Principal Experience Designer - Visual Design & Design Systems

Workiva Inc.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 315,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary annual bonus

Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)

401(k) match and benefits package

Job summary

Workiva is seeking a Principal Experience Designer to shape Unify, its enterprise design system, balancing visual strategy with high-visibility design work for conferences and executive audiences.

You will lead visual language evolution, token architecture, and reference designs, while guiding teams to apply visuals consistently across products.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in product design, visual design, UX, or related fields, including platform or enterprise products.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve Unify's visual language across typography, color, spacing, iconography, motion, and brand expression.
• Partner with components and patterns teams to ensure visuals are applied consistently across assets.
• Collaborate with product design, product mgmt and engineering to translate system design decisions into production.
• Maintain a scalable, semantic token architecture to support consistent experiences over time.
• Create and maintain a library of reference designs and full-screen examples for real product use.
• Own visual usage guidance and documentation for designers, engineers, and AI workflows.
• Lead evaluation of AI-generated designs to strengthen tokens, examples, and guidance.
• Lead visual design for high-stakes moments at conferences, product vision work, and partnerships.
• Coach designers and influence cross-functional partners through feedback and visual storytelling.

Skills

Visual design

Design systems

Token architecture

AI-assisted design

Presentation design

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Design

Master's degree or PhD option

Tools

None

Job description

Workiva is looking for a Principal Experience Designer to shape the visual future of Unify, our enterprise design system. Unify powers the components, patterns, templates, accessibility standards, and shared experiences used across Workiva's B2B platform. This is a dual-focus principal role. Roughly 60-70% of your time will be spent leading Unify's visual design direction: evolving its visual language, shaping token architecture, and creating the reference designs and guidance that help teams build consistently. The remaining 30-40% will focus on high-visibility visual work for major conferences, marketing partnerships, and executive audiences. That work is not separate from the system, it's part of the broader ecosystem of design in which Unify lives. You will bring exceptional visual craft, strong systems thinking, and a practical point of view on how design systems need to evolve for AI-assisted design and prototyping.

What you'll do

• Define and evolve Unify's visual language across typography, color, spacing, iconography, motion, and brand expression.
• Partner with the components sub-team and the patterns and templates sub-team to ensure visual design is applied consistently and intentionally across every asset.
• Partner with product design, product mgmt and engineering teams to ensure product experience decisions translate faithfully from system to production.
• Maintain a scalable, semantic token architecture that supports consistent experiences across products and over time.
• Create and maintain a library of reference designs, full-screen examples that demonstrate how Unify should be applied in real product experiences.
• Own visual usage guidance and documentation that make intended use, constraints, and quality standards clear for designers, engineers, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Establish ongoing evaluation of AI-generated designs and prototypes, using what you learn to strengthen tokens, examples, and guidance before inconsistencies reach product teams.
• Lead visual design for select high-stakes moments, including major conferences, executive presentations, product vision work, and marketing partnerships.
• Coach designers and influence cross-functional partners through high-quality feedback, clear principles, and strong visual storytelling.

What you'll need

Minimum Qualifications 10+ years of experience in product design, visual design, UX, or related fields, including significant work on platform or enterprise products.

Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, or a related field (or 8 years of experience and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 6 years of experience).

Preferred Qualifications

• A portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual craft and the ability to translate a visual point of view into scalable product systems.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted design or prototyping workflows, with a clear perspective on their opportunities and limitations.
• Experience defining or evolving a design system's visual language, including tokens, components, patterns, and documentation.
• Strong ability to create compelling product narratives for senior leaders and high-visibility audiences.
• Experience partnering closely with engineers and working through the tradeoffs between design intent, system health, and implementation.
• A track record of influencing and coaching teams without relying on formal authority.
• Experience building reference sites, design-system documentation, or machine-readable design guidance.
• Experience with semantic or multi-tier token systems, motion design, presentation design, or event experiences.
• Background in front-end development, developer tools, cross-platform systems, or highly regulated industries.

Travel Requirements & Working Conditions

• Up to 20-25% travel required to meet with teams, partners, and customers
• Reliable internet connection required for remote or hybrid work environments

How You'll Be Rewarded

• Salary range in the US: $190,000.00 - $315,000.00
• A discretionary bonus typically paid annually
• Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire
• 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package

Why Join Workiva

Workiva is the platform designed to bring confidence, control, and a competitive edge to the world's most complex organizations. Our AI-powered platform unifies finance, risk, and sustainability on a single, secure foundation - ensuring data is trusted, traceable, and ready to act on. With an unbroken path from source to output, leaders gain confidence in their numbers, visibility into current and emerging risks, and the ability to move with speed and precision in a constantly changing world. At Workiva, you'll bring technology to market that executives, boards, and regulators depend on. The work you do here helps organizations navigate uncertainty, maintain trust, and make decisions that stand up to scrutiny. If you're energized by meaningful challenges, inspired by collaborative teams, and motivated to help organizations turn uncertainty into advantage, we'd love to meet you.

Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic.

Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. To request assistance with the application process, please email [e-mail]. Workiva employees are required to undergo comprehensive security and privacy training tailored to their roles, ensuring adherence to company policies and regulatory standards. Workiva supports employees in working where they work best - either from an office or remotely from any location within their country of employment.

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