Lead Designer, Design Systems (VP)

About this role

At BlackRock, design is how millions of people connect with their financial future. We're seeking a VP Design Systems Lead to shape and scale our multi-branded design system across BlackRock, iShares, and Aladdin.

This is a high-impact role at the intersection of design, technology, and brand. You'll guide the strategic vision of our design system, while staying close enough to the work to influence hands-on design, audits, and component development when needed. Based in London, you'll lead a small but powerful team of designers, collaborating with product, engineering, and brand partners to ensure consistency, flexibility, and innovation across our public sites and client facing applications.

What you'll do:

Set the Vision & Strategy

• Define and drive the roadmap for a scalable, multi-brand design system that serves global audiences across web, mobile, and applications.
• Balance cohesion with brands to support BlackRock, iShares, and Aladdin.

• Guide and review design work, while remaining hands-on with components, audits, and evolving patterns where needed.
• Partner with engineers to ensure design intent is faithfully implemented in production.

• Lead, inspire, and grow a team of designers, embedding a culture of collaboration, creativity, and continuous learning.
• Champion accessibility, inclusivity, and performance as non-negotiable foundations of our system.
• Collaborate & Govern
• Partner with product owners, engineers, brand, and compliance teams to align system standards with business and regulatory needs.
• Establish governance for versioning, documentation, and adoption of design system components.
• Measure & Evolve
• Use data, research, and analytics to measure system adoption, identify opportunities, and demonstrate impact on user experience and business outcomes.
• Stay current with emerging technologies, workflows, and tools (e.g., Figma, prototyping platforms, automation, AI in design).

• A systems thinker with deep experience building and scaling design systems in complex, multi-brand ecosystems.
• A leader and mentor who empowers designers while engaging confidently with senior stakeholders.

• Proficient in modern design tools and workflows (Figma, component libraries, prototyping, design-to-code pipelines), as well as emerging technologies (AI in design).
• Experienced in aligning design with engineering, product management, and compliance at scale.
• Able to demonstrate measurable impact of design work through metrics, research, and outcomes.
• Passionate about creating experiences that deliver clarity, trust, and inclusivity to millions of users.
• A good communicator: you can take feedback, present ideas, work with stakeholders and partner teams to ensure designs are practical and well implemented.