Principal Product Designer

Quantum Search Partners; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Quantum Search Partners seeks a Principal Product Designer to lead the design of sophisticated AI-powered enterprise products for regulated industries. This high-impact role thrives in a startup-like environment where directions are evolving.

You will shape complex workflows for ML engineers, data scientists, domain experts, and executives, collaborating with Product and Engineering to create scalable experiences, reusable design patterns, and clear specifications.

Qualifications

• 7–12+ years designing SaaS or enterprise software.
• Ability to define direction for open-ended problems.
• Experience with complex enterprise workflows and information architecture.
• Experience coaching and elevating design quality.
• Advanced Figma skills and design system work.
• Active use of AI-assisted design in daily process.

Responsibilities

• Lead the full product-design lifecycle, from early discovery and problem framing through delivery, measurement, and iteration.
• Bring structure to ambiguous, high-priority product challenges and establish the frameworks that guide future work.
• Design intuitive, scalable experiences for sophisticated enterprise workflows, including information architecture, interaction models, and reusable patterns.
• Conduct research with both technical and business users; translate findings into product strategy and validated design solutions.
• Use modern AI-enabled tools to accelerate exploration, prototyping, and communication while applying strong product and design judgment.
• Expand and maintain a shared Figma design system to support new capabilities and enterprise requirements.
• Produce detailed design documentation, prototypes, and specifications that enable effective implementation.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to influence roadmap decisions, balance customer needs with technical constraints, and improve execution.
• Raise the team’s design standards through thoughtful critique, design reviews, and mentorship.

Skills

Systems thinking

Figma proficiency

AI-assisted design

Design systems

Communication skills

Independent work in fast-paced env

Discovery research

Tools

Figma

Prototyping tools

Job description

Work model: Hybrid - three days per week onsite

The Role

We are seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead the design of sophisticated AI products used by enterprise, public-sector, and highly regulated organizations. This is a high-impact role for a designer who excels in a startup environment and when the path forward is not yet clear.

You will help shape complex workflows for a diverse set of users, including machine-learning engineers, data scientists, business-domain specialists, and enterprise decision-makers. Working closely with Product and Engineering, you will turn emerging needs into clear, scalable, and well-crafted product experiences.

This role offers substantial ownership and influence. Your work will help define product direction, establish reusable design patterns, and elevate the quality of design across the organization.

What You'll Do

• Lead the full product-design lifecycle, from early discovery and problem framing through delivery, measurement, and iteration.
• Bring structure to ambiguous, high-priority product challenges and establish the frameworks that guide future work.
• Design intuitive, scalable experiences for sophisticated enterprise workflows, including information architecture, interaction models, and reusable patterns.
• Conduct research with both technical and business users; translate findings into product strategy and validated design solutions.
• Use modern AI-enabled tools to accelerate exploration, prototyping, and communication while applying strong product and design judgment.
• Expand and maintain a shared Figma design system to support new capabilities and enterprise requirements.
• Produce detailed design documentation, prototypes, and specifications that enable effective implementation.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to influence roadmap decisions, balance customer needs with technical constraints, and improve execution.
• Raise the team’s design standards through thoughtful critique, design reviews, and mentorship.

What You Bring

• 7-12+ years of experience designing complex SaaS products, enterprise software, or technical platforms.
• A demonstrated ability to define direction for open-ended problems, not simply refine established experiences.
• Strong systems-thinking skills, including experience with complex flows, information architecture, and scalable interaction patterns.
• A history of improving design quality through coaching, constructive feedback, and high standards of craft.
• Advanced Figma skills, including experience building and evolving design systems.
• Active, practical use of AI-assisted design and prototyping tools in your day-to-day process.
• Sound product judgment and comfort working independently in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Experience planning and conducting discovery work, including personas, workflow mapping, interviews, and usability testing.
• Experience collaborating with engineers from design through implementation, including resolving constraints and creating clear specifications.
• A portfolio that demonstrates end-to-end ownership of meaningful product areas, especially early-stage or zero-to-one work.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to explain design rationale to technical, business, and executive audiences.
• Ability to work onsite three days per week in either the Austin or Reston area.

Preferred Experience

• Designing products for highly technical audiences, such as developers, AI/ML engineers, data scientists, or MLOps teams.
• Familiarity with AI and machine-learning concepts, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, agents, model evaluation, reliability testing, and model operations.
• Experience with administrative or platform capabilities such as compliance, governance, permissions, access management, or multi-tenant environments.
• Experience designing data-heavy products, including analytics, dashboards, visualization, or real-time monitoring.
• Prior work in a scaling startup or an early-stage platform environment.