Principal Product Designer, Core

BetterUp is a company focused on human transformation and is seeking a Principal Product Designer to join their Design team. The role involves shaping the design vision for BetterUp’s core product experiences, driving design quality, and influencing cross-functional direction while mentoring senior designers.

Responsibilities:

• Architect the design vision for BetterUp’s core product experiences—identifying the highest-leverage opportunities, defining the strategic direction, and ensuring continuity across complex, multi-surface journeys
• Drive design quality and craft standards across the product, raising the bar for the entire Design org through rigorous critique, deep collaboration, and principled decision-making
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Research to shape roadmaps from the earliest stages—bringing design perspective to problem framing, not just solutions
• Lead complex, ambiguous design challenges from 0→1 and 1→n, navigating organizational complexity with clear thinking and strong point of view
• Build and maintain scalable design systems and foundational patterns that enable speed and coherence across teams
• Mentor and elevate senior designers, providing thoughtful feedback that develops taste, confidence, and craft
• Influence VP-level and executive stakeholders with clarity and conviction, earning trust as a thought partner on product and design strategy
• Represent the design function in cross-functional planning, helping align design investment with company priorities

Requirements:

• 10+ years of product design experience, including time at a consumer or B2B SaaS company where design played a central role in product strategy
• A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional craft, systems thinking, and the ability to operate across the full design spectrum—from early concept to polished execution
• Proven track record of leading complex, multi-year design initiatives with measurable impact on product outcomes and user experience
• Deep experience influencing product and engineering direction at the senior leadership level
• Strong design systems sensibility—you understand how foundational decisions compound across a product at scale
• Experience designing products at the intersection of human behavior and technology; familiarity with AI-native product patterns is a strong plus
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills—you make complex ideas clear and compelling to any audience
• A growth mindset and genuine curiosity about how AI tools can enhance design craft and process