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Who We Are Looking For
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The Trade Desk is seeking an innovative Director of Design Technology to lead theย technical design practice within our global UX Design organization. This is a seniorย leadership role responsible for shaping the tools, systems, AI capabilities, andย engineering workflows that power how our design team creates and scales world-classย product experiences.
The Trade Desk is transforming the way advertising is bought, sold, and consumed as aย global leader in the programmatic industry. As this industry continues to evolve, you andย your team will play a critical role in bridging the worlds of design and engineering -ย ensuring our platform remains not only powerful, but intuitive, elegant, and highlyย effective for advertisers and agency partners. Our industry is complicated, but we don'tย believe our platform should be.
As Director of Design Technology, you will play a critical role in shaping our designย system - contributing deep technical expertise to its evolution while partnering closelyย with the team that owns it. You will also lead our prototyping infrastructure and AIย tooling strategy, enabling our designers to move faster and ship with greater confidence.ย You will bring a rare combination of design sensibility, engineering rigor, and a genuineย passion for emerging AI technologies - from generative UI and LLM-assisted workflowsย to intelligent automation across the design lifecycle.ย You will serve as a strategic partner to Product, Engineering, and UX Leadership - not
only advocating for design craft but building the technical foundation that makesย excellence possible at scale. This role reports directly to the Vice President of UX Designย and is a key member of the UX leadership team at The Trade Desk.
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What You Will Be Doing
As Director of Design Technology at The Trade Desk, you will:
Shape & Advance the Design System
Play a critical role in shaping the evolution of The Trade Desk's UX design system,ย bringing deep technical expertise and a strong point of view on scalability,ย consistency, and adoption
Collaborate closely with the design system's owners to influence tokenย architecture, component governance, and versioning strategy
Champion design-to-code pipelines that reduce friction between design and front-ย end development teams
Contribute to and help maintain the shared component library, ensuring itย reflects the highest standard of craft across all product surfacesย Lead AI Capabilities, Innovation & Tooling
Serve as the UX Design team's primary strategist and practitioner for AI-assistedย design workflows, setting direction across tooling, automation, and generativeย capabilities
Evaluate, pilot, and implement AI tools across the design lifecycle - from ideationย and wireframing to UI generation, copy assistance, and automated design QA
Build and maintain an AI tooling roadmap that keeps the design team ahead ofย the curve on LLM-powered prototyping, layout generation, and intelligent designย systems
Partner with engineering and data science teams to explore how AI capabilitiesย within The Trade Desk platform can be surfaced through smarter, more intuitiveย UX patterns
Develop internal frameworks and playbooks for responsible, effective AI use inย design - balancing innovation with quality, consistency, and accessibility
Identify opportunities to automate repetitive design and documentation tasks,ย freeing the team to focus on high-value creative and strategic work
Stay current with the rapidly evolving AI tooling landscape - including Figma AI,ย Cursor, v0, and generative image and video tools - and make timely, evidence-based recommendations to leadershipย Drive Cross-Functional Influence
Act as the primary liaison between Design, Engineering, and Product to ensureย technical feasibility and design integrity across all initiatives
Lead and mentor a team of design technologists, prototypers, and front-end-fluentย designers
Partner with engineering leadership to align on shared APIs, componentย standards, and documentation practices
Evaluate the broader design tool ecosystem and make strategic recommendationsย on tooling investment and migration
Build deep trust with senior leaders and serve as a thought partner on designย technology strategyย Ensure Design Excellence at Scale
Set and uphold the technical quality bar for design deliverables, prototypes, andย production hand-offs
Develop best practices for high-fidelity and functional prototyping, including data-ย connected and AI-powered prototype experiences
Drive workflow improvements that measurably increase design team velocity andย output quality
Champion accessibility, responsive design, and multi-platform implementationย standards across all design work
Conduct design technology reviews and provide high-level strategic guidance onย implementation approachย Operational Leadership
Establish and optimize design technology processes that scale across teams andย geographies
Lead through rapid growth, evolving product demands, and cross-teamย dependencies
Measure and communicate the impact of design tooling and AI adoption throughย meaningful productivity and quality metrics
Represent the UX Design team's technology perspective in planning cycles andย roadmap discussionsย Industry Presence & Thought Leadership
Represent The Trade Desk at industry events and design technology conferences
Position TTD as a company at the forefront of AI-enabled design practice
Contribute to broader UX and design technology community conversations, open-source tooling, and innovation
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What You Bring to the Table
You are an experienced design technology leader with a proven track record of buildingย the systems, tools, and AI-powered workflows that enable great design teams to do theirย best work. You possess a strong technical foundation, a genuine design sensibility, andย the strategic thinking to connect tooling investment to real business and user outcomes.
You are driven by craft, energized by emerging technology, and skilled at leadingย through influence in complex, cross-functional organizations.
Bachelor's degree in Design, Computer Science, Interaction Design, or a relatedย field (Master's preferred)
10+ years of experience in design technology, design engineering, or a closelyย related discipline
5+ years in a leadership or management role overseeing design technology orย design systems teams
Deep expertise in Figma - including variables, advanced components, Dev Mode,ย and Figma AI features
Strong proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript - able to read, write, andย critique front-end code with confidence
Proven track record building and scaling design systems across large, complexย enterprise or platform-based products
Demonstrated hands-on experience with AI tools in a design context - includingย generative UI, LLM-assisted workflows, and AI-powered prototyping
Strong executive presence with experience presenting to VP-level and seniorย leadership
Exceptional communication and storytelling skills with the ability to translateย technical concepts for design audiences and design thinking for engineeringย teams
Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams across design technology,ย prototyping, and front-end design
Deep understanding of systems thinking and scalable design infrastructure
Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive clarity in complex, fast-movingย environments
Working knowledge of machine learning concepts as they apply to UX -ย including intelligent defaults, predictive UI, and model-assisted design decisionsย (preferred)
Experience in adtech, martech, or enterprise SaaS with complex data-denseย interfaces (preferred)
Contributions to open-source design tooling or published design systemย documentation (preferred)
Portfolio demonstrating design system leadership, AI tooling strategy, andย measurable impact on team productivity and product quality
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Why This Role Matters
At The Trade Desk, each opportunity to engage a consumer is unique. Our platformย provides advertisers and agencies with extraordinary power to describe and reach theirย target audiences. As that power grows, so does the responsibility to make it usable,ย intuitive, and elegant.ย Design technology is not just infrastructure - it is the foundation on which great designย is built, scaled, and delivered. And AI is rapidly changing what that foundation can do.ย As Director of Design Technology, you will shape the future of how our UX team works,ย influence the direction of our platform, and build a design technology practice that setsย the standard for the industry. If you are energized by the intersection of design craft,ย engineering excellence, and the transformative potential of AI - this is your role.