Principal UX Designer – Enterprise Operations & AI

Job Type: W2 Contract
Duration: ASAP – January 2027, with potential for extension
Location: Remote with occasional travel to distribution centers
Level: Principal

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Principal UX Designer to lead the design of a complex enterprise product supporting operational workflows, workforce planning, and AI-driven automation.

This role requires a highly independent designer who can navigate ambiguity, define UX strategy, and drive solutions from discovery through delivery with minimal direction. The ideal candidate has extensive experience designing sophisticated, data-heavy enterprise applications and understands how to simplify complex operational processes for frontline employees and business stakeholders.

Experience with labor planning, workforce management, supply chain, warehouse operations, or distribution environments is highly desirable.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end UX design for a complex enterprise product, from discovery and research through conceptual design, prototyping, and implementation.

• Independently establish design direction, identify opportunities, and drive product decisions with minimal oversight.

• Design intuitive experiences for data-intensive operational tools, including workforce planning, labor management, and supply chain workflows.

• Create AI-assisted experiences incorporating intelligent recommendations, automation, human approval workflows, and decision transparency.

• Design experiences that help users understand, trust, validate, and override AI-generated recommendations.

• Conduct field research, including onsite observation of employees in operational and distribution environments.

• Translate research findings into user journeys, workflows, wireframes, prototypes, and actionable product concepts.

• Collaborate with product managers, engineers, business stakeholders, and operational teams to balance user needs, business goals, and technical constraints.

• Simplify complex data, business rules, and operational processes into scalable, user-friendly interfaces.

• Communicate design rationale, research findings, and strategic recommendations to stakeholders and leadership.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive professional experience in UX or Product Design, including demonstrated leadership at the Principal, Staff, or Lead level.

• Proven ability to independently lead complex enterprise product design initiatives from discovery through delivery.

• Strong background designing B2B, SaaS, internal enterprise, or operational applications.

• Experience with data-heavy interfaces, complex workflows, dashboards, and decision-support tools.

• Experience designing AI-enabled products, automation workflows, or intelligent recommendation systems.

• Understanding of human-in-the-loop design, user approvals, decision transparency, and building trust in automated systems.

• Strong user research skills, including contextual inquiry, observational research, and translating findings into actionable design solutions.

• Advanced proficiency in Figma, interaction design, prototyping, and UX design methodologies.

• Excellent communication, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills.

• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments and making independent design decisions.

• Willingness to travel occasionally to distribution centers for onsite research.

• Ability to start quickly and commit through the initial contract period.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing labor planning, workforce management, warehouse management (WMS), or supply chain applications.

• Experience working with distribution centers, fulfillment operations, logistics, or industrial environments.

• Familiarity with operational forecasting, resource allocation, scheduling, or workforce optimization.

• Experience designing AI-powered recommendations, exception management, approval workflows, or automated decision-support systems.

• Background conducting research with frontline employees, warehouse associates, or operational teams.

• Experience designing enterprise applications that support real-time operational decisions.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a hands-on Principal UX Designer who combines strategic thinking with strong execution. They are comfortable entering an ambiguous environment, understanding complicated operational challenges, conducting research directly with users, and independently establishing a product design direction.

They understand how to make complex enterprise systems intuitive and how to introduce AI and automation in ways that maintain human control and build user trust.

This individual should be equally comfortable observing employees in a distribution center, mapping complex operational journeys, designing detailed interfaces in Figma, and presenting strategic recommendations to business and technology leaders.