UX Designer - Design systems

Apply for the UX Designer - Design Systems role at Canonical .

Canonical is a leading provider of open‑source software and operating systems to the global enterprise and technology markets. Their flagship platform, Ubuntu, is widely used in breakthrough initiatives such as public cloud, data science, AI, engineering innovation and IoT. With customers that include the world’s leading public cloud and silicon providers, Canonical pioneers global distributed collaboration with 1200+ colleagues in 75+ countries and few office‑based roles.

Role Overview

The Design System UX Designer will define, evolve and advocate for a consistent use of the design system that scales across Canonical’s products. The role sits within the Design System team, reports to Design Systems Management, and will be based remotely in the EMEA region.

Responsibilities

• Build and evolve Canonical’s design system, ensuring measurable adoption, consistency, scalability and accessibility across products.
• Collaborate with designers, engineers and stakeholders to translate user needs and brand principles into reusable components, patterns and guidelines.
• Champion design system best practices, advocate for cohesive user experience and design, and provide documentation and support for cross‑functional teams.
• Design and document UI components, design tokens and interaction patterns.
• Ensure timely and efficient delivery of the design system roadmap.
• Enable alignment on design system usage and governance across teams.
• Advocate for accessibility, performance and scalability in design system decisions, iterating based on data and technological advancements.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, ensuring innovation while maintaining system coherence and performance.

Qualifications

• Relevant experience in UX/product design with a strong focus on design systems in complex environments.
• A portfolio demonstrating expertise in design systems, including component libraries, documentation and managing complex environments.
• Exceptional educational achievements in design or a related behavioral science discipline.
• Expertise in Figma, Storybook and design token workflows.
• Experience collaborating with engineers and bridging design and code.
• Proven ability to apply the design process and clearly communicate and document design decisions.
• Excellent attention to detail and a systemic approach to solving complex design challenges.
• Commitment to transparent project delivery and ownership of team deadlines.
• A passion for balancing consistency and innovation.
• Willingness to travel up to four times a year for internal events.

What we offer

• 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. Canonical recruits on a global basis and sets a very high standard for people joining our team. We expect excellence; to succeed, we must be the best at what we do. Most colleagues have worked from home since our inception in 2004.

Canonical is an equal‑opportunity employer. We foster a workplace free from discrimination and welcome applicants of all backgrounds.