Senior UX/UI Designer at First Focus · Auckland

Great design shouldn't stop at a mockup.

We've all seen it happen. A beautiful design gets approved. The spacing is perfect, the typography is spot on, and every interaction has been carefully considered.

Then development starts.

Suddenly, there are six different button styles, four versions of the same dropdown, and a component library that looks like it was designed by people who have never met.

Sound familiar? We thought so.

At First Focus, we're looking for an experienced Senior UX/UI Designer who understands that great user experiences aren't just about beautiful screens. They're about thoughtful systems, reusable components, consistent interactions and working closely with the people who actually build them.

Someone who can think strategically about user experience, get into the detail of complex interfaces and understand how their designs translate into real React components.

You don't need to be a full-time React developer, but you do need to understand how modern component-based applications work.

And if you've ever had a passionate discussion about whether something should be a component variant or an entirely new component, you'll probably fit right in.

Who is First Focus?

We're one of Australia's leading managed service providers, helping more than 1,000 organisations get more from their technology.

Technology is what we do, but relationships are what we're known for.

Alongside our managed IT services, our growing software engineering capability builds business applications, customer portals, internal platforms, integrations and innovative solutions using modern technologies and AI.

We value curiosity, practical thinking and people who genuinely care about the quality of their work. We're not particularly interested in unnecessary bureaucracy, and we believe good ideas matter more than job titles.

Our values include Keep it Simple, Live Curiously and Win Together, which fit nicely with how we approach design and engineering. You can learn more about our values and culture here.

About the contract

This is a 12-month independent contractor engagement, focused on establishing consistent, scalable UX/UI design across our growing portfolio of React-based applications.

You'll work closely with software engineers and stakeholders to design intuitive experiences, improve existing applications and create a shared design system that developers can confidently use and extend.

A significant part of your work will involve reusable components, design tokens, interaction patterns, accessibility and responsive layouts.

This isn't a role where you'll create beautiful mockups and hand them over to developers, hoping everything turns out roughly as intended.

You'll collaborate throughout the development process, making sure designs translate into practical, consistent and maintainable interfaces.

We want someone who can bring structure without unnecessary complexity, improve what's already working and leave behind design foundations that last beyond the contract.

A few things worth knowing:

• 12-month independent contractor engagement with a clear UX/UI and design systems focus.
• Opportunity to shape shared design foundations across multiple React applications.
• Hands-on involvement in complex business applications, portals and internal platforms.
• Close collaboration with React developers, software engineers and business stakeholders.
• Autonomy to influence design decisions, component standards and practical workflows.
• A collaborative team that values thoughtful design, consistency and real outcomes.

Important: This opportunity is offered on an independent contractor basis for 12 months. It is not a fixed-term employee role, and employee benefits and entitlements do not form part of the contractor engagement.

What you'll be doing

• Design intuitive user experiences for business applications, customer portals and internal platforms.
• Build and improve a shared UX/UI design system across multiple React applications.
• Create reusable component specifications, variants, states and interaction patterns.
• Define design tokens for typography, colours, spacing and layout.
• Work closely with React developers to ensure designs are practical, consistent and reusable.
• Design complex forms, tables, dashboards, navigation and data-heavy workflows.
• Turn business requirements into clear, user-friendly experiences.
• Apply accessibility, responsive design and consistent interaction standards.
• Review developed interfaces to ensure they match the intended design.
• Improve existing applications without redesigning everything from scratch.
• Document design principles and component usage for long-term consistency.

What you'll bring

• Strong UX/UI experience designing production web applications, ideally SaaS or business software.
• Proven experience building or improving design systems across multiple applications.
• Good understanding of React component architecture and component-based development.
• Experience designing reusable components that align with React UI libraries.
• Knowledge of design tokens, component states, responsive behaviour and accessibility.
• Strong UX fundamentals, including information architecture, user journeys and usability.
• Ability to work closely with developers and understand technical limitations.
• Excellent visual design skills, including typography, layout and attention to detail.
• Confidence to challenge requirements and recommend simpler, more practical solutions.
• Ability to work independently, communicate clearly and deliver results.

We're particularly interested in someone who understands not just how components look, but how they behave, how they're reused and how they evolve.

Because creating a beautiful button is one thing. Making sure it works consistently across twelve different screens, multiple applications and every possible interaction state? That's where the real fun begins.

Bonus points if you've worked with

• Storybook and documented component libraries.
• shadcn/ui, Radix UI, Material UI, Tailwind CSS or similar React UI frameworks.
• Design token pipelines that keep design specifications and code aligned.
• TypeScript and modern frontend development workflows.
• AI-assisted development tools and rapid application prototyping.
• Enterprise applications with complex forms, permissions, tables and workflows.
• Accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.2.

If you can read a React component, understand its props and have an informed conversation with a developer about how it should behave, that's a big advantage.

If you can write or modify React components yourself, even better.

The kind of person who'll thrive here

You're someone who cares about the details but never loses sight of the bigger picture.

You understand when consistency matters and when a genuinely different experience is needed. You also know that not every design problem requires inventing another component.

You can explain your design decisions without relying on "because it looks better" as your entire argument.

You're comfortable working with developers, stakeholders and people who don't speak fluent UX.

You're curious about emerging technologies, including how AI is changing design and software development, but you're practical enough to know that new doesn't automatically mean better.

You can hit the ground running, make sensible decisions without constant direction and leave things better than you found them.

Most importantly, you enjoy creating design systems that help entire engineering teams build better software, not just make your own Figma files look impressively organised.

Why First Focus?

This contract offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on how we design and build software.

Rather than focusing on a single application, you'll help establish reusable design foundations across a growing portfolio of products and platforms.

You'll work alongside experienced technical people who value practical solutions, collaboration and continuous improvement.

You'll have the autonomy to shape the approach, influence important design decisions and deliver work that continues adding value long after the engagement ends.

We're looking for someone who wants to build something useful and lasting, not simply produce another collection of attractive screens that nobody knows how to implement.

Interested?

We'd love to see your portfolio.

But we're not just looking for polished screenshots and perfectly arranged mockups.

Show us your systems.

Show us a component library you've designed, how you've structured variants and interaction states, and how your designs translate into real applications.

Tell us about a complex workflow you've simplified or how you've helped developers deliver more consistent interfaces.

If you've worked closely with React engineers to create shared design systems, we'd particularly love to hear about it.

We're interested in how you think, how you collaborate and how you turn good design into working software.

If you believe the best UX/UI designers understand both the user and the technology behind the interface, we'd love to hear from you.

Neurodiversity: First Focus welcomes applications from Neurodiverse candidates. We recommend & appreciate disclosure along with the application so that a copy of our Neurodiversity Statement can be provided outlining the flexible options we can offer to best showcase your skills.

AI in Recruitment: We use AI-assisted recruitment tools to support our recruitment process. These tools do not make hiring decisions. Candidate information is handled in accordance with applicable New Zealand privacy legislation.