Staff Visual Designer - Design Systems

Mercury•Portland, OR

3d•$228,700 - $285,900

About The Position

Mercury is a financial technology company dedicated to bringing back the care and craft in design that has been lost in modern finance. We are building products that feel extraordinary to use, helping people and businesses accomplish more with their money. The Design Systems team at Mercury sets the visual foundation for all product designers, ensuring consistency and expressiveness across all product surfaces. This role is a senior individual contributor position focused on elevating the craft of Mercury's design system and product experience. The Design Foundations team is a new initiative responsible for design systems, brand in product, and AI tools, offering significant agency to define its vision and direction.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in visual design, with deep expertise in typography, color systems, and iconography at a product or brand scale.
A portfolio showcasing foundational systems work and high-craft, expressive visual design.
Strong ability to articulate the principles of successful design, not just aesthetic preference.
A proven track record of coaching or mentoring other designers, with a clear perspective on strong craft and its teaching.
Systems thinking, with the ability to balance expressive visual design with the practical needs of a scalable design system for data-rich products.
Strong stakeholder management skills, capable of gaining buy-in from executives and cross-functional leaders for high-visibility work.
Excellent communication and presence, able to set direction, build alignment, and defend design decisions with both designers and engineers.
Proficiency in design tools and front-end prototyping with React.
Comfort working closely with engineers on the implementation and maintenance of visual systems in code.
Affinity for AI-assisted prototyping.

Nice To Haves

Motion design skills.

Responsibilities

Redefine and ship large, foundational improvements to Mercury’s design language (e.g., type, color, iconography) that scale across all product surfaces.
Partner with Brand and other craft leaders to integrate expressive moments into the product and guide the synergy between brand and product visual language.
Establish the craft standard for the design organization by defining excellence and creating the systems, guidelines, and references for repeatability.
Actively coach product designers, providing direct feedback to enhance the quality of individual work and the design system.
Collaborate with design systems designers and engineers to ensure visual decisions are accurately translated into scalable, maintainable components.
Represent design systems and visual craft in discussions with Brand, Engineering, and design leadership.