Design System Lead

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do.

Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

At Sun life Canada, we’re evolving how we design and deliver digital experiences – ensuring every interaction is consistent, intuitive, and inclusive. The Design System Lead will drive the creation and growth of two critical enablers for our digital ecosystem: our design system and digital accessibility program for Canada. This role will bring structure, governance, and momentum to how we design and build for accessibility, while creating shared standards and components that make it easier for teams to deliver great experiences at scale.

Reporting the Director, Experience Design
, this role plays a pivotal role in laying the foundation for how we design and build inclusive digital experiences across all channels. You’ll lead a team responsible for shaping systems and standards that guide teams Canada wide – creating scalable impact and ensuring accessibility is not an afterthought, but core part of how we design and deliver. This is a hands‑on leadership role that blends strategy, design and technical understanding to drive change and impact.

• Define the vision, roadmap, and governance model for the design system and accessibility program for Canada.
• Establish frameworks and standards that help teams design and build accessible, consistent and human‑centered experiences.
• Manage community feedback and contribution requests to understand needs and integrate into the system.
• Partner with the Experience Design, Engineering, Brand, Compliance and Product teams to drive alignment, adoption and best practices.
• Lead the design and evolution of the Sun Life Canada design system, including design tokens, components, and usage guidelines.
• Partner with Experience Designers and Engineers to ensure the system is scalable, inclusive and efficient to use.
• Define governance processes for how the system is maintained, evolved, and communicated.
• Build and operationalize Sun Life’s digital accessibility program working in partnership with the Accessibility Lead to set policies, standards and best practices.
• Develop and analyze critical metrics that measure effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and business impact.
• Train, onboard and enable teams to fully harness the system, ensuring broad and sustained adoption.
• Lead a small, specialized team focused on accessibility and design system foundations.
• Provide clarity, direction, and coaching to ensure the team delivers high impact, practical outcomes.
• Publish release notes, newsletters, adoption/usage/accessibility guides to the community.

• 7+ years in digital product, UX, or front‑end design leadership, with demonstrated experience building and scaling design systems and accessibility programs.
• Strong understanding of accessibility standards and inclusive design principles (AODA, WCAG 2.2 AA).
• Hands on experience with enterprise design tools and frameworks (Figma, Storybook, React, Angular, JIRA, Confluence, etc.)

• Strong experience in stakeholder management, influence, and communication skills – able to drive alignment across a diverse set of teams.
• Ability to translate strategic vision into actionable frameworks and roadmaps.
• Strong influencing and communication skills – able to align diverse stakeholders across design, technology, and business.
• Collaborative mindset with a focus on enablement and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to stay current with emerging design trends, technologies, and AI‑driven design tools, with experience applying these innovations to enhance user experiences.

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