Volunteer Design System Lead at Orcasound (Seattle nonprofit, remote, 8 to 12 hrs/week)

Summary: Orcasound Product from Orcasound, a Seattle-based open-source community, is seeking a volunteer Design System Lead. The role involves defining visual and interaction patterns for Orcasound's public site, publishing specifications in Figma and Storybook, and migrating key components to the new system, all based on Material 3. They provide a comprehensive onboarding package and seek candidates with at least three years of experience in design systems. The role is expected to take 8 to 12 hours per week and is voluntary. Interested individuals can apply through DemocracyLab or contact Orcasound Product for more information.

AI Summary

Hi Figma Seattle. I am Brendan Thatcher, Product Manager and UX Researcher at Orcasound, a Seattle-rooted open-source community that listens for Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Salish Sea via a hydrophone network. We are recruiting a volunteer Design System Lead to define the canonical visual and interaction patterns for our public site (orcasound.tech, currently being redesigned), publish the specifications in Figma and Storybook, and migrate the most-used components in code.

The role

Adopt Material 3 as the canonical foundation; extend with Orcasound brand tokens (color, typography, motion, elevation).
Document the canonical specification per element type (button, hyperlink, card, icon button, form input, navigation) with all interaction states (default, hover, focus, pressed, disabled).
Set up Storybook for Orcahome as the Dev-facing live component reference.
Migrate critical components (Nav, Footer, Button, ActionButton, ScrollLink, Card) to the canonical specification.

What you inherit on day one

A populated Figma Design System file (Material Web, Simple Design System, DemocracyLab libraries already imported), a complete typography token set, a 47-element hover state audit on GitHub that acts as your acceptance test, and a Pre-onboarding Specifications Package covering constraints, foundation, reference docs, week-one open questions, collaborators, and a first-week orientation plan.

Right fit looks like

3+ years building or substantially contributing to a design system in production. Material 3 or comparable (Carbon, Polaris, Lightning) preferred. Figma fluency at the design-system level (variables, tokens, library publishing). Comfort partnering with a small Dev team on Storybook setup. Async, self-directed.

Time and shape

8 to 12 hours per week, your schedule. Engagement runs roughly 8 to 10 weeks for the foundational work, with optional ongoing involvement as the system matures. Volunteer role (Orcasound is all-volunteer).

To apply or learn more

Comment below, DM me on Friends of Figma, or visit our Orcasound project page on DemocracyLab to apply: https://democracylab.org/projects/81. Happy to answer questions in the thread.

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