The Trade Desk is changing the way global brands and their agencies advertise to audiences around the world. How? With a media buying platform that helps brands deliver a more insightful and relevant ad experience for consumers –– and sets a new standard for global reach, accuracy, and transparency. We are proud of the culture we have built. We value the unique experiences and perspectives that each person brings to The Trade Desk, and we are committed to fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day.

So, if you are talented, driven, creative, and eager to join a dynamic, globally-connected team, then we want to talk!

About The Role

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.

What You’ll Do

• 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.

Qualifications

• 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 — please include a viewable link or access instructions with your resume.
• 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.

The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. 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.

[LA JOBS ONLY] 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.

[SF JOBS ONLY] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.