Principal UX Engineer, Ads — Prototyping & AI-Driven Tools

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'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.