Principal Product Designer

Details

Customer.io is seeking a Principal Product Designer, the highest individual contributor design role at the company. This person will shape the company-wide design vision, influence how design is practiced, and build strong partnerships with product and engineering leadership. The role combines improving the quality and coherence of the existing product with driving the vision for its future.

This is an individual contributor role rather than a management position, but it carries company-wide leadership responsibilities across product, culture, hiring, and design practice.

Responsibilities

• Shape and communicate a long-range design vision for Customer.io's product and contribute to product direction.
• Drive the strategic direction of Pluma, Customer.io's design system, including architecture, evolution, deprecation decisions, and scaling principles.
• Close the gap between design intent and shipped product by staying close to implementation and fixing issues directly when code is the right tool.
• Design for builder and developer audiences, including CLI-native flows, API-first onboarding, and interfaces designed for users who type before they click.
• Lead the design of agentic and human-AI surfaces across the product.
• Develop and advocate for Customer.io's AI product design philosophy.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership on product strategy and bring design into discussions before direction is set.
• Lead design reviews for major initiatives and maintain accountability for quality and coherence.
• Develop Staff designers through mentorship, critique, and example.
• Contribute to hiring and calibration by assessing candidates and helping establish shared standards for excellence.

Requirements

• 10+ years of product design experience.
• A portfolio demonstrating design vision and organizational impact, not only individual craft.
• A track record of shaping design direction at the company level and influencing what gets built and why.
• Experience designing for developer and builder audiences, including CLI, API-first onboarding, or infrastructure-native products.
• A developed point of view on AI and agentic product design, including experience shipping AI-native interfaces and articulating interaction models for agentic and delegated use.
• Strategic experience contributing to a design system and advocating for its principles and long-term direction.
• Experience influencing product, engineering, and executive leadership without formal management authority.
• A record of raising the craft bar at an organizational level through critique culture, standards, and example.
• Executive-level communication skills, including the ability to connect design decisions to customer impact, product differentiation, and business outcomes.
• Depth in B2B SaaS, including experience with complex, data-heavy products and interaction-model challenges.
• A point of view on how AI changes software for users, builders, and agents.
• Clarity, candidness, humility, curiosity, and a bias for craft.

Compensation And Benefits

• Starting salary of $245,000–$276,000 USD, depending on experience and subject to market-rate adjustment.
• 100% coverage of medical, dental, vision, mental health, and supplemental insurance premiums for employees and their families.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Unlimited paid time off.
• Remote work and wellness stipends.
• Professional development budget.

Interview Process

• 30-minute recruiter call.
• 45-minute hiring manager call and portfolio review.
• 30-minute call with a cross-functional partner.
• 60-minute design case call with members of the design and technology teams.
• Final candidates complete a background check and employment verifications.

Customer.io uses Zoom for video conferences and conducts virtual interviews using video rather than chat. Offers are extended in writing on official Customer.io letterhead.