Principal Product Designer, Vertical Solutions

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Principal Product Designer, Vertical Solutions

Company: UiPath

Location: Austin, Texas, United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / User Experience

Date Posted: 2026-08-19

Experience Level: 10+ Years

🚀 Role Summary

• Drive end-to-end product design for specific industry verticals within UiPath's automation platform.

• Develop and implement agentic AI capabilities, focusing on human oversight, trust, and governance in high-stakes environments.

• Collaborate closely with Product Management and Engineering to translate complex business needs into intuitive, consumer-grade user experiences.

• Build working software and prototypes using modern frontend stacks, integrating directly into the product repository.

• Define and own the generalization path for shared capabilities across multiple verticals, ensuring design coherence and scalability.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a Principal Designer, indicating a high level of autonomy, strategic influence, and responsibility. The emphasis on "designers work in code" and shipping directly into the product repo suggests a hands-on, deeply integrated design and development process, which is a significant differentiator from traditional design roles. The focus on "agentic AI" and "vertical solutions" points to a specialized area within enterprise automation.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the complete user experience for a designated vertical, from initial user engagement (queues) to administrative setup and process monitoring (dashboards).

• Design the mechanisms for how AI agents learn from human experts and ensure this learning is transparent and auditable by accountable stakeholders.

• Define and champion the strategic direction for shared capabilities across multiple verticals, distinguishing between universal features and vertical-specific needs.

• Lead design initiatives in partnership with Product Management, Engineering, and platform partners to ensure cohesive product direction and execution.

• Deliver production-ready software by writing code and opening Pull Requests (PRs) into the product repository, adhering to standard review processes.

• Establish baseline metrics for design impact within your vertical and demonstrate how design decisions influence key business outcomes and product KPIs.

• Conduct direct customer engagements to deeply understand user needs, operational contexts, and business requirements, translating these insights into actionable design solutions.

• Contribute to the development of tooling that enhances team efficiency and accelerates the design-to-development lifecycle.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a unique blend of strategic product ownership, hands-on technical execution (coding), and direct customer interaction. The emphasis on "business outcomes" and "product metrics" underscores the need for a data-driven approach to design, directly linking design work to commercial success. The requirement to define the "generalization path" signifies a significant strategic contribution to the platform's architecture and scalability.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating design thinking, problem-solving, and technical execution is paramount. Equivalent practical experience in lieu of formal education will be considered.

Experience: A minimum of 10 years of experience in product design, with a proven track record of owning significant product areas and delivering high-quality, consumer-grade experiences within complex, high-stakes domains.

Required Skills:

• Exceptional design and experience thinking, with a proven ability to deeply understand customer needs beyond stated requests.

• Strong instinct for user experience, with the capability to proactively identify gaps and drive quality improvements in unfamiliar domains.

• Demonstrated ability to acquire and leverage business context by engaging directly with Product Managers and customers.

• Proficiency in building working software and prototypes using modern frontend stacks; comfortable with code and able to move rapidly from concept to implementation.

• Ability to articulate and defend design decisions effectively in cross-functional team settings (designers, PMs, engineers).

• Experience in horizontal design, creating solutions that serve multiple teams while maintaining coherence and consistency.

• Familiarity with development workflows, including GitHub for version control and code collaboration.

• Comfort working with ambiguity and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing for AI or agentic products, specifically focusing on human oversight, trust, memory, and governance mechanisms.

• Background in regulated or operationally complex industries such as healthcare, life sciences, financial services, supply chain, or manufacturing.

• Experience with knowledge systems or products where maintaining long-term data trustworthiness is critical.

• Proven experience in building internal tools or AI-assisted workflows that have become essential for user adoption.

• Familiarity with Figma for design mockups and collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for "designers work in code" and "Claude Code is your primary tool" is a critical differentiator. While not requiring a full software engineering background, candidates must demonstrate comfort and proficiency with a modern frontend stack and the ability to contribute code directly. This significantly elevates the technical bar for a design role. The "10 or more years" experience level suggests this is a senior or principal individual contributor role.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase end-to-end design ownership, demonstrating the ability to define and build complex workflows, administrative experiences, and monitoring dashboards.

• Include case studies that illustrate how you translated complex user needs and business requirements into intuitive, consumer-grade software.

• Highlight examples where you designed for human-AI interaction, focusing on elements like learning, trust, and accountability.

• Present projects that demonstrate your ability to generalize capabilities across multiple contexts or verticals, showcasing strategic thinking and scalability.

• Provide evidence of your hands-on technical contributions, ideally including working code, prototypes, or direct contributions to a product repository (e.g., via GitHub). Process Documentation:

• Demonstrate your approach to understanding and documenting complex operational processes within regulated or demanding industries.

• Illustrate how you integrate feedback from customers and stakeholders into iterative design and development cycles.

• Show examples of how you establish baseline metrics and measure the business impact of your design solutions.

• Document your process for collaborating with Product Management and Engineering to define roadmaps and ensure successful product delivery.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio is expected to be highly technical, showcasing not just design artifacts but also demonstrable coding ability and the ability to ship production-ready code. Case studies should emphasize the "how" and "why" behind design decisions, with a clear link to business outcomes and operational realities. A strong emphasis on "working software" and "prototypes" suggests a preference for tangible outputs over purely conceptual work.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: For a Principal Product Designer role with 10+ years of experience in Austin, Texas, a competitive salary range is estimated to be between $160,000 and $220,000 annually. This range can vary based on the candidate's specific experience, skills, and the final negotiation.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans.

• Generous paid time off (PTO) and holidays.

• 401(k) retirement savings plan with company match.

• Stock options or equity grants, reflecting the company's growth-oriented culture.

• Professional development opportunities, including access to training, conferences, and workshops.

• Parental leave policies.

• Employee assistance program (EAP).

• Hybrid work environment with flexibility.

Working Hours: The role is expected to require approximately 40 hours per week, with flexibility. The hybrid model necessitates regular office time for collaboration and in-person user/customer engagement, alongside remote work flexibility. Travel for user and customer visits is also anticipated.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary estimation is based on industry benchmarks for Principal Product Designer roles in major tech hubs like Austin, considering the specific requirements of extensive experience, technical proficiency (coding), and specialized domain knowledge (AI, enterprise solutions). The benefits are standard for a leading tech company like UiPath, with particular attention paid to growth opportunities and a strong retirement plan.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Enterprise Software, Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation (RPA). UiPath is a leader in the RPA and intelligent automation market, focusing on transforming how businesses operate through automation.

Company Size: UiPath is a large, publicly traded company with thousands of employees globally. This implies a well-established structure, significant resources, and a global presence, offering both stability and opportunities for impact within a large organization.

Founded: UiPath was founded in 2005, signifying a mature company with a proven track record and a long-term vision for automation technology.

Team Structure:

• The Vertical Solutions design team is part of a larger design practice at UiPath, likely reporting through a Senior Director of Design.

• Designers work closely with Product Managers who own the roadmap and Engineering teams responsible for development.

• Collaboration extends to platform partners to ensure consistency and scalability of design solutions.

• The "designers work in code" model suggests a highly integrated, cross-functional team structure where design, product, and engineering are tightly aligned. Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: Design decisions are measured against business outcomes and product metrics, emphasizing ROI and quantifiable impact.

• Agile Development: A fast-paced, iterative approach is implied by "move from idea to working prototype in days" and shipping into the "product repo."

• Customer-Centricity: Direct engagement with customers is a core component for understanding needs and validating solutions.

• Code-Integrated Design: Designers are expected to contribute code, blurring the lines between design and development to accelerate delivery and ensure fidelity.

Company Website: https://www.uipath.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: UiPath's culture emphasizes innovation, collaboration, and a belief in the transformative power of automation. The "people who are curious, self-propelled, generous, and genuine" ethos suggests an environment that values initiative, teamwork, and authenticity. The "designers work in code" philosophy is a significant cultural differentiator, indicating a high degree of technical expectation and collaboration.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is at the Principal level within the Product Design function. It signifies a senior individual contributor position with significant autonomy, strategic influence, and ownership of critical product areas. The expectation is to lead design initiatives, set direction, and mentor others, while also being hands-on with coding and prototyping.

Reporting Structure: The Principal Product Designer will report to the Senior Director of Design for Vertical Solutions. This indicates a clear leadership hierarchy within the design organization, with direct access to senior leadership.

Operations Impact: The design of Vertical Solutions has a direct impact on UiPath's ability to penetrate and succeed in high-value, complex industries like healthcare, finance, and supply chain. The Principal Designer's work will influence how enterprise customers adopt and leverage AI-driven automation, directly contributing to revenue generation, customer satisfaction, and UiPath's market position in these critical sectors. The emphasis on "business outcomes" and "product metrics" means the designer's success is intrinsically tied to the commercial success of the products they design.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership Development: Opportunity to lead design strategy for entire verticals and shape the future of agentic AI experiences.

• Technical Skill Advancement: Deepen expertise in modern frontend stacks and coding for design, potentially leading to hybrid design/engineering roles.

• Industry Specialization: Become a recognized expert in designing for complex, regulated industries (e.g., healthcare, finance) and AI-driven workflows.

• Mentorship: Opportunity to mentor junior designers and influence the design practice within UiPath.

• Platform Influence: Contribute to the core platform capabilities and shared components, impacting a broader range of UiPath products.

📝 Enhancement Note: The Principal level designation, coupled with the hands-on coding requirement, positions this role as a highly impactful and technically advanced design position. Growth opportunities are geared towards both leadership and specialized technical expertise within a rapidly evolving field.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid. This model balances the benefits of in-person collaboration and focused work with the flexibility of remote work. It suggests a structured approach to office attendance, likely involving regular team days and collaborative sessions.

Office Location(s): Austin, Texas. This is a major technology hub, offering access to a strong talent pool and a vibrant tech ecosystem. The presence of a physical office indicates opportunities for in-person team interaction, client meetings, and a dedicated workspace.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The hybrid model and emphasis on cross-functional collaboration suggest an environment where designers, PMs, and engineers work closely together, likely in shared spaces or through structured virtual interactions.

• Tooling and Technology: Access to modern design and development tools, including Figma, GitHub, and potentially specialized AI development platforms, is expected. The "designers work in code" approach means robust development environments will be available.

• Team Interaction: Regular opportunities for design critiques, brainstorming sessions, and knowledge sharing are likely, both in-person and virtually.

Work Schedule: The standard work schedule is approximately 40 hours per week. Flexibility is offered within the hybrid framework, allowing individuals to balance personal needs with work responsibilities, while ensuring team needs for collaboration and customer engagement are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid nature of the role in Austin, TX, suggests a balance between structured in-office collaboration and individual flexibility. The emphasis on "working in code" implies a well-equipped development environment and a culture that supports technical execution by designers.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio to assess qualifications and experience.

• Portfolio Presentation & Technical Deep Dive: A session where you present your portfolio, focusing on case studies that demonstrate your design process, problem-solving skills, and ability to build working software. This will likely include discussions around your code contributions and technical approach.

• Cross-functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Managers and Engineers to evaluate collaboration style, communication skills, and understanding of business context.

• Design Leadership Interview: A discussion with the Senior Director of Design to assess strategic thinking, leadership potential, and cultural fit within the design team.

• Coding Challenge/Exercise: A practical exercise, potentially involving building a small prototype or solving a design problem using code, to evaluate your technical proficiency.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Prioritize case studies that clearly demonstrate your end-to-end process, from problem identification to shipped product.

• Highlight Code Contributions: Explicitly showcase your work with frontend stacks, GitHub usage, and any code you've contributed to products or prototypes. Provide links to repositories or live examples where possible.

• Focus on Impact: For each project, articulate the business problem, your design solution, and the measurable outcomes (e.g., product metrics, efficiency gains, customer satisfaction).

• Demonstrate Domain Understanding: If you have experience in regulated industries or with AI/agentic systems, make this a central theme in your relevant case studies.

• Explain Your "Why": Be prepared to articulate the rationale behind your design and technical decisions, especially in ambiguous situations.

Challenge Preparation:

• Code Fluency: Practice building quick prototypes with modern frontend frameworks. Familiarize yourself with common patterns for UI development and state management.

• Problem Decomposition: Be ready to break down complex problems into smaller, manageable parts, both from a design and technical perspective.

• Customer Empathy: Prepare to articulate how you would gather requirements and validate designs with users in complex, regulated environments.

• Strategic Thinking: Think about how to generalize capabilities across verticals and how to balance user needs with platform scalability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is heavily weighted towards practical application and technical skill. Candidates must be prepared to demonstrate not just design thinking but also the ability to execute through code. The portfolio is the primary tool for showcasing this dual capability.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Claude Code: This is highlighted as the primary tool for building. Candidates should be comfortable with modern frontend development using this or similar technologies.

• Figma: Expected for design mockups, wireframing, and collaborative design work.

• GitHub: Essential for version control, code collaboration, and managing the product repository.

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not explicitly listed, expect to work with product analytics tools to track user behavior and measure design impact. Candidates should be comfortable defining metrics and interpreting data. CRM & Automation:

• UiPath's core product is an automation platform, so familiarity with workflow design, automation principles, and enterprise software logic is key. Experience with AI/agentic systems is a significant plus.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of "Claude Code" as the primary tool for designers is a critical piece of information, indicating a departure from traditional design tool stacks and a focus on direct code-based implementation. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their proficiency in this area.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Curiosity: A drive to understand complex domains and user needs deeply.

• Self-Propelled: Initiative and autonomy in driving projects forward, from ideation to implementation.

• Generosity: Willingness to share knowledge, collaborate effectively, and support team members.

• Genuineness: Authenticity and transparency in interactions.

• Impact-Oriented: A focus on delivering tangible business outcomes and measurable results through design and code.

• Excellence: A commitment to high quality, consumer-grade experiences, even in complex enterprise environments.

Collaboration Style:

• Integrated Teams: Designers, PMs, and engineers work in close-knit, cross-functional teams.

• Code-First Collaboration: Design decisions are often made and implemented directly in code, fostering a highly collaborative and iterative development process.

• Direct Customer Engagement: A culture of seeking direct feedback and insights from users and customers.

• Horizontal Design: A collaborative approach to ensure shared capabilities are well-defined and consistently applied across different product areas.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "designers work in code" and shipping directly into the product repo suggests a highly collaborative and integrated team environment where communication and shared ownership are paramount. The values highlight a proactive, impact-driven, and technically proficient team.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Translating Complex Domains: The primary challenge will be understanding and designing for highly regulated and operationally complex industries (healthcare, finance, etc.) where user needs are nuanced and stakes are high.

• Balancing Generalization and Specificity: Determining which design elements should be universal across verticals and which are unique to a specific industry requires strategic insight and careful decision-making.

• Pace of Innovation: Keeping up with rapid advancements in AI and automation, and translating these into user-friendly, trustworthy experiences.

• Bridging Design and Development: Effectively working at the intersection of design and code, ensuring that technical feasibility aligns with user experience goals.

• Establishing Trust in AI: Designing AI-driven workflows that users can trust and confidently delegate decisions to.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Dive into AI and Automation: Extensive exposure to cutting-edge agentic AI and enterprise automation technologies.

• Industry Expertise: Gaining in-depth knowledge of critical sectors like healthcare, financial services, and supply chain.

• Technical Skill Enhancement: Mastering frontend development for design and contributing directly to production codebases.

• Strategic Product Leadership: Developing skills in product strategy, roadmap definition, and cross-functional leadership.

• Mentorship: Potential to guide and mentor other designers and contribute to the evolution of UiPath's design practice.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are directly tied to the role's unique position at the cutting edge of AI, enterprise automation, and complex industry applications. Growth opportunities are equally significant, offering deep specialization and advanced technical skill development.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you had to design for a highly regulated or operationally complex industry. What were the key challenges, and how did you ensure your design met user needs and compliance requirements?" (Focus on your process for understanding constraints and user needs.)

• "How do you approach designing AI-driven workflows where human oversight and trust are critical? What principles do you follow to build confidence in the system?" (Prepare to discuss concepts like transparency, explainability, and human-in-the-loop design.)

• "Imagine you need to design a new feature that will be used across multiple UiPath verticals. How would you determine what aspects should be standardized and what should be localized? What is your process for generalizing capabilities?" (Highlight your strategic thinking and ability to balance broad applicability with specific needs.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about UiPath's mission, particularly in the Vertical Solutions space?" (Research UiPath's market position, competitors, and recent news in AI/automation.)

• "How do you see the 'designers work in code' philosophy impacting your workflow and collaboration with engineering?" (Be ready to discuss your comfort level with coding and how you'd leverage it.)

• "Describe your experience working in a fast-paced, growth-oriented company. How do you manage ambiguity and drive projects to completion?" (Emphasize your proactive, self-propelled nature.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the constraints, your design process, the technical implementation (including code contributions), and the measurable business impact.

• Showcase Code: Be prepared to walk through code snippets or prototypes, explaining your technical decisions and how they support the design. Link to your GitHub.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs. If direct metrics aren't available, explain how you would measure success.

• Highlight Collaboration: Discuss how you worked with PMs, engineers, and customers to achieve your outcomes.

• Be Ready for Technical Questions: Anticipate questions about your frontend stack, coding practices, and experience with tools like Figma and GitHub.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating a blend of strong design thinking, practical coding ability, strategic product sense, and experience in complex domains. The ability to articulate the "why" behind both design and technical decisions will be crucial.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Principal Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Customize Your Resume: Tailor your resume to highlight your 10+ years of experience, focus on product ownership, experience with complex domains, and any relevant AI/automation background. Ensure keywords like "Product Design," "Agentic AI," "Prototyping," "Frontend Development," and "Workflow Design" are present.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest projects that best showcase your end-to-end design process, technical execution (coding/prototyping), and impact in complex environments. Ensure your GitHub profile is up-to-date and showcases relevant work.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice presenting your portfolio case studies, focusing on clear storytelling, articulating your process, demonstrating your code contributions, and quantifying your impact.

• Research UiPath: Understand UiPath's mission, its position in the automation market, and the specific challenges and opportunities within Vertical Solutions. Be prepared to discuss your interest in their culture and values.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.