Principal UX Designer Job at The Trade Desk in San Francisco

Job description

The Trade Desk is changing the way global brands and their agencies advertise to audiences around the world.

How?

With a media buying platform that helps brands deliver a more insightful and relevant ad experience for consumers - and sets a new standard for global reach, accuracy, and transparency.

We are proud of the culture we have built.

We value the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings to The Trade Desk, and we are committed to fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day.

So, if you are talented, driven, creative, and eager to join a dynamic, globally-connected team, then we want to talk!

About The Role

At The Trade Desk, we believe great design is both powerful and intuitive - seamlessly blending clarity, intelligence, and elegance to help our users make faster, more confident decisions.

We're looking for a Principal Product Designer who brings a rare mix of strategic insight, exceptional craft, and a deep understanding of human behavior and business context.

In this role, you'll lead design for core areas of Kokai, our next-generation platform, and shape experiences that feel simple - even when the underlying systems are not.

You'll help create a product that's not just usable, but intuitive and empowering, by turning complexity into clarity and aligning cross-functional teams on a shared vision of excellence.

You'll operate at the highest level of individual contribution while partnering closely with Product, Engineering, and Research leadership.

Beyond your direct ownership areas, you'll elevate design quality across the platform - identifying opportunities to unify patterns, refine interaction models, and guide teams toward useful, purposeful experiences that meet the needs of both users and the business.

What You'll Do

• Champion design excellence, deeply informed by user behavior, psychology, and business outcomes, across the organization by identifying shared UX opportunities, aligning on standards, and raising the bar for craft, coherence, and usability across the platform.
• Collaborate with other UX leads to design simple, intuitive, and elegant experiences for deeply complex workflows - setting a new standard for usability in enterprise-grade tools.
• Translate data-heavy systems and workflows into experiences that feel light, structured, and focused - helping expert users prioritize, act confidently, and stay in flow.
• Apply a strong product sense and understanding of business levers to ensure design decisions are not only user-centered but strategically aligned.
• Drive quality and consistency across key product areas, while also owning and executing design strategy for critical pillars of the Kokai platform.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to shape roadmaps, define requirements, and advocate for user-centered, insight-driven decision-making.
• Coach and influence other designers through critiques, systems thinking, and storytelling - modeling best-in-class design practices and raising the bar across the team.
• Contribute to Harbor, our unified design system, to push quality and consistency across all surfaces and components.
• Lead by example through design critiques, mentorship, and collaboration-helping foster a culture of continuous improvement, excellence, and shared ownership of quality.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, Computer Science, or a related field - or equivalent practical experience (Master's degree preferred).

10+ years of experience in product design or UX, including work on enterprise-grade or data-rich applications.

4+ years of experience leading high-impact design initiatives or strategic projects across teams or product areas.

Proven experience working in cross-functional teams, influencing outcomes through collaboration, systems thinking, and storytelling.

Strong visual and interaction design skills, with a portfolio that demonstrates high standards of craft, clarity, and user-centered problem solving - please include a viewable link or access instructions with your resume.

Proficiency in Figma and the ability to prototype at multiple levels of fidelity to communicate and validate ideas effectively.

Experience partnering with executive stakeholders and contributing to product vision and roadmap through design leadership.

A track record of translating complex user needs and business goals into scalable, elegant solutions.

Familiarity with advertising technology, programmatic platforms, and campaign optimization tools is a strong plus.

The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters.

Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk.

The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer.

All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.

LA JOBS ONLY] The Trade Desk will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Ordinance No. 184652.

SF JOBS ONLY] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

CO, CA, IL, NY, WA, and Washington DC residents only : In accordance with CO, CA, IL, NY, WA, and Washington DC law, the range provided is The Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role.

The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and location.

All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance.

The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as sales-based incentives and commissions.

Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well-being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full-time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year.

Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk's Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package.

Click here to learn more.

Note : Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave

At the Trade Desk, Base Salary is one part of our competitive total compensation and benefits package and is determined using a salary range.

The base salary range for this role is

166,200 — $304,700 USD

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to making our job application process accessible to everyone and toproviding reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities.

If you have a disability or medical condition and requirean accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process,please contact us at accommodations@thetradedesk.com

You can also contact us using the same email address if you have a disability and need assistance to access our Company website.

When contacting us, please provide your contact information and specify the nature of your accessibility issue.

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Required Skill Profession

Art And Design Workers