Principal UX Engineer, Ads

EngineersOfAI; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Reddit's Ads Design & Research team seeks a Principal UX Engineer who treats code as a product-design medium. This strategic, hands-on role sits at the intersection of design and engineering, shaping product direction across Reddit Ads.

You will build production-adjacent prototypes, create reusable tools, mentor others, and raise interaction quality while collaborating with Design, Research, Product, Engineering, and Data Science.

Qualifications

• Deep experience at the intersection of product design and engineering, with a track record of building sophisticated interactive products.
• Strong hands-on expertise with modern frontend technologies such as React and TypeScript.
• Experience building production-adjacent prototypes, internal tools, systems, or frontend infrastructure that other designers and engineers can use.
• Excellent product and interaction judgment, with the ability to turn complex ideas into intuitive, high-quality experiences.
• Experience working across multiple teams or product areas and influencing product direction beyond a single project.
• Strong systems thinking, with experience creating reusable patterns, platforms, or tools that help other teams move faster.
• Fluency with AI-assisted coding, agents, and advanced prototyping workflows.
• The ability to navigate ambiguity, make thoughtful tradeoffs, and bring design, engineering, product, and research perspectives together.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly with senior cross-functional partners.
• A portfolio or body of work that shows use cases, technical architecture, systems thinking, organizational complexity, and collaboration with engineering teams, not only polished UI outcomes.
• A passion for staying hands-on while helping others do their best work.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the UX Engineering strategy across multiple areas of Reddit Ads.
• Build high-quality functional prototypes, workflow tools, agents, and PR-ready product experiences that help teams explore ideas, test assumptions, and move faster from design intent to engineering review.
• Partner with senior cross-functional leaders to shape product direction and bring clarity to complex, ambiguous opportunities.
• Create reusable tools, systems, components, and workflows that make it easier to move from design and research into production.
• Raise the bar for interaction quality, accessibility, performance, and technical craft across the Ads experience.
• Build AI-native workflows, skills, agents, and tools that improve how Ads Design explores, prototypes, collaborates, and ships.
• Mentor other practitioners and help grow UX Engineering as a capability across Reddit.

Skills

UX Engineering

Prototyping

Cross-functional leadership

Systems thinking

AI-assisted coding

Design-to-engineering handoff

Mentoring others

Communication with senior partners

Tools

React

TypeScript

Frontend performance

Internal tooling

Job description

Reddit is a community of communities. It's built on shared interests, passion, and trust, and is home to the most open and authentic conversations on the internet. Every day, Reddit users submit, vote, and comment on the topics they care most about. With 100,000+ active communities and approximately 130 million daily active unique visitors, Reddit is one of the internet's largest sources of information. For more information, visit www.redditinc.com.

Reddit’s Ads Design & Research team shapes the end-to-end advertising experience across advertiser tools, consumer ad experiences, measurement, and the systems that connect them.

We're looking for a Principal UX Engineer who sees code as a product-design medium: a way to make ideas tangible, connect prototypes to real systems and data, and help teams move from exploration to engineering-ready product direction faster.

This is a strategic, hands-on role at the intersection of design and engineering. You'll work across Reddit Ads to shape product direction, build production-adjacent prototypes and tools, and help establish UX Engineering as a capability for the Ads Design team.

You'll partner closely with Design, Research, Product, Engineering, and Data Science while staying deeply involved in the craft.

What You'll Do

• Define and lead the UX Engineering strategy across multiple areas of Reddit Ads.
• Build high-quality functional prototypes, workflow tools, agents, and PR-ready product experiences that help teams explore ideas, test assumptions, and move faster from design intent to engineering review.
• Partner with senior cross-functional leaders to shape product direction and bring clarity to complex, ambiguous opportunities.
• Create reusable tools, systems, components, and workflows that make it easier to move from design and research into production.
• Raise the bar for interaction quality, accessibility, performance, and technical craft across the Ads experience.
• Build AI-native workflows, skills, agents, and tools that improve how Ads Design explores, prototypes, collaborates, and ships.
• Mentor other practitioners and help grow UX Engineering as a capability across Reddit.

What We're Looking For

• Deep experience at the intersection of product design and engineering, with a track record of building sophisticated interactive products.
• Strong hands-on expertise with modern frontend technologies such as React and TypeScript.
• Experience building production-adjacent prototypes, internal tools, systems, or frontend infrastructure that other designers and engineers can use.
• Excellent product and interaction judgment, with the ability to turn complex ideas into intuitive, high-quality experiences.
• Experience working across multiple teams or product areas and influencing product direction beyond a single project.
• Strong systems thinking, with experience creating reusable patterns, platforms, or tools that help other teams move faster.
• Fluency with AI-assisted coding, agents, and advanced prototyping workflows.
• The ability to navigate ambiguity, make thoughtful tradeoffs, and bring design, engineering, product, and research perspectives together.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly with senior cross-functional partners.
• A portfolio or body of work that shows use cases, technical architecture, systems thinking, organizational complexity, and collaboration with engineering teams, not only polished UI outcomes.
• A passion for staying hands-on while helping others do their best work.

Experience in advertising is helpful, but it isn't required. We're also int