Design Systems Documentation Lead

Job description

Team & Role This role is part of our Product Design team, which turns a deep understanding of our users and customers into product experiences they love. Our designers bring expertise across design systems, visual design, interaction design, content design, and product design. At ServiceNow, design has an intentional seat at the table, and we partner with engineering and product management from the outset. We're building the knowledge foundation for ServiceNow's AI-native design system.

The system supports designers and engineers across our business units and Platform, as well as customers and partners who need clear guidance to build consistent, accessible experiences. The opportunity is to turn fragmented design-system guidance into a coherent, trustworthy documentation ecosystem that serves both designers and developers. This includes the narrative, information architecture, vocabulary, content standards, contribution process, and structured knowledge teams need to understand and apply the system consistently.

We're looking for a Design Systems Documentation Lead to drive that work. This is an IC role with real influence—no direct reports, but a clear mandate to set the strategy, align teams, raise the quality bar, and make design-system knowledge easier to find, understand, and apply. What you get to do in this role Own the strategy and roadmap for design-system documentation and learning resources. Create a unified information architecture, taxonomy, and vocabulary across design and developer guidance.

Define content standards, templates, ownership, contribution workflows, and governance across the content lifecycle. Coordinate the contributors responsible for creating and maintaining guidance for components, usage guidelines, experience patterns, accessibility, implementation, and releases. Keep documentation aligned with design libraries, coded components, platform capabilities, and product releases. Build a contribution model that enables product designers across Platform and the business units to create and maintain design-system guidance, with input from Engineering, Product, and Accessibility.

Partner with design leaders across our business units and Platform to align terminology, priorities, and guidance while accounting for product-specific needs. Partner with the Design Enablement team on onboarding, learning paths, workshops, office hours, and contributor guidance that help teams use and extend the design system. Use research, support questions, search behavior, and adoption data to identify gaps and improve the documentation experience.

Structure content and metadata so AI tools and agents can reliably retrieve and apply approved guidance. Partner with our AI Design System Tooling team on AI-assisted authoring, search, validation, and design-to-development workflows, with clear governance and human review.

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

8+ years of experience in product design, content design, technical documentation, design-system documentation, developer education, or a related discipline. Experience leveraging or critically evaluating how to integrate AI into work processes, decision-making, or problem-solving. This may include using AI-powered tools, automating workflows, analyzing AI-driven insights, or exploring AI's potential impact on the function or industry.

Strong program management and operational leadership, with the ability to translate strategy into clear priorities, coordinated execution, and measurable outcomes. Experience building and scaling documentation for enterprise design systems used by multiple product teams. Expertise in content strategy, information architecture, taxonomy, content governance, and scalable publishing systems. Strong knowledge of component architecture, design tokens, accessibility, experience patterns, and design-to-development workflows.

Experience structuring trustworthy, machine-readable content for AI-enabled products or tools. Experience with documentation platforms, content management systems, and publishing workflows. The ability to translate complex design and technical concepts into clear guidance for different audiences. Demonstrated success aligning stakeholders and leading complex cross-organizational work through influence. Strong writing, editing, facilitation, teaching, and executive communication skills.

Experience using research, analytics, and feedback to improve documentation quality and adoption.

Basic Qualifications

Experience participating in the complete product development lifecycle of web and/or software applications. Experience in user experience design, content design, technical documentation, developer education, or a related field. Experience working with cross-functional product and engineering teams. For positions in this location, we offer a base pay of $190,900 - $334,100 , plus equity (when applicable), variable/incentive compensation and benefits.

Sales positions generally offer a competitive On Target Earnings (OTE) incentive compensation structure. Please note that the base pay shown is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location. We also offer health plans, including flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) Plan with company match, ESPP, matching donations, a flexible time away plan and family leave programs.

Compensation is based on the geographic location in which the role is located and is subject to change based on work location.