Design Systems Lead

What you’ll do:

As our first dedicated Design Systems Lead, you’ll play a foundational role in shaping and scaling NinjaTrader’s newly developed design system. Reporting directly to the VP of Design, you’ll assess our existing design landscape, establish clear strategies for immediate adoption, and advocate for best practices across design, product, and engineering teams. You’ll be hands-on and strategic, balancing technical acumen, strong visual design judgment, and effective communication to drive consistency, efficiency, and quality across all product experiences.

In this role you will:

• Audit our current design system state, identify gaps, and prioritize immediate opportunities
• Quickly define and communicate an actionable roadmap to facilitate rapid adoption across design and engineering teams
• Establish robust design token architecture, guidelines, and workflows for consistent cross-platform implementation (web, mobile, desktop)
• Create and document high-quality, reusable UI components and interaction patterns, ensuring strong visual and UX standards, including accessibility
• Actively educate and support designers, engineers, and product managers, championing the strategic value of a scalable design system
• Lead hands-on onboarding, provide clear documentation, and foster community around best practices
• Develop metrics and analytics that measure adoption, effectiveness, and component usage, leveraging insights to iteratively improve the system
• Build and optimize workflows in Figma through advanced plugins, automation, and AI-driven enhancements to streamline design-to-engineering handoffs

What you’ll need:

• 7+ years in UX/UI or product design roles, including at least 2 years dedicated specifically to design systems
• Expert-level proficiency in Figma, including plugin development, automation, and leveraging AI-driven workflows
• Strong technical understanding of Storybook, frontend development principles (HTML, CSS, JavaScript frameworks), capable of collaborating seamlessly with engineers on implementation
• Proven experience establishing design token architectures and facilitating efficient design-to-development workflows
• Exceptional visual design and UX judgment, with demonstrated success developing elegant, scalable design solutions
• Excellent communication skills, able to clearly articulate and advocate for the value of a design system to stakeholders of varying technical backgrounds

Bonus points for:

• Experience integrating analytics into design system practices to track adoption and effectiveness
• Familiarity with emerging design system tooling and best practices

The salary range for this role will be $180,000 - $200,000 USD. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of 12%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. NinjaTrader offers a 401K plan through ADP under which the company will match up to 3.5% of employee contributions. Annual paid time off allowance accrues at a rate of 18 days per year (some positions may qualify for more) plus seven paid holidays. Additional details on our total compensation package and benefits are listed below.

Location: 
This role is based in Chicago, IL. *There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
Hybrid:
For Chicago-based employees, we follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer:

• 20 additional flex remote days annually
• 5 Company Wide Office-Optional weeks tied to major holidays