Principal Experience Designer, Design Systems

UX Lead I

This is a Non-Employee Contingent Worker Role providing services for TIAA's family of companies and will be employed by TIAA's preferred 3rd Party Supplier. As a Non-Employee Contingent Worker, perform a variety of moderately complex business planning, support, and project-related duties. Demonstrates an exceptional standard of quality and holds themselves accountable to achieving excellent results.

This role will sit onsite, likely in a hybrid capacity, at the location(s) listed in this posting. The anticipated term of this engagement will be 11 months. This term could be extended based on company business needs.

Job Summary

The Principal Experience Designer, Design Systems, sets the vision for the design system and works with leadership to develop a roadmap aligned with the needs of the design system consumers. You will own the creative vision of the design system and drive delivery of high-quality UI components and patterns to support the continuous raising of design standards across TIAA. You will partner with engineering, product, brand and marketing teams to support the delivery of high-quality, accessible, and brand-consistent design solutions to our digital experiences, allowing TIAA to achieve its mission of retirement security for its customers.

By innovating on one of the world's biggest stages, you will have the chance to shape the future of retirement. If you are motivated by complex, purposeful, and engaging challenges, then we invite you to join us on our mission!

Key Responsibilities & Duties

Define and lead strategic initiatives from conception to release within the design systems team and wider design community to evolve and grow the design system and design practice.

Identify opportunities to improve processes, efficiencies and impact within the team and the design system as a whole.

Evangelize the benefits of the design system to leadership, and cross-functional teams.

Collaborate with partners to define, maintain and improve on a design system contribution model for the design and engineering organizations. This includes facilitating the sharing of product-specific components and patterns.

Support adoption and consumption of the design system through rituals such as Office Hours, communications, and training sessions and events.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather requirements and feedback for the design system.

Inspire and motivate others in the spirit of contributing to our greater mission and team culture.

Design with a strategic mindset and a system thinking approach to taking the complex and making it simple, clear, and trusted.

Use your design expertise and connections to share the latest best practices and trends. Champion the Design Thinking philosophy throughout the business, communicating effectively with care and empathy to bring others along in the process.

Preferred Experience & Qualifications

Body of work that highlights design systems created or contributed to

Strong and demonstrated background in : enterprise experience design; consumer product design; mobile platform design in an agile delivery model

Strong and demonstrated proficiency in Figma, especially design system features and approaches.

Experience with HTML, CSS and Javascript (our stack includes Angular) to be able to have conversations with development partners about implementation details.

Familiarity with content management systems or static site generators (and markdown) for maintaining documentation sites

Strong knowledge of Accessibility guidelines

Adopts a self-starter mindset who is well organized, eager to be innovative, and possesses a strong 'test and learn' mentality

Start Date : 04-Sep-2025 End Date : 30-Aug-2026 Travel Required : No

Anticipated Posting End Date : 2025-08-26 Base Pay Range : $53.03 / hr - $90.53 / hr

Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, base salary of internal peers, prior performance, business sector, and geographic location.

Equal Opportunity

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. TIAA does not discriminate against any candidate or employee on the basis of age, race, color, national origin, sex, religion, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected status.

Accessibility Support

TIAA offers support for those who need assistance with our online application process to provide an equal employment opportunity to all job seekers, including individuals with disabilities.

If you are a U.S. applicant and desire a reasonable accommodation to complete a job application please use one of the below options to contact our accessibility support team :

Phone : (800) 842-2755

Email : accessibility.support@tiaa.org

Privacy Notices

For Applicants of TIAA, Nuveen and Affiliates residing in US (other than California), click here.

For Applicants of TIAA, Nuveen and Affiliates residing in California, please click here.

For Applicants of TIAA Global Capabilities, click here.

For Applicants of Nuveen residing in Europe and APAC, please click here.