Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.

Target Resume Now

Tailor your resume to this Principal Designer role.

Rezi rewrites your resume against The Trade Desk's job description. Free.

Resume score gauge reading 58 out of 100

Don't guess if your resume is good enough.

See how it scores against the Principal Designer posting at The Trade Desk — free, in seconds.

About the Role

The Trade Desk is seeking a Principal Design Lead to own and evolve our Digital Playbook and modernize our design practice. This senior individual-contributor role involves setting best-in-class standards for the platform's look and feel, guiding the evolution of our design language and systems, and leveraging AI tools to enhance design workflows. The role reports to the Senior Director of UX Design and is a core leader of the UX team's impact.

Responsibilities

Own and evolve the Digital Playbook, including design foundations, style guide, and component anatomy.
Set standards and principles for consistent, clear, and crafted design.
Maintain the Playbook as a living resource, ensuring adoption, responsiveness to product change, and measurable impact.
Translate ambiguous product and brand needs into clear, usable guidance.
Partner on Core Platform Evolution to ensure the Playbook and platform direction evolve together.
Guide the evolution of the product design language to unify the experience and reduce fragmentation.
Identify shared patterns and align teams on best practices for coherence and usability.
Lead hands-on, high-fidelity design of foundational elements.
Define the structure, scalability, and support of a modern design system.
Partner with Design Technologists to bridge design and code.
Shape the evolution of the design system alongside the Playbook.
Partner with Product Marketing and Brand to integrate brand expression into the product.
Build a shared visual and narrative language connecting brand messaging with platform appearance.
Present vision and direction to senior leadership with compelling storytelling.
Collaborate with the AI experience design lead to translate their vision into consistent patterns and standards.
Ensure product language, components, and visual conventions support AI-powered capabilities cohesively.
Contribute to cross-functional conversations with Product, Engineering, and Data Science.
Model hands-on use of AI tools in exploration, prototyping, and design-to-build handoff.
Help evolve design, product, and engineering workflows for speed and quality.
Establish standards and practices for repeatable AI-enabled workflows.
Set the craft standard for visual and interaction design.
Provide critique and design direction to teams.
Mentor designers on systems thinking, visual craft, storytelling, and AI-enabled ways of working.
Represent TTD's Design Point of View at industry events and in the broader design community.
Position TTD as a leader in cohesive, modern, customer-centered product design in adtech.

Requirements

Experienced design leader with a track record of shaping complex products.
Combines strong visual and systems craft with product sense and brand sensibility.
Genuine fluency in how AI is changing design practices.
Energized by ambiguity, driven by user outcomes, and skilled at turning emerging tools into clear experiences.
10+ years of experience in product design or UX design, including enterprise-grade or data-rich applications.
4+ years leading high-impact design initiatives or strategic projects.
Proven track record owning or evolving a design language, style guide, design system, or playbook adopted at scale.
Strong visual and interaction design skills, with a portfolio demonstrating high standards of craft, clarity, and user-centered problem solving.
Experience integrating brand and product, partnering effectively with Product Marketing and Brand teams.
Deep, hands-on fluency with AI tools for design exploration, prototyping, and workflow.
Strong command of Figma and modern prototyping tools.
Experience partnering with design technologists or engineers to connect design foundations to implementation.
Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with strong executive presence.
Experience working in cross-functional teams, influencing outcomes through collaboration, systems thinking, and storytelling.
Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive clarity and alignment in complex, fast-moving environments.
Familiarity with how AI-powered experiences are designed (preferred).
Familiarity with advertising technology, programmatic platforms, or campaign optimization tools (preferred).
Published thought leadership, talks, or case studies on design systems, design modernization, or AI-enabled design practice (preferred).

Skills

AI tools for design exploration
AI tools for prototyping
AI tools for workflow enhancement
Figma
Modern prototyping tools
Design systems
Visual design
Interaction design
Systems thinking
Storytelling
Brand integration
Product sense
Cross-functional collaboration

Location

Global

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

Principal
Senior
10+ years of experience in product design or UX design
4+ years leading high-impact design initiatives

Education Level

Bachelor’s degree in Design, HCI, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
Master’s preferred

Salary/Compensations

$182,800—$335,200 USD

Benefits

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
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Eligibility for stock-based compensation grants
Potential for variable compensation-based incentives and commissions

About the Company

The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising.
Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet.
Advertising powers the content people love, supporting trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide.
The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.
The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges, processing massive datasets in real time and building globally reliable systems.
We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another.

Equal Opportunity

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.
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.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Please reach out to us at accommodations@thetradedesk.com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.