Design System: Front-end Developer

Job Description Summary

• We are looking for a passionate and driven Design System Engineer to help build and evolve Nedbank's enterprise design system. You will work closely with designers, engineers, and stakeholders to create reusable components across multiple frameworks and ensure alignment between design intent and implementation.

Job Responsibilities:

As a Design System Engineer, you will:

• Design, build, and maintain React, Angular, Vue, and Stencil based web components (TypeScript) with WCAG 2.2 compliance.
• Develop and maintain design token pipelines, themes, and brand variants.
• Collaborate closely with designers using Figma Dev Mode, Code Connect, and MCP to translate design intent into accessible, high-quality components and experiences.
• Drive consistency and scalability by identifying reusable patterns and evolving them into systemised solutions.
• Apply systems thinking to balance user needs, design requirements, technical constraints, and platform scalability.
• Maintain component documentation, reference applications, contribution guidelines, and adoption resources.
• Build, package, and maintain scalable component libraries using Node.js, TypeScript, Rollup, and Vite.
• Develop and optimise CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps and manage deployments using Docker and Azure.
• Apply Git best practices, semantic versioning, release management, and dependency management.
• Implement automated testing, including unit, accessibility, visual regression, and end-to-end testing.
• Maintain code quality and security using SonarQube, dependency scanning, and secure coding practices.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to improve development, testing, documentation, and engineering workflows.
• Conduct code reviews, mentor team members, and contribute to a culture of engineering excellence.
• Collaborate across design, engineering, product, and stakeholder teams to drive alignment and adoption.
• Take ownership of solutions from concept through to release and continuous improvement.
• Continuously improve tooling, processes, documentation, and developer experience.
• Champion accessibility, usability, design quality, and engineering excellence across the design system ecosystem.
• Contribute innovative ideas that strengthen design system practices, platform capabilities, and engineering standards.

People Specification

Minimum Experience Level

• 3-5+ years of relevant front-end engineering experience, including experience building component libraries and reusable UI frameworks.
• Demonstrable experience shipping, maintaining, and evolving design systems or UI libraries in production environments.

Essential Qualifications - NQF Level

• Advanced Diplomas/National 1st Degrees
• Matric / Grade 12 / National Senior Certificate

Technical/Professional Knowledge:

Our ideal Design System Engineer will have knowledge and experience in:

• Modern front-end development using TypeScript and frameworks such as React, Angular, Vue, and Web Components.
• Design system architecture, reusable UI patterns, component APIs, and scalable front-end development practices.
• Systems thinking and the ability to design solutions that balance consistency, flexibility, maintainability, and user experience.
• Accessibility standards and inclusive design principles, including WCAG 2.2.
• Design tokens, theming strategies, and multi-brand implementations.
• Design-to-code workflows, including Figma Dev Mode, Code Connect, MCP, and component-driven development.
• Design principles including interaction design, visual hierarchy, usability, information architecture, and user-centred product development.
• Translating design concepts into polished, production-ready experiences while maintaining quality, performance, scalability, and accessibility.
• Front-end performance optimisation, including bundle management, code splitting, lazy loading, tree shaking, and Core Web Vitals.
• Node.js tooling, modern package management, build systems, and component library distribution.
• Monorepo strategies, versioning, dependency management, and release processes using Nx, Turborepo, or similar tooling.
• AEM authoring and integration principles.
• CI/CD practices, Azure DevOps, containerisation, cloud platforms, and deployment automation.
• Automated testing strategies, including unit, integration, accessibility, visual regression, and end-to-end testing.
• Secure coding practices, software quality standards, vulnerability management, and OWASP principles.
• Strong communication, collaboration, stakeholder engagement, ownership, and Agile delivery practices.
• A passion for design systems, digital craftsmanship, continuous improvement, and creating exceptional user and developer experiences.