Principal Product Designer

Principal Product Designer

Reports to:

Experience Director – Jonathan Kelly (Boston, Princeton, NJ)

Employment:
Full Time

Experience Level: 10+ years

Candyspace is seeking an exceptional Principal Product Designer to lead complex, high‑value product and service design work for global clients, shaping projects from opportunity definition through research, UX strategy, UI design, validation and delivery. The role involves working with senior stakeholders, defining design approach, aligning teams, and translating complex business and user needs into scalable digital experiences. The Principal Designer will also mentor the design team and drive AI adoption within design practices.

• Conduct and advocate user research, including interviews, testing, synthesis, and validation across complex projects.
• Define problem, ideation, and mapping using journey maps, service blueprints, and experience maps.
• Develop information architecture, create navigation models, IA diagrams, and scalable systems.
• Wireframe and prototype solutions, providing architectural sheets, high‑fidelity prototypes, and exploratory tests.
• Design UI elements: visual direction, hierarchy, relationships, design systems, and component libraries.
• Champion accessibility and inclusive design, staying current on standards and tools.
• Advocate for users, ensuring trust, emotional connection, and satisfaction across designs.
• Use AI tools to accelerate research, synthesis, ideation, content creation, and prototyping.
• Design AI‑enabled experiences, including conversational AI, AI agents, and AI‑first product flows.
• Lead the team’s design practice, raise quality, mentor staff, and drive process improvements.

• Strong design leadership with ability to influence clients, stakeholders, and teams.
• Experienced facilitator and collaborator, creating shared outcomes across interdisciplinary groups.
• Strategic self‑starter, comfortable shaping direction from ambiguity and defining design approaches.
• Solutions‑focused, commercially aware, balancing user needs, business value, technical feasibility, and delivery constraints.
• Passionate mentor, elevating design quality across the team.
• Curious and proactive about AI and emerging technologies, integrating them with a human‑centred mindset.
• Detail oriented, craft‑focused, with judgment on quality vs pragmatism.
• Friendly, open, and generous with knowledge, contributing positively to culture.

• Collaborate with Fortune
  500 companies and innovative clients.
• Work in a research‑driven environment with access to cutting‑edge AI, ML, data, and cloud technologies.
• Fast‑growth company with opportunities to influence product strategy and design culture.
• Hybrid work culture with flexible location options.