Volunteer Project Manager – Universal Design System Team

About the role

The Volunteer Project Manager will organize tickets, maintain the roadmap, and ensure collaboration between designers, product leaders, and developers so that design system work progresses smoothly from concept to implementation.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and organize the Universal Design System roadmap
• Create, prioritize, and update tickets using GitHub Projects or similar tools
• Cook up and coordinate work across design, product, and development teams
• Monitor team progress and identify blockers
• Collaborate with designers to plan upcoming component work
• Help ensure design system work progresses from design → documentation → development
• Support cross-team communication when design system updates affect product teams
• Work closely with the Design Director, who will assist designers with design-specific challenges while the Project Manager focuses on planning and coordination

Qualifications

• Experience with design or UX
• Proactivity and comfort operating with independence
• Strong organizational and planning skills
• Interest in design systems, UX, product development, or design operations
• Experience with Figma
• Experience using GitHub Projects, Jira, Linear, Notion, or similar planning tools

Time Commitment & Collaboration Cadence

This role requires approximately 5–10 hours per week, combining synchronous collaboration sessions and asynchronous coordination.

• Synchronous collaboration sessions:
• Product Collaboration Session: Sunday, 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM CST
• Design Team Retrospective: Sunday, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST
• Product × Research × Design Collaboration: Sunday, 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM CST
• Product × Development × Design Collaboration: Sunday, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CST
• Monthly Rotating Sessions:
• Design Team Retrospective: Sunday, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST
• Product × Research × Design Collaboration: Sunday, 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM CST
• Product × Development × Design Collaboration: Sunday, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM CST
• Optional Sessions:
• Design Collaboration Sessions: Sundays from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST
• Organization-wide collaboration session: Wednesdays from 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM CST
• Expected Weekly Time:
• ~2 hours of synchronous collaboration sessions
• ~3–8 hours of asynchronous collaboration

Async collaboration primarily occurs through Discord and GitHub Projects, including:

• Reviewing and engaging with team async standups
• Planning and updating tickets
• Cooking up and coordinating with designers, product managers, and developers
• Maintaining roadmap visibility and progress

What You’ll Gain

• Hands-on experience managing a real design system used in active products
• Experience coordinating work across design, product, and engineering
• Leadership experience within a global nonprofit technology community
• Opportunities to collaborate with experienced designers and developers
• Portfolio-worthy experience working with design systems and product infrastructure
• Exposure to cross-functional product development workflows

Impact

The Universal Design System helps Dev Launchers teams build products more efficiently and consistently. Your work will directly influence how design and development teams collaborate and scale their work across the organization.