Principal Product Designer $200,000 USD/year Pay is set based on global value, not the local market.
Most roles = hourly rate x 40 hrs x 50 weeks
Description
This role connects you to a learning model already delivering results at Alpha School. LearnWithAI powers the platform behind it, scaling rapidly throughout the US and internationally. Students complete their core academic work in two hours daily and rank in the top national percentiles. The approach is validated. What's needed now is someone who thinks first about the people using it.
You'll establish design quality standards, shape the discipline, and create the function. Your domain includes our learning platform and its related learning applications, serving multiple user groups within and beyond Alpha.
A five-year-old who hasn't learned to read yet is discovering numbers through a system that must make discovery feel like play. A teenager who's two grade levels behind is regaining confidence after years of setbacks, and a single unclear interaction could undermine that progress. A parent gains visibility into how their child actually learns. That transparency reduces their worry and enables them to support more effectively. An academic coach overseeing a mixed-age classroom must track progress without information overload. You must understand each audience thoroughly enough to design genuinely distinct solutions for them.
Your role centers on the experience layer: conduct in-depth research on each audience, translate findings into design principles engineers can implement directly, and deliver code-ready outputs that deploy immediately—not static designs awaiting approval. You collaborate with product leaders accountable for outcomes and engineers responsible for implementation. You challenge requests that compromise user experience. You own the full cycle.
You'll apply AI to accelerate iteration and expand your capacity, but your expertise—not the tool's initial output—determines what launches. Primary focus remains our education platform, with occasional work in other areas.
What you will be doing
- Conduct user research spanning fundamentally different audiences and develop design principles that reflect that understanding
- Establish and maintain design systems embedded directly in each product's UI framework, enabling faster engineering delivery and cumulative design value rather than fragmentation
- Develop functional prototypes that enable product leaders to validate decisions in days rather than weeks
- Review existing products from the user's viewpoint: identify experience breakdowns, pinpoint engagement costs, determine high-impact opportunities
- Establish design culture: structure feedback processes, define trade-off evaluation methods, identify non-negotiable standards
- Collaborate with product leaders and engineers, challenge requests that damage user experience
What you will NOT be doing
- Setting product strategy; product leaders retain that responsibility, you ensure the experience delivers on it
- Creating static mockups requiring translation to code
- Focusing on a single product; your scope covers the entire portfolio
- Executing from a design brief; you synthesize context from fragmented inputs and begin design work with partial information
- Waiting for approval; you possess the mandate to surface and resolve UX issues independently
Candidate requirements
- Minimum 5 years in product design or UX positions, with complete ownership from research through live product
- Clear evidence of user understanding and research rigor with audiences unlike yourself
- Demonstrated design excellence in interaction and visual design, with a portfolio showing audience-driven decisions rather than standard patterns, combined with clear design convictions
- Established AI-integrated workflow: rapid iteration, critical evaluation, and willingness to reject initial AI suggestions instead of defaulting to them
- Capability to convert designs into code leveraging AI tools and current frameworks
- Prepared to establish a design function and culture from the ground up, not step into existing structures
Applying for a role? Here’s what to expect.
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