and silicon providers, and industry leaders in many sectors. The company is a pioneer of global distributed collaboration, with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and very few office based roles. Teams meet two to four times yearly in person, in interesting locations around the world, to align on strategy and execution.

The company is founder led, profitable and growing.

We are hiring a UX designer for our Design System Team.

You will play a key role making open source software available to the world. Our Design function ensures the experience of the software and infrastructure we build is true to our intentions, and delivers the tools our community and customers need. The Design System UX designer makes that possible by defining, evolving and advocating for a consistent use of design system that scales across our products.

This role sits in the design system team reporting to Design Systems Management

Location: This role will be based remotely in the EMEA region.

The role entails

Building and evolving Canonical’s design system, ensuring measurable adoption, consistency, scalability and accessibility across our products

Collaborating with designers, engineers and stakeholders to translate user needs and brand principles into reusable components, patterns and guidelines

Championing design system best practices, advocating for cohesive user experience and design, providing documentation and support for cross-functional teams

Designing and documenting UI components, design tokens and interaction patterns

Ensuring timely and efficient delivery of the roadmap

Enabling alignment on design system usage and governance across teams

Advocating for accessibility, performance, and scalability in design system decisions and iterating based on data and technological advancements

Staying ahead of industry trends, ensuring innovation and balancing it with system coherence and performance

What we are looking for in you

Relevant experience in UX/product design, with a strong focus on design systems in complex environments

A portfolio demonstrating strong expertise in design systems, including component libraries, documentation and handling complex environments

Exceptional educational achievements in design or related behavioral science discipline

Expertise in Figma, Storybook and design token workflows

Experience of collaborating with engineers and bridging design and code

Proven ability to apply design process and clearly communicate and document design decisions

Excellent attention to detail and systemic approach to solving complex design challenges

Commitment to transparent project delivery and owning team deadlines

A passion for balancing consistency and innovation

Willingness to travel up to 4 times a year for internal events

Read more about the design team

What we offer colleagues

We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognize outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus or commission. We provide all team members with additional benefits which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.

Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person

Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year

Annual compensation review

Recognition rewards

Annual holiday leave

Maternity and paternity leave

Team Member Assistance Program & Wellness Platform

Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues

Priority Pass and travel upgrades for long-haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open-source projects and the platform for AI, IoT, and the cloud, we are changing the world of software. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence; in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Most colleagues at Canonical have worked from home since our inception in 2004.​ Working here is a step into the future and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.

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