Fractional Product Systems Designer

Fractional Product Systems Designer (Web + iOS) - Remote (U.S.- based)

Location: Chicago, IL - Remote (within location)
Employment Type: Part-time (20-30 hours per month)
Compensation: Competitive hourly rate (Senior, Fractional)
Job ID: 26FRA301
Engagement: Long-term if mutually successful

Overview

Serious Development builds internal business applications at speed using: v0 for prototyping, Angular + PrimeNG for implementation, Native iOS apps that feel like iOS, not web-on-a-phone. We are seeking a Fractional Product Systems Designer (Web + iOS) to design how our products behave over time.

Why This Role Exists

As velocity increased, traditional screen-based design became unnecessary. What did become necessary is system-level UX ownership.

This role exists to ensure our products remain:

• Predictable
• Consistent
• Native to their platforms
• Easy to learn and hard to misuse

You will not be designing every screen. You will be designing how the product behaves over time.

Who You Are

Required

• Senior-level product or systems designer
• Experience with internal or enterprise applications
• Strong systems thinking; comfortable defining rules and constraints
• Deep familiarity with iOS as a platform (not just mobile UI)
• Comfortable challenging PMs and saying "don't ship that"
• Pragmatic, opinionated, and not precious about visuals

Strong Plus

• Experience cleaning up inconsistent products
• Familiarity with component-based design systems
• Experience working with engineers directly
• Prior fractional or advisory roles

Red Flags (for us)

• Portfolio-first, system-light background
• Strong preference for redesigns over convergence
• Focus on "delight" over clarity and predictability
• Reliance on Figma as the primary output

What You'll Be Responsible For

Product-wide UX coherence

• Own interaction patterns across the product
• Ensure similar problems are solved the same way
• Reduce inconsistency as new modules are added
• Prevent UX drift as multiple PMs and teams ship in parallel

Working within existing products

• Audit current applications and patterns
• Identify what already works and should be preserved
• Drive convergence — not redesign-for-the-sake-of-redesign
• Respect user muscle memory

Web UX (Angular + PrimeNG)

• Define how PrimeNG components are used (tables, forms, filters, modals)
• Establish behavioral standards:
  • States
  • Errors
  • Permissions
  • Progressive disclosure
• Prevent "almost-the-same" component variants

iOS UX (Native-first)

• Ensure strict alignment with Apple Human Interface Guidelines
• Catch web/Android patterns leaking into iOS
• Enforce native navigation, gestures, and control usage
• Prioritize platform correctness over internal consistency when they conflict

Partnering with PMs

• Review v0 prototypes and early implementations
• Provide fast, opinionated feedback
• Help PMs reason through UX tradeoffs
• Establish clear guardrails PMs can confidently operate within

What You Will Not Be Doing

• Pixel-perfect mock production
• Designing every feature or screen
• Maintaining Figma parity with code
• Visual branding or marketing design
• Creating handoff artifacts for engineers
• If your default output is screens, this is not the right role.

What Success Looks Like

• UX feels consistent across modules and platforms
• PMs move fast without inventing new patterns
• Fewer usability questions from users
• Faster onboarding with less training
• No "why does this work differently over here?" moments
• No large-scale UX rewrites six months later

How You'll Work

• Review-heavy, not production-heavy
• Embedded early in feature thinking, not late-stage polish
• Prefer rules, patterns, and written guidance over visuals
• Use Figma only when a concept cannot be expressed clearly in text or prototypes
• Code and prototypes are the source of truth.