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# Principal, UX Design

- **Company:** The Summit
- **Location:** Austin, TX, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Software as a Service, Design of User Interfaces, Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, System Testing, Management of Software Versions, Figma, Legacy Systems
- **Published:** October 19, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.careerbuilder.com/job-details/principal-ux-design-austin-tx--9aa828c0-d209-4b8f-bfba-6b1d667c0018

## About the Role

User Experience Design (UXD), Leadership, User Experience Design (UXD), System Validation, Cross-Functional, Follow Through, Information Architecture, Educational Administration, Prototyping, User Interface/Experience (UI/UX), * 7+ years in product or UX design, or equivalent demonstrated capability, including complex production workflows.

 * Expertise in interaction design, information architecture, research, design systems, accessibility, and prototyping.
 * Proven ability to lead through hands-on judgment, clear standards, and cross-functional influence.
 * Ability to make defensible tradeoffs and independently deliver complex experience work.
 * Practical fluency with Figma or equivalent production design tools.
 * Experience using measured usability and product outcomes to guide design priorities.
 * Responsible use and validation of AI-enabled design workflows.

 * K-12 EdTech, learning-platform, assessment, reporting, or complex SaaS experience.
 * Experience modernizing legacy platforms and designing for multilingual or varied-accessibility users.

Portfolio experiences become more coherent, accessible, and effective; complex design work moves through implementation reliably; a reusable design system and practical evidence reduce UX rework.

## Description

The Principal, UX Design owns Summit K12's product-experience architecture, UX standards, design system, and proportionate validation approach. This is a hands-on functional leadership role accountable for coherent, accessible experiences across the product portfolio, personally delivering complex and consequential design work.

The Principal directs UX design practice through standards, judgment, implementation follow-through, and cross-functional partnership, while the UX Design Lead independently owns assigned experiences. The Principal does not require a separate design management layer or routine approvals. Product Managers retain product priorities, requirements, acceptance, and outcomes., * Define coherent navigation, information architecture, interaction patterns, and experience principles across student, educator, administrator, and applicable family workflows.

 * Personally design and resolve complex or consequential cross-product experiences using working prototypes and explicit decisions.
 * Make recurring UX debt visible and recommend evidence-based improvements to accountable Product leaders.

 * Own governance, documentation, versioning, and evolution of shared components, patterns, UX writing conventions, and accessible interaction standards.
 * Collaborate with the UX Design Lead on reusable patterns while keeping routine experience decisions close to assigned work.
 * Work with Engineering and QA to verify material accessibility and experience expectations in production.

 * Set lean, risk-proportionate research and usability standards; personally execute consequential validation and interpret user evidence.
 * Deliver complete implementation-ready specifications for owned work, including critical states, behaviors, accessibility, and edge cases.
 * Resolve systemic implementation-fidelity gaps and ensure relevant post-release signals inform improvements.

 * Partner with Product leadership to sequence design demand, make capacity tradeoffs visible, and preserve clear product decision rights.
 * Establish approved AI-supported methods for prototypes, research synthesis, documentation, and design checks, with human verification.
 * Work directly with PMs, Engineering, Academic, Creative Studio, and customer-facing functions without introducing unnecessary review gates.