The Trade Desk-posted 5 months ago
$166,200 - $304,700/Yr
Full-time • Senior
Irvine, CA
1,001-5,000 employees

At The Trade Desk, we design powerful, enterprise-grade tools that help the world’s top advertisers make smarter decisions and achieve better results. As a Principal Designer, you’ll play a key role in elevating the quality and consistency of design across our product suite. You’ll drive end-to-end design for foundational areas of Kokai, our next-generation platform — shaping not only the UX direction, but also how we define and solve complex problems. In this role, you’ll help unify the platform, reduce fragmentation, and bring coherence to the user experience by identifying shared patterns, closing quality gaps, and aligning teams on best practices. You’ll work closely with leaders in Product, Engineering, and Research while operating at the highest level of individual contribution — crafting experiences that empower users to move faster, focus on what matters, and make smarter decisions with confidence. Your leadership will help foster a culture of excellence where design quality is everyone’s responsibility and a core driver of product success. We’re looking for a thoughtful, systems-minded designer who thrives in complexity, cares deeply about craft, and inspires others through influence and example.

  • Champion design excellence 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 drive quality and consistency across key product areas, while also owning and executing design strategy for critical pillars of the Kokai platform.
  • Help evolve Kokai from functional to delightful by simplifying complexity, improving usability, and addressing core user needs with clarity and purpose.
  • Translate ambiguous problem spaces into clear, actionable design opportunities through systems thinking, journey mapping, and deep customer insight.
  • Partner closely with Product and Engineering to shape roadmaps, define requirements, and advocate for user-centered, insight-driven decision-making.
  • Work alongside UX Research and Data Science to uncover opportunities, validate hypotheses, and inform design direction with data and empathy.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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, or campaign optimization tools is a strong plus.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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