Director, Design Systems, Accessibility & Operations

Realtor.com Careers - Austin, TX

Full-time - Senior

Austin, TX

About the position

The Director, Design Systems, Accessibility & Operations at Realtor.com is a leadership role focused on creating and executing a cohesive design vision across multiple products. This position involves collaborating with senior leaders in Product and Engineering to enhance design systems, ensure accessibility, and drive operational efficiency within the design team. The director will manage a team of designers, oversee design operations, and promote a culture of design excellence and user-centric practices.

Responsibilities

• Design and drive a cohesive and exceptional aesthetic across multiple products.
• Create and uphold a high standard for design excellence and challenge work that does not meet it.
• Clearly communicate design instructions and repeatable patterns to other designers.
• Articulate the value of design, design systems, and accessibility to stakeholders.
• Give clear and usable design feedback and receive it with professionalism.
• Partner with senior Engineering and Product counterparts to design effective solutions.
• Maintain consistent and accessible tokens in Figma for components built in various technologies.
• Educate the design team on the importance and usage of tokens.
• Work with Brand and Marketing teams to ensure consistency across external-facing assets.
• Maintain and provide icon and illustration libraries for all products.
• Plan a cohesive roadmap with prioritized projects aligned with engineering release timelines.
• Educate and partner with executives and product partners to promote design systems.
• Extend and expand on the culture of design systems and accessibility as a service.
• Build relationships with teams to keep the roadmap and backlog prioritized.
• Partner closely with Engineering to drive alignment between code and designs.
• Ensure proper documentation and processes for all design system components.
• Tell the story of design systems and accessibility wins grounded in business metrics.
• Manage design operations, analyzing team capacity and performance.
• Collaborate with design leaders on team workload and assignments.
• Compile and maintain capacity reports using tools like JIRA and Confluence.
• Manage team tools and infrastructure to support design efficiency.
• Drive the exploration and adoption of software tools and user-centric design methodologies.
• Mentor and manage a team of designers, fostering growth and professional development.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience working in the design industry.
• 3+ years of working in a product-led organization.
• 5+ years of providing design direction and mentoring in a leadership role.
• 3+ years leading a design systems and design operations team.
• A strong visual aesthetic and design point of view, demonstrated in a rich portfolio.
• Experience delivering multiple projects simultaneously with cross-disciplined teams.
• Experience with capacity planning and workload management.
• Knowledge of Figma, JIRA, and project management tools.
• Strong opinions informed by user-centric processes and design thinking principles.
• Exemplifies a collaborative attitude.

Benefits

• Warm, welcoming, and inclusive culture
• Intellectual challenges
• Development opportunities for growth