Product Designer, The Financial Times
Design Systems, 12 Month FTC
2+ days a week in office
Global business publication
Posted today
Global business publication
1001+ employees
Posted today
2+ days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
The FT has an uncompromising mission: delivering independent, quality information, news and services to individuals and companies around the globe. It’s the cornerstone of our reputation and the heart of our ambitions for the future.
Role
Who you are
- 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
- 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
- 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 the job involves
- 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
- 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
- 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
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Founded in 1888, the FT has grown into one of the world's biggest online and broadsheet economics and business news providers. It has a strong focus on financial journalism and economic analysis, and provides this essential analysis to companies and individuals across the world.
As well as economics and business, the FT also offers sections on opinion, life and arts, how to spend, and more. In 2022, six of its writers won awards in science, data and investment categories, illustrating the breadth and quality of the FT’s journalism.
The company adapts well to changes in the market to maintain its readership. For example, it recently launched a digital hub and weekly newsletter called Cryptofinance to shine a light on the digital asset industry and how innovations are rippling into mainstream finance.
The FT Group employs more than 2,300 people worldwide, including 700 journalists in 40 countries. It includes the FT, FT Specialist, and a number of services and joint ventures. FT's focus on providing impartial, high-quality content has gained it a record-paying readership of over a million, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Company benefits
- A range of training courses as well as confidential career coaching and mentoring
- Flexibility - working from home, job sharing, compressed weeks, and flexible working hours
- Enhanced parental leave, flexible leave allowance and paid volunteer leave
- Pension contribution
- Local health coverage plans
- Gym memberships and healthcare schemes, professional counselling sessions, 24-hour employee wellbeing helpline, weekly meditation classes
- Financial wellbeing products and services
Company values
- Ambition
- Curiosity
- Integrity
- Trust
- Inclusion
- Subscriber focus
Company HQ
City of London, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Jon Slade
(CEO)Jon Slade became CEO in July 2025 after 20+ years at the FT. A key leader in its digital shift, he’s driven growth, social impact, and sustainability across the business.
Roula Khalaf
(Editor)Following a degree at Columbia University and four years at Forbes, Khalaf joined the FT in 1995 as Associate Editor and Middle East Editor. Since January 2020, she has served as Editor.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at The Financial Times
Rukasana Bhaijee (Head of Diversity & Inclusion)
- D&I annual report
- Reporting pay gaps
- Next generation board
- Employee networks, including Proud FT, FT Embrace, FT Women, FT Families, FT Sustainability, FT Mental Health and FT Access,
Share this job
View 9 more jobs at The Financial Times