About the Team
The design system is Vanguard’s comprehensive design ecosystem, which includes:
- A coded, reusable UI component library
- Design and content guidelines
- A cross‑platform design token system
- A design UI kit and supporting tooling for product teams
The design system enables teams across the company to build accessible, inclusive, and consistent digital experiences. As a Senior Technical Lead, you will play a critical role in its modernization, expansion, and architectural evolution.
Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership to ensure the design system’s architecture is modern, scalable, accessible, and aligned with industry best practices.
- Define and drive the future‑state technical vision, including component architecture, design tokens, accessibility standards, and platform‑aligned tooling.
- Lead major contributions to the next evolution of the system, improving discoverability, reducing duplication, and strengthening consistency across component libraries.
- Shape contribution and governance models that support distributed development and shared quality standards across teams.
- Identify modernization opportunities and support the creation of reusable patterns, reference architectures, and frameworks used enterprise‑wide.
- Guide and review complex engineering solutions, resolve technical blockers, and uphold high standards for code quality and documentation.
- Partner closely with the mobile design‑system team to ensure alignment across web and mobile platforms.
- Lead day‑to‑day technical execution, ensuring delivery of high‑quality, maintainable, and accessible components and tooling.
- Collaborate with product and design partners to shape roadmaps and support broader modernization goals.
- Mentor engineers, promote engineering excellence, and foster a learning‑focused and inclusive team culture.
- Explore emerging technologies and help drive continuous improvements in accessibility, automation, developer experience, and engineering standards.
Qualifications
- Deep proficiency in modern web development (TypeScript, HTML, SCSS) and component‑driven architecture.
- Significant experience building or maintaining enterprise‑scale design systems or component libraries.
- Strong experience with modern UI frameworks (Lit preferred; React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, or Stencil acceptable).
- Proven ability to lead architectural decisions, establish engineering standards, and drive modernization initiatives.
- Experience with design tokens, Storybook, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and WCAG‑aligned accessibility practices.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence without authority and articulate complex technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience contributing to large‑scale or multi‑platform design systems.
- Familiarity with modernization principles and reference architecture patterns.
- Experience with DevOps, SRE practices, or automated quality pipelines.
- Experience supporting design systems across web, mobile, and/or design‑tool ecosystems.
Special Factors
Sponsorship
Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.
About Vanguard
At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission—we're on a mission.
To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.
How We Work
Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.