Join us as Lead Product Designer - Design Systems
Want to do work that really matters?
At Checkatrade, we’re building the UK’s go-to home improvement marketplace. Every day, we help millions of homeowners find the right tradesperson for the job, fast, fair, and without the faff.
As our next Lead Design Systems Product Designer, you will architect and evolve the shared foundation our designers and engineers rely on every day. You will set direction, define principles, build components, and shape the tokens, motion and spacing that hold the system together. This is a hands-on leader role at the intersection of design, engineering and brand, where you guide standards, mentor others, and still get into the craft to make sure the system is clear, scalable and consistently used across all surfaces.
Forget long lists, here’s what you’ll actually spend your time on:
You’ll shape and evolve our multi-platform design system across web, iOS and Android, from structure to spacing, motion to accessibility.
You’ll manage the full architecture: components, tokens, patterns and docs. If it’s in Figma, you’ll be all over it.
You’ll create design libraries that are a joy to use and trusted by engineers, balancing usability with technical accuracy.
You’ll set up contribution models, governance, versioning and QA - making sure things run smoothly as the system scales.
You’ll work closely with engineers and mentor designers, helping them design within the system, contribute to it, and get the most out of it.
Around 70% of your time will be spent designing directly in the system. The rest? Driving adoption and improving the way we work.
It’s not about ticking every box. It’s about turning up curious, ready to crack on. You’ll do well here if you bring:
A track record of building or evolving robust, multi-platform design systems - ideally in a mature product environment, not a first-version start-up environment.
Systems thinking: the ability to connect tokens → components → patterns → brand → engineering in a cohesive, scalable way.
Mastery of Figma, with experience in architecting libraries, not just consuming them.
Familiarity with engineering workflows (React, Storybook, token pipelines) and the ability to collaborate deeply with engineers.
Strong communication - the kind that brings clarity, structure, and calm to ambiguity.
Curiosity, craft pride, and a roll-your-sleeves-up attitude.
This is an individual contributor role with real scope to grow into Principal - for someone who leads through credibility, not hierarchy.
We believe great work deserves great rewards. Here’s just a taste:
Competitive salary + annual bonus or commission (role dependent)
Health, well-being and learning support
Gym membership, Smart Tech Scheme and Cycle Scheme
Birthday/Special day leave
Buy & sell holiday scheme
1 week’s paid charity leave and much more!
If you require any reasonable adjustments during our interview process, please discuss them with your Talent Acquisition Partner.
If this sounds like the place where you can do your best work, we’d love to hear from you, even if you don’t tick every box
About us
We’re Checkatrade – the UK’s leading platform for finding a tradesperson. With more than 50,000 trades listed and over 6 million reviews, we help homeowners get jobs done right and help tradespeople grow their business.
We’re growing fast, with big plans to become the go-to brand for home improvements. If you care about great work, take pride in the details, and want to make an impact, you’ll fit right in.
Top Skills
What We Do
Checkatrade is one of the UK’s top online marketplaces for home improvements and repairs.
Our mission is to be the trusted foundation of every home by connecting people with trades and tools to make home improvements easy – because we believe safe and happy homes improve lives, support livelihoods, and build communities.
From our humble beginnings in 1998 to becoming a national household name, we’re on an exciting journey. For more than 25 years Checkatrade has stood for reputation and raising standards – whether that is for our trade members, consumers, or our colleagues. We think big and are passionate about changing the face of home improvements and repairs.
Today, we are a modern online marketplace and a force for good. We strive every day to support people to improve their homes and we don’t settle for the status quo – we are evolving, innovating, and growing.
With generous investment from private equity partners Brookfield, we have an ambitious growth plan and a robust roadmap to get there. Led by our values – Be All In, Always Customer Obsessed, Get It Done, Be Bold, and Do The Right Thing – we are 500 high-performing individuals working across the UK, with high-spec offices in London and Portsmouth.
We are here to be the best and inspire others to do the same, and to get there we need exceptionally talented, bright, and driven people – so if that sounds like you, you couldn’t join at a better time!
