Sr. Writer - Design System Documentation and Brand Guidelines

Reposted 2 Days Ago
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Austin, TX, USA
Hybrid
Senior level
Automotive • Big Data • Information Technology • Robotics • Software • Transportation • Manufacturing
We make amazing products people love, for every journey.
The Role
The Sr. Writer - Design Systems & Governance will focus on developing design governance frameworks, ensuring consistency and quality across design assets, and collaborating with various teams to enhance user experience and product design.
Summary Generated by Built In
Description
The Role
We're seeking a highly skilled writer with experience creating structured, scalable
documentation for design systems and brand guidelines. In this role, you'll help define
how GM documents and communicates its design language across web, mobile,
vehicle, and broader brand touchpoints. You will write the guidance that supports our
design system and visual identity at scale-from components, patterns, templates, and
tokens to logo usage, color, typography, grid, composition, and motion.
You bring a systems-minded approach to writing, with a strong instinct for clarity,
structure, and usefulness. Your work simplifies complexity into practical guidance,
enabling teams to make consistent and confident decisions. You also bring a strong
understanding of how AI can support documentation-both in how content is structured
and in how AI can be used as a tool to help scale content creation, establish best
practices, and make our documentation more reusable and future-ready.
You'll play a key role in shaping the written foundation of GM's design system and
brand expression-ensuring our documentation is clear, actionable, and aligned across
products and platforms.
What You'll Do
  • Write and maintain clear, structured documentation for design system components, patterns, templates, and foundations.
  • Develop and evolve brand guideline content for logo usage, lockups, color, typography, grid, composition, motion, and related visual identity elements.
  • Translate complex design and systems thinking into simple, useful guidance for designers, engineers, marketers, and agency partners.
  • Partner with design leads, design systems teams, the Accessibility team, engineers, product, research, and brand strategy to ensure documentation reflects current intent and implementation reality.
  • Help define the information architecture, governance, and editorial standards for design system and brand documentation.
  • Create usage guidance, principles, do's and don'ts, examples in use, and supporting rationale that improve adoption and reduce ambiguity.
  • Write directly in tools such as Figma, documentation platforms, and content systems to support real workflows and handoff.
  • Help define best practices for creating documentation that works for both human readers and AI-enabled systems, reducing duplication and making content more reusable over time.
  • Assess and help shape documentation tools, workflows, and processes that improve quality, consistency, and scale.
  • Support the development of a cohesive Brand Center and documentation ecosystem that unifies brand and product guidance.
  • Review and refine existing documentation for clarity, consistency, tone, and quality.
  • Contribute to naming, terminology, and content frameworks that strengthen alignment across web, mobile, and vehicle experiences.
  • Using AI tools for content development, AI-readiness, and prototyping

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)
  • Strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional writing and editing craft across design systems, UX documentation, brand guidelines, or related systems-based work.
  • Experience writing structured guidance for design systems, digital products, or brand standards.
  • Ability to organize complex information into clear, intuitive documentation and frameworks.
  • Strong understanding of visual design, interface design, and the role of documentation in scaling quality.
  • Experience collaborating closely with designers, engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Excellent editorial judgment with strong instincts for clarity, hierarchy, tone, and consistency.
  • Comfort working in Figma and other collaborative documentation environments.
  • Strong sense of ownership and ability to create structure in evolving or ambiguous spaces.
  • Experience establishing or contributing to standards, templates, governance, or content systems.
  • Ability to balance precision with pragmatism and make guidance useful in real- world workflows.

What Will Give You A Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)
  • A passion for clear, structured writing that helps systems scale.
  • The ability to translate complex ideas into practical guidance teams can use with confidence.
  • A sharp eye for clarity, consistency, hierarchy, and craft.
  • Curiosity about visual identity, interface design, documentation systems, and the role writing plays in shaping quality experiences.
  • Strong appreciation for typography, grids, visual language, and design craft across brand identity and UI design.
  • A collaborative mindset and the ability to influence quality and alignment across internal teams, external partners, and agencies.

About GM
Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.
Why Join Us
We believe we all must make a choice every day - individually and collectively - to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.
Total Rewards | Benefits Overview
From day one, we're looking out for your well-being-at work and at home-so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.
Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)
General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.
All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.
We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire.
Accommodations
General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us [email protected] or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.

Skills Required

  • Proven experience in design writing
  • Strong understanding of design principles
  • Ability to communicate effectively with cross-functional teams

What the Team is Saying

Kendra
Brady
Eseme Owoseni
Emrik
Divya
Navya
Yousuf
Eseme
Charles
Antonino Destasi
Jeremiah Hamlin
Victoria
Matt Zebiak
Sri
Jeremiah

General Motors Compensation & Benefits Highlights

  • Retirement Support Retirement support includes a 401(k) with a 4% company contribution plus up to a 6% match (potential 10% from the company when you defer). Some roles also indicate pension eligibility and access to stock purchase opportunities.
  • Leave & Time Off Breadth Time-off provisions for U.S. salaried employees include 15+ paid vacation days and up to 19 paid holidays, with additional leave options available. Allowances can increase with career progression.
  • Parental & Family Support U.S. salaried employees can receive 12 weeks of paid parental leave after one year of service. Family-building benefits provide up to $40,000 in combined lifetime reimbursement for fertility, surrogacy, and adoption.

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The Company
HQ: Detroit, MI
165,000 Employees
Year Founded: 1908

What We Do

At General Motors, our vision is to create a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, and Zero Congestion. We wholeheartedly embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer, and more equitable for all. Our industry and company are undergoing a once-in-a-lifetime technological transformation, which is reshaping our approach to technology and innovation. We are expanding our horizons through new technology platforms and driving innovations that deliver exceptional value to our customers.

Why Work With Us

At General Motors, our purpose is to pioneer the innovations that move and connect people to what matters. We’re driving the world forward, together. We’re building vehicle software alongside its hardware, hands-free driving that will lead to autonomy, and EVs that charge your home for an all-electric future.

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Roles that are categorized as Hybrid mean that the successful candidate is expected to report onsite to the designated facility at least three times per week or other frequency as dictated by the business.

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