Design System and Design Operations Lead

Company: 1011 United Overseas Bank Ltd

About UOB

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) is a leading bank in ASEAN with a global network in Southeast Asia, Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Operating through our head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, we have a global network of about 430 branches and offices in 19 markets. At the heart of UOB is our culture, shaped by the UOB Way and anchored on our four values – Honourable, Enterprising, United and Committed. For more than 90 years, these values have guided how we do right by our customers, collaborate with one another and create long-term value for the communities we operate in. As One Bank, we are committed to helping our colleagues build sustainable careers grounded in purpose, supported by strong values, and enriched with meaningful opportunities to grow.

Job Description

About the Experience Design Team

The Experience Design team supports the customer experience across UOB TMRW’s digital journeys. It brings together product designers, user researchers, UX content designers, design operations specialists and design system designers. Working closely with journey owners, business stakeholders and technology teams, the team translates customer needs and business requirements into clear, usable and accessible banking experiences. Its work spans discovery and concept development, interaction and visual design, content, delivery support and design quality assurance. The team’s shared design system and operational practices help maintain consistency across products, platforms and markets, while accommodating the needs of different customer segments and local requirements.

About the Role

We are looking for a Design System Lead with responsibility for Design Operations to lead the development, quality and adoption of UOB TMRW’s design system across native mobile and web platforms.

The primary focus of the role is to ensure that the design system provides a reliable foundation for digital banking experiences: reusable components, patterns, templates, design tokens and clear guidance that teams can confidently apply. You will set priorities, guide the design system team and work closely with technology partners to keep design standards aligned with their implementation.

Alongside this, you will manage the processes and operational practices that embed design into the organisation—from concept development and design reviews through to delivery, testing and app-store management activities. This includes improving how teams collaborate, maintaining clear responsibilities and helping resolve issues that affect design quality or delivery.

AI-Enabled Design and Delivery As UOB develops AI-enabled ways of working, this role will help evolve the design system and supporting processes so they can be used effectively by both people and approved AI tools.

This includes making design knowledge more structured and machine-readable, with explicit rules for how components, patterns, layouts and content should be used. You will partner with design and technology teams to explore how these foundations can support AI-assisted design, improve design-to-development workflows and automate appropriate documentation and quality checks.

The role will balance these improvements with day-to-day delivery needs, testing new approaches before wider adoption and maintaining appropriate human review, design standards and information security controls.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the design system’s direction and priorities

• Define and manage the design system roadmap across native mobile and web, balancing customer needs, business priorities, delivery requirements and longer-term improvements.
• Translate requests from teams and markets into clear priorities. Determine where existing solutions should be reused or improved, where new capabilities are needed and where justified exceptions should be accommodated.

Develop and maintain a high-quality, reusable system

• Lead the development and maintenance of components, patterns, templates, design tokens and usage guidance. Ensure that the system addresses visual design, interaction behaviour, content requirements, accessibility and relevant states, including errors and alternative paths.
• Partner with engineering teams to keep design libraries and implemented components aligned. Support consistent experiences across platforms and markets while allowing for native platform conventions, localisation and valid customer or business differences.

Establish practical governance and contribution processes

• Define how teams propose, review, approve and contribute changes to the design system. Establish clear ownership, quality standards and documentation requirements so that the system can evolve without unnecessary duplication or inconsistency.
• Maintain visibility of changes, dependencies and exceptions. Ensure that teams understand what is available, how it should be used and how changes affect existing experiences.

Drive adoption and build team capability

• Embed the design system into the everyday work of product designers, UX content designers, journey owners and technology teams. Provide practical guidance, examples and training that help teams apply the system correctly and work more independently within agreed standards.
• Lead and coach design system designers, setting clear priorities and expectations for quality. Work with research and delivery teams to identify recurring customer problems and translate relevant findings into improvements to shared patterns and guidance.

Manage design processes and operational practices

• Manage how design is integrated into the wider delivery process, from concept development through design reviews, handover, implementation and testing.
• Work with discipline leads, journey owners and technology partners to clarify responsibilities, required inputs, review points and decision-making. Improve design tooling, documentation and collaboration practices, reducing avoidable handovers, repeated work and uncertainty over the latest approved information.

Support design quality, testing and app-store activities

• Coordinate design quality assurance with design, testing and technology teams. Establish practical checks against approved designs and system standards, help prioritise visual and interaction defects, and ensure that recurring issues inform improvements to the system.
• Oversee app-store management activities within the Design Operations remit, coordinating assets, access and submission requirements with the relevant platform, business and technology teams. Ensure that design-related dependencies and readiness issues are visible ahead of releases.

Develop the foundations for AI-assisted workflows

• Lead the design-system contribution to AI-enabled delivery, including structured documentation, machine-readable design assets, component rules and reusable design knowledge.
• Partner with technology teams to test how approved AI tools can apply these standards in design generation, implementation and quality checking. Assess outputs against agreed quality criteria, identify where human judgement remains necessary and use findings to improve the underlying rules and documentation. Contribute to evolving operating practices, standards and responsibilities as these approaches mature.

Measure effectiveness and drive improvement

• Monitor design system adoption, reuse, coverage, contribution quality and recurring defects. Assess whether the system and supporting processes are helping teams produce more consistent experiences with less avoidable effort and rework.
• Use feedback and delivery evidence to prioritise improvements. Communicate progress, risks and decisions clearly to stakeholders, with a focus on practical outcomes rather than activity alone.
  

Skills and Experience

• Proven design system leadership. Significant experience in digital product or experience design, with a demonstrated track record of leading and scaling design systems across multiple teams, products or markets. Experience should include developing the system itself, not only managing its administration.
• Strong design craft and practical tool knowledge. A strong understanding of reusable interface design, interaction patterns, component architecture, templates and design tokens. Confidence working with Figma libraries, components, variants and variables, with the ability to review work and guide design system decisions.
• Native and web experience. Experience supporting native mobile and responsive web products, with an understanding of platform conventions, accessibility, localisation and the need to accommodate different customer segments without unnecessary fragmentation.
• Design-to-development understanding. Experience working closely with engineering teams to connect design standards with implemented components. Able to discuss component behaviour, states, properties and design tokens, and resolve differences between design intent and technical implementation.
• Design operations experience. Experience establishing or improving design workflows, documentation, tooling, review practices and delivery coordination. An understanding of design testing and quality assurance is important; experience supporting app-store operations is an advantage.
• Stakeholder management and sound judgement. Able to work effectively with design, research, content, product, journey owners and technology teams. Confident explaining decisions, negotiating priorities and balancing shared standards with justified business or market requirements.
• Team leadership and capability development. Experience setting direction, prioritising work, coaching designers and building ownership within a team. Able to support adoption through clear guidance and practical collaboration.
• AI and automation awareness. An understanding of how structured design knowledge and machine-readable assets can support AI-assisted workflows. Practical experience evaluating or experimenting with AI-enabled design, documentation or quality-checking approaches is valuable, alongside sound judgement about their limitations and appropriate controls.
• Evidence of measurable improvement. Able to demonstrate how previous work improved design consistency, system adoption, accessibility, delivery efficiency or quality. Examples should explain both the design decisions and how teams adopted the resulting changes.
• Experience in complex organisations. Experience working across markets or within financial services or another regulated environment would be an advantage. Comfortable improving established ways of working while maintaining reliable day-to-day support.

Additional Requirements

Develop (Competency), Engage (Competency), Execute (Competency), Strategise (Competency)

Be a Part of the UOB Family

UOB is an equal opportunity employer. UOB does not discriminate on the basis of a candidate's age, race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or other non-merit factors. All employment decisions at UOB are based on business needs, job requirements and qualifications. If you require any assistance or accommodations to be made for the recruitment process, please inform us when you submit your online application.

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