Principal Designer

Summary
Provides design leadership and strategic direction to ensure design work meets the highest standards of quality, client expectations, and industry best practices. Leads complex, high-impact projects while driving cross-functional collaboration and delivering innovative design solutions. Acts as a mentor, thought leader, and subject matter expert—guiding execution, fostering innovation, and promoting consistency across the organization. Participates in special projects as needed.

• Provides expert-level design solutions that align with business goals and client needs.
• Act as the primary client liaison for Design in gathering requirements, aligning design solutions, and ensuring satisfaction throughout the project lifecycle.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration with engineering, operations, sales, and other departments to deliver integrated, high-quality solutions.
• Define and validate technical specifications and compliance frameworks for major programs, ensuring design excellence, consistency, and integrity.
• Partner with Sales to provide technical expertise in support of new proposals, client pursuits, and strategic growth opportunities.
• Support client engagement efforts, participating in presentations and technical discussions to represent design expertise and reinforce company credibility.
• Collaborate with Design Director to lead design strategy, planning, and execution for high-profile, complex, or mission-critical projects.
• Support problem solving creative solutions with engineering leaders and project teams, resolving challenges and ensuring design feasibility.
• Champion innovation and efficiency by evolving design processes, tools, and methodologies.
• Evaluate client documentation — including statements of work, RFQs, and deck plans — and recommend assumptions and solutions to strengthen proposals.
• Deliver regular technical debriefs to internal teams, sharing insights from market research, trade shows, conferences, and vendor engagements.
• Mentor and coach design team members, elevating technical skills, strengthening design judgment, and fostering professional growth.
• Cultivate a positive, collaborative work environment through effective communication, professionalism, and a solutions-oriented approach.
• Other responsibilities as assigned, in alignment with advancing company design excellence and strategic objectives.

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Personal Responsibility (Modeling the Way) - You maintain clear leadership philosophy and build consensus around organization values; you make sound and timely decisions by taking calculated risk while assuming responsibility, you evoke trust by being appropriately open, honest, ethical, and consistent; you seek to eliminate inefficiencies and engage others; and you encourage organization, prioritization, follow-through, and time management.
• Direction Setting (Inspiring a Shared Vision) – You create, articulate and inspire a vision for change; you keep organizational focus on customer through expectations, involvement and feedback; you recognize importance of teams and when to use them; and you communicate expectations clearly while encouraging and recognizing accomplishments.
• Strategic Leadership (Challenging the Process) – You analyze trends/benchmarking data, develop alternatives, and identify opportunities for leverage; you set and keep focus on goals, you utilize resources effectively, you anticipate issues; you articulate a vision and encourage innovation and problem-solving to support it; and you display openness to new ideas, change and learning.
• Organizational Management (Enabling Others to Act) – You value and encourage professional and personal development through continuous learning; you delegate and support decision making; you translate strategic goals into actionable plans and remove obstacles; and you maintain cross-functional relationships and gain cooperation and support.
• Inspirational Leadership (Encouraging the Heart) – You lead by example and model the corporate values, you acknowledge mistakes and practice what is preached; you show recognition and appreciation;…