Senior Product Designer - Design Systems
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 inclusion and fairness
We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to contribute, succeed, and reach their full potential. That means ensuring everyone is heard, respected, and valued, while identifying and removing barriers that may get in the way. Our commitment is to be an employer role model, grounded in inclusion and fairness for all.
We want every application to receive fair and thoughtful consideration; therefore, all applications are reviewed by a member of our recruitment team, not by AI.
The Role
We’re looking for an experienced Senior Product Designer to join our Design Systems team, based at Bracken House in London.
You’ll play a key role in shaping and evolving Origami, the FT’s design system, helping teams across the business create coherent, accessible and high-quality digital experiences.
Working closely with designers, engineers and product managers, you’ll develop shared foundations, components and guidance that make it easier for teams to design and build products that feel distinctly FT.
The role spans web and mobile, requiring thoughtful decisions about where shared patterns create consistency and where platform-specific approaches deliver better experiences.
You’ll also explore how AI can support the future of design systems. From accelerating component development and documentation to helping teams prototype and build using Origami, you’ll test emerging approaches and identify opportunities to improve how we work.
Combining strong design craft with hands-on technical skills, you’ll help ensure Origami remains dependable, accessible and relevant as our products and technologies evolve.
Key Responsibilities
Shape and evolve Origami’s shared foundations, components and design guidance, ensuring they meet the changing needs of FT product teams.
Contribute to the design system’s forward plan, identifying opportunities to improve its value, quality and adoption.
Collaborate with designers, engineers and product managers to understand product needs, identify gaps and develop practical solutions.
Lead design work from problem definition and exploration through prototyping, validation and implementation.
Apply strong visual and interaction design craft to create consistent, accessible and high-quality experiences across web and mobile.
Work closely with engineers to evaluate technical feasibility and ensure designs translate into reliable implementations.
Create clear documentation, guidance and examples that help teams understand, contribute to and adopt Origami.
Support colleagues in using the design system, sharing expertise and building confidence across teams.
Explore AI-assisted approaches to developing and maintaining components, design foundations and documentation, including generating code for review.
Experiment with ways AI tools can use Origami’s principles, foundations and components to support prototyping and product development.
Test AI-enabled workflows with designers and engineers against real product needs, assessing their usefulness, quality and technical suitability.
Use feedback and evidence to evaluate improvements in adoption, design quality and the experience of working with Origami.
Required Skills and Experience
Significant product design experience, with strong visual design, interaction design and prototyping skills.