Product Designer: Design Systems (12 month FTC)

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 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups. The Role Overview We’re looking for a Product Designer to join our Design Systems team on a 12-month fixed-term contract covering maternity leave, based at Bracken House, our iconic building near St Paul’s in London. As a Product Designer in the Design Systems team, you’ll play a key role in the evolution of Origami, the FT’s design system, helping teams design and build with greater consistency, quality and pace. You’ll work across reusable principles, patterns, foundations, components and libraries that support product delivery across the FT. This role spans web and mobile in a hybrid environment combining native and web-based experiences. You’ll contribute to patterns that work coherently across iOS, Android and web, helping create a consistent, high-quality experience across platforms. You’ll collaborate closely with product designers, engineers and product managers, and work with Brand and Editorial Design teams to ensure alignment across foundational styles and journalistic layouts. You’ll work within our federated contribution model, helping teams contribute to, adopt and evolve the system over time. Accessibility is fundamental to this role. You’ll help ensure patterns, components and guidance meet high accessibility standards from the outset. We’re looking for someone with strong craft, attention to detail and curiosity about systems thinking and emerging technologies. You’ll contribute to creating a premium, coherent FT product experience while continuing to develop your own design systems practice within an established and evolving team. Key Responsibilities Design and evolve reusable components, patterns, foundations and libraries within Origami, helping reduce duplication and improve consistency across teams. Contribute to system solutions across web and mobile, supporting hybrid environments spanning iOS, Android and web. Help identify opportunities for reusable patterns and system improvements based on product needs and feedback from teams. Support design work from problem framing through to validation, documentation and handover, using research, audits and feedback to inform decisions. Create clear documentation and specifications across Figma, Zeroheight and other system tooling, covering variants, edge cases and usage guidance. Collaborate closely with engineers to ensure solutions are feasible, scalable and aligned with implementation, including the effective use and sharing of design tokens across Figma and production code. Support designers and engineers through contribution and governance processes, helping teams adopt shared patterns and ways of working. Work with product teams to identify gaps, improve consistency and embed stronger system thinking across products. Support delivery of roadmap priorities that improve delivery efficiency, product quality and adoption. Maintain a high bar for accessibility, craft and coherence across the system. AI-enabled design systems Explore and apply AI-assisted tooling to support prototyping, component definition and documentation. Contribute to making Origami well-structured and usable within AI-assisted workflows, including systems that rely on tokens, documentation and reusable patterns. Collaborate with engineers to explore practical AI-assisted approaches to component development and documentation workflows. What we’re looking for Strong product design craft across interaction, visual design and prototyping, with clear attention to detail and quality. Experience working on or contributing to digital products or design systems, with an understanding of how systems scale across teams and platforms. Experience designing across web and mobile, including familiarity with iOS and Android platform conventions and hybrid environments. Confidence applying accessibility standards in practice. The ability to communicate ideas clearly and document work in a way that supports both design and engineering, with a working understanding of HTML, CSS and accessible, semantic markup. A collaborative approach, with the ability to build relationships across product, engineering, editorial and brand teams. Comfortable collaborating with others through feedback, contribution and shared ways of working. An understanding of how individual design decisions contribute to broader system quality, consistency and maintainability. AI and emerging tooling Up to date with and interested in how AI is shaping design and development workflows. Experience using or exploring AI-assisted tools, with an understanding of how systems can support these workflows. Interest in applying AI in practical ways to improve speed, quality and consistency. Required Experience A portfolio demonstrating strong product and systems thinking, with evidence of meaningful impact. Experience working in Figma, including component libraries, variables, tokens and prototyping. Experience creating or contributing to reusable components, patterns or guidance for digital products. Experience working closely with engineers to deliver high-quality outcomes. Experience working in cross-functional teams within product delivery environments. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal. An interest in systems thinking, accessibility and emerging tooling. Experience or interest in AI-assisted design or development workflows is a plus. What’s in it for you? Our benefits 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.