Builds and evolves the technical foundation—components, tokens, APIs, and shared packages—that enables consistent digital and AI experiences at CSAA. Sits between UX, CX, Engineering, Architecture, and Workflow and Systems Design, translating UX standards into scalable, reusable system assets. Owns the design system's technical structure and its extension into AI-agent capabilities.
What you'll do
- Define and maintain the technical structure of the design system
- Partner with UX to translate approved patterns and templates into scalable code structures
- Maintain the connection between design tooling and code
- Define how design-system assets are structured, composed, governed, and versioned in code
- Partner with UX and platform teams to resolve design-standard translation to third-party platforms like Pega and Guidewire
- Define ways to contribute, update, deprecate, and version shared system assets
- Set criteria for what becomes a shared system asset versus product-specific
- Define and maintain technical design-system foundations for AI models and agents, including prompts, capabilities, interfaces, patterns, reference implementations, evaluation, and observability
- Make system assets easy for people and AI agents to discover and understand
- Define guardrails and governance for approved AI capabilities with AI governance and the AI Council
- Keep one coherent system across internal and customer-facing experiences
- Put design-to-code tooling and connections in place before development begins
- Decide integration tightness between design definitions and code per component set
- Stay engaged during delivery to trace issues to the right source
- Help UX and engineering understand how design decisions flow into the technical system
- Make the system easier to adopt and reduce time to first successful use
- Define structure and technical requirements for shared system assets with Engineering and Architecture
- Work with Engineering and Architecture on feasibility, dependencies, sequencing, and estimates
- Clarify ownership across shared design-system assets, architecture, and production code
- Build prototypes and proofs of concept to test structural decisions
- Stay connected through delivery to ensure implementation matches approved intent
- Work across stewarded, consultative, and self-service engagement models
- Build documentation and tooling so teams can use the system independently
- Create documentation, examples, and enablement materials
- Track adoption, reuse, and duplication across teams
- Support engineers and designers with system-usage questions
- Serve as cross-functional connector across UX, Architecture, CX, Engineering, platform teams, and AI governance
- Partner with Workflow and Systems Design to translate future-state workflows into reusable foundations
- Partner with pattern owners to determine what becomes a shared technical system asset
- Communicate system constraints, structural decisions, and roadmap to design, engineering, and architecture audiences
- Help mature the Enterprise Systems Design practice with repeatable methods and standards
- Contribute to onboarding and domain materials for new practitioners
- Stay current on design-system and AI-agent practices and bring them back to the team
What we're looking for
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
- 8+ years progressive experience in design systems, front-end engineering, design technology, or experience architecture
- Technical ownership or stewardship of a design system implemented in code
- Strong hands-on front-end engineering experience with a modern component framework
- Experience implementing and governing design tokens, component libraries, and reusable UX patterns at enterprise scale
- Practical experience with design-to-code workflows and connecting tools
- Working fluency with AI-assisted development tools and understanding of AI context, skills, and tool definitions
- Ability to define structure and technical direction of a shared system and partner with Engineering and Architecture
- Strong written communication skills for documentation and standards
- Demonstrated ability to influence across design and engineering teams without formal authority
- Comfort working through ambiguity in evolving fields
- Ability to translate between design and engineering audiences
Nice to have
- Degree in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Design Technology, or related field
- Training or certification in front-end engineering, design systems, accessibility, or AI-related disciplines
- Experience building or governing AI- and agent-facing capabilities such as skills, tools, or MCP servers
- Experience with evaluation and observability practices for AI systems
- Experience in insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry
- Experience supporting both employee-facing and customer-facing products
- Experience adapting enterprise design-system standards to third-party or vendor-owned platforms
- Experience creating adoption, contribution, or federated governance models for a shared system
- Experience coaching engineers or designers on adopting shared systems
- Familiarity with accessibility standards expressed and enforced through component systems and code
Good to know
- Remote role open across the US, excluding Hawaii and Alaska
- No visa sponsorship provided; must have indefinite US work authorization
- Preliminary call to discuss role and salary range if selected to continue
