Principal Product Designer

customerio; United States; Remote; USD 245,000 - 276,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options included

Fully covered health premiums for you/

Remote-work and wellness stipends

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Customer.io is seeking a senior product designer to set the design direction across the current experience and its next generation. This senior IC role blends hands-on product design with broad influence: you’ll work with product and engineering leaders, raise design quality across the organization, and help establish how people interact with AI-powered software.

You will mentor designers, guide the design system’s evolution, design workflows for developers and API integrations, and ensure every

Qualifications

• 10+ years in product design with a portfolio showing impact.
• Ability to align senior partners without a title.
• Experience designing for developers or builders (CLI, API-first).
• Shipped AI-native interfaces and agentic/delegated interaction models.
• Strategic experience guiding a design system and improving craft through critique, standards, or mentorship.
• Strong executive communication; B2B SaaS experience.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate a coherent, long-term design vision, connecting it to product strategy and customer needs.
• Guide the design system’s architecture and evolution, including decisions about what to build, change, or retire.
• Design workflows for technical audiences, such as command-line users and people integrating through APIs.
• Shape interaction principles for AI-assisted and agent-driven experiences, and help teams apply them consistently.
• Stay close to implementation to preserve design intent, contribute code where useful, and review major work for quality.
• Mentor experienced designers, give direct craft feedback, and contribute to hiring and design standards.

Skills

Executive communication

Design vision

Design system

CLI/API

AI interfaces

Job description

Role overview

Set the product’s design direction across its current experience and its next generation. This senior individual contributor role combines hands-on product design with broad influence: you’ll work with product and engineering leaders, raise design quality across the organization, and help establish how people interact with AI-powered software.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate a coherent, long-term design vision, connecting it to product strategy and customer needs.


• Guide the design system’s architecture and evolution, including decisions about what to build, change, or retire.


• Design workflows for technical audiences, such as command-line users and people integrating through APIs.


• Shape interaction principles for AI-assisted and agent-driven experiences, and help teams apply them consistently.


• Stay close to implementation to preserve design intent, contribute code where useful, and review major work for quality.


• Mentor experienced designers, give direct craft feedback, and contribute to hiring and design standards.

Requirements

• 10 or more years in product design, with a portfolio showing design vision and organization-wide impact.


• Experience shaping what a company builds and why, and aligning senior partners without relying on a management title.


• Product design experience for developers or builders, such as CLI, API-first, or infrastructure-oriented products.


• Shipped AI-native interfaces and a clear perspective on agentic and delegated interaction models.


• Strategic experience guiding a design system and improving craft through critique, standards, or mentorship.


• Strong executive communication, B2B SaaS experience, and the ability to connect design choices to customer and business outcomes.

Benefits and work setup

• Starting base salary of $245,000–$276,000 USD, adjusted for experience and market; stock options are included.


• Medical, dental, vision, mental health, and supplemental insurance premiums are fully covered for employees and their families.


• Includes 16 weeks of paid parental leave, unlimited paid time off, remote-work and wellness stipends, and a professional development budget.