Principal Product Designer, Transit Operations

Principal Product Designer, Transit Operations

New York City

Via is a global leader in smart transportation, using technology to transform how people move through cities and communities around the world. Our impact ranges from improving individual daily journeys to helping cities operate more efficiently, accessibly, and equitably. We’re driven by ambitious goals and complex problems with real-world impact.

We’re looking for a Principal Product Designer to help shape the future of Via’s Transit Operations platform - leading a core product area that powers how transit agencies manage and operate their services every day.

This is a senior individual contributor role for a designer who thrives on complexity. You’ll take on some of the most challenging areas of our operations platform: deeply interconnected workflows, information-dense systems, and products used for hours every day by dispatchers and transit operators to make decisions that directly impact riders and drivers.

As a Principal Product Designer, you’ll bring exceptional product judgment, systems thinking, and craft. You’ll turn ambiguity into clear product direction and carry that direction through execution in close partnership with Product, Engineering, and leadership. Your influence will extend beyond the work you directly own - helping establish patterns, challenge assumptions, and raise the quality and coherence of the broader Transit Operations experience and Design organization.

What you’ll do:

• Lead design for complex and strategic areas of Via’s Transit Operations product, setting direction across interconnected workflows and creating coherent, scalable experiences.
• Transform complex operational workflows, business requirements, and technical constraints into experiences that are clear, intuitive, and purposeful. Move fluidly between systems-level thinking and detailed execution - personally carrying ideas from early exploration through polished, production-ready experiences.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to frame problems, explore possibilities, make thoughtful tradeoffs, and drive high-quality product decisions.
• Develop a deep understanding of the users and communities we serve, and design experiences that are tightly aligned with their needs.
• Use research, data, experimentation, and customer feedback to validate decisions and continuously improve the product.
• Proactively identify opportunities, bring clarity to ambiguous problem spaces, and create momentum where direction is unclear.
• Raise the quality bar for Transit Operations and influence the broader Design organization through the strength of your work, critique, collaboration, and contribution to shared patterns and systems.
• Help shape the future of product design at Via by exploring new ways of thinking, creating, and validating products - including leveraging AI as part of your everyday workflow.

What we’re looking for:

• Extensive experience designing and shipping complex digital products and platforms, with a portfolio demonstrating exceptional product thinking, craft, and the ability to create scalable solutions for sophisticated operational systems.
• Proven ability to navigate ambiguity and lead complex product initiatives end-to-end, using strong product judgment to create simple, clear, and impactful experiences.
• A high bar for craft and product quality, with deep attention to interaction, hierarchy, behavior, and the details that make experiences exceptional.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to articulate a point of view, create alignment, and influence senior Product, Engineering, Design, and business stakeholders.
• High autonomy and ownership. You’re comfortable defining the path forward when the solution - or even the problem - isn’t fully formed.
• A strong collaborator who builds alignment across Product, Engineering, Design, and leadership, using clear communication, thoughtful critique, and influence to drive better product decisions.
• A creative and curious mindset. You constantly look for better ways to solve problems, challenge conventions, and leverage emerging technologies to expand what’s possible in product design.
• Passion for…