Principal Design Engineer, Mobile (iOS)

Salesforce; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 197,000 - 314,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce is seeking a Principal Design Engineer to elevate the craft of mobile iOS experiences, prototyping directly in production code and shaping agentic design tooling across Slack's iOS platform. You’ll drive craft, mentor teams, and define scalable prototyping practices while aligning with Apple guidelines and platform standards.

You’ll partner with design and engineering teams, evangelize new practices, and explore innovative interactions to differentiate mobile experiences from desktop

Qualifications

• 8+ years at the intersection of product design and iOS engineering.
• Experience building real, working prototypes in code to explore ambiguous concepts.
• Deep knowledge of iOS platform standards and capabilities (Apple HIG, native frameworks).
• Experience creating tools, documentation, or training that help others level up their craft.
• Strong collaboration and proactive communication across teams.
• Familiarity with agentic/AI-assisted coding tools and teaching design teams to use them.

Responsibilities

• Prototype nascent interaction concepts directly in code, turning what-ifs into tangible experiences.
• Build deep understanding of iOS platform capabilities and standards, and know when to deviation for bespoke solutions.
• Lead training and document agentic prototyping workflows for designers and engineers.
• Create reusable patterns and tooling for iOS prototyping across teams.
• Collaborate with designers and engineers to inject technical craft where needed most.
• Use data and shipped-feature learnings to sharpen judgment and feed back into tooling and docs.

Skills

Swift/SwiftUI

Objective-C

Prototype in code

Cross-team collaboration

AI-assisted coding tools

Evangelizing new practices

Tools

WidgetKit

App Intents

Live Activities

Shortcuts

Job description

Job Category

User Experience

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

We're hiring a Principal Design Engineer to elevate the craft and explore what's possible within Slack's iOS experience. Slack is an app that is used by millions of people every day as a core part of getting their work done. This role sits at the intersection of design and engineering: you'll rapidly prototype directly in code to bring real life to nascent, half-formed concepts that need both technical and craft judgment to assess their viability and their ability to make what we ship better.

We’d love to find someone who not only is excited about this opportunity, but the unique modalities and possibilities of mobile experiences and how they can overlap and meaningfully differentiate from their desktop counterparts. We want someone who is an evangelist at heart and will thrive with the charter to elevate the design team’s awareness and abilities by bringing modern, agentic prototyping practices into how designers work in production iOS codebases.

We appreciate designers who think deeply, speak clearly, love collaboration and feedback, and have an excellent collection of animated gifs. At Slack, we have a positive, diverse, and encouraging culture. We look for people who are curious, inventive, and work to be a little better every single day!

What You’ll Do

• Exploring nascent, ambiguous interaction and device capability concepts by prototyping directly in code, bringing both technical depth and design craft to ideas before they're fully considered. Turning "what ifs" into something people can feel and react to with tangible experiences in their hand.
• Building a deep, current understanding of iOS platform capabilities (WidgetKit, App Intents, Live Activities, Shortcuts, etc.), rooting solutions in platform-native standards and interaction patterns by default. Knowing when and how to break from them to build something genuinely bespoke.
• Acting as a skill multiplier for the broader design org. Conducting training and documenting agentic prototyping workflows so designers themselves can prototype directly in mobile codebases, not just hand off static specs.
• Creating reusable patterns for interactions and prototyping tooling that raise the craft ceiling for every team working in the iOS app, not just your own projects.
• Partnering with designers and engineers across the org to inject technical and craft expertise wherever it's needed most. Coming to provide direct solutions for various team's current work, or providing creative / technical guidance around native solutions or custom approaches
• Using data and shipped-feature learnings to sharpen judgment about which craft investments matter, and feeding that back into prototyping tools and documentation.

What we’re looking for

• 8+ years at the intersection of product design and iOS engineering, with deep hands-on fluency in Swift/SwiftUI and Objective‑C
• A track record of building real, working prototypes in code to explore ambiguous concepts. Ideally showing how their execution had a direct correlation to impact and customer love
• Deep, current knowledge of iOS platform standards and capabilities (Apple HIG, native frameworks), paired with the judgment to know when a bespoke, non‑standard solution is worth building.
• Experience creating tools, documentation, or training that help other designers and engineers level up their own craft, embodying a multiplier mindset over a "my feature" mindset.
• Strong collaboration instincts. Demonstrating both proactive communications, working out in the open, and comfortable being pulled into ambiguous, cross-team problems rather than owning a dedicated backlog.
• Familiarity with (or excitement about) agentic/AI‑assisted coding tools, and interest in teaching design teams to use them to prototype directly in production codebases.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to evangelize new practices and get adoption across a design org, not just ship personal work.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions. The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $344,700 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.