1

Principal Designer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Overview Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead strategic design efforts on our flagship client facing wealth management platform at Northern Trust. A key contributor on our ...

Principal Designer

Chicago, IL · On-site

$137.40 - $233.60/hr

Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead strategic design efforts on our flagship client facing wealth management platform at Northern Trust. A key contributor on our design ...

Overview Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead strategic design efforts on our flagship client facing wealth management platform at Northern Trust. A key contributor on our ...

Overview Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead strategic design efforts on our flagship client facing wealth management platform at Northern Trust. A key contributor on our ...

Position Overview We're looking for a Principal Designer to raise the bar for craft and innovation across all of our design disciplines: brand design, motion design, UI design, and visual ...

Principal Designer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$200K - $300K/yr

The role We're hiring a Principal Designer to help shape the future of Tolan. You'll work in a small team to design, build, and ship features that push the boundaries of our relationship with ...

As Principal Designer, you'll own the Avantos design system end-to-end and lead design on our core product surface, the Agent Portal. This is a senior individual-contributor craft role, not a people ...

Principal Designer

Seattle, WA · On-site

$100K - $140K/yr

Professional development and conference opportunities The Opportunity Schema is seeking a Principal Designer to join our Seattle-based team and help lead our design practice. As a senior design ...

Professional development and conference opportunities The Opportunity Schema is seeking a Principal Designer to join our Seattle-based team and help lead our design practice. As a senior design ...

Principal Designer

Malibu, CA · On-site

$174K - $193K/yr

RH is seeking a Principal Designer who will pioneer the development of our design business at RH Interior Design. This is a historic opportunity to join the disruptive evolution of RH in our second ...

RH is seeking a Principal Designer who will pioneer the development of our design business at RH Interior Design. This is a historic opportunity to join the disruptive evolution of RH in our second ...

RH is seeking a Principal Designer who will pioneer the development of our design business at RH Interior Design. This is a historic opportunity to join the disruptive evolution of RH in our second ...

Zachry Group is currently accepting applications for a Principal Designer for our Downers Grove Design Center office location. * 15+ years of experience and knowledge in the design requirements for ...

This SkyWater Layout Principal Designer will primarily lead custom layout and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) activities to provide testchip collateral for semiconductor integrated circuit (IC ...

About the Role We are seeking a distinguished Sr. Principal Designer to join our team as a high-level Individual Contributor. This role is the pinnacle of our design IC track, operating at the Senior ...

next page

Showing results 1-20

Principal Designer information

See salary details

$36.5K

$109.4K

$182K

How much do principal designer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 25, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal designer in the United States is $109,393.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $85,000.00 and $125,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a principal designer?

A Principal Designer is a senior professional in the design industry responsible for leading and overseeing the design process on major projects. They guide creative direction, manage design teams, and ensure that design solutions align with client goals and industry standards. Principal Designers often collaborate with clients, stakeholders, and other departments to deliver high-quality, innovative results. Their role typically includes mentorship, project management, and strategic planning to ensure successful project delivery.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a principal designer?

To thrive as a Principal Designer, you need advanced design expertise, a strong portfolio, and experience leading creative projects, often supported by a relevant degree in design or a related field. Mastery of design tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and prototyping software, as well as familiarity with design systems and industry standards, is typically required. Exceptional leadership, communication, and collaboration skills help Principal Designers guide teams and influence stakeholders. These skills are crucial for driving innovative design solutions, maintaining brand consistency, and ensuring project success across multidisciplinary teams.

How does a principal designer typically collaborate with cross-functional teams on large-scale projects?

As a Principal Designer, collaboration with cross-functional teams—such as product managers, engineers, researchers, and other designers—is a core aspect of the role. You will often lead design vision workshops, facilitate alignment on user experience goals, and ensure that design solutions are feasible and aligned with business objectives. Effective communication and the ability to advocate for user-centered design across disciplines are key to overcoming challenges and driving cohesive project outcomes. This collaborative environment not only fosters innovation but also provides opportunities to mentor junior team members and influence strategic decision-making.

What is the difference between Principal Designer vs Lead Designer?

AspectPrincipal DesignerLead Designer
CredentialsDesign degree, relevant certifications, extensive experienceDesign degree, experience, leadership skills
Work EnvironmentStrategic planning, cross-team collaboration, high-level project oversightProject execution, team management, creative direction
Industry UsageUsed across industries for senior design roles with strategic responsibilitiesCommonly used for team leadership in design projects

The Principal Designer typically holds a senior, strategic role focusing on overall design direction and cross-team collaboration, often with advanced credentials. The Lead Designer is more involved in managing design teams and executing creative projects. Both roles are vital in the design process but differ mainly in scope and focus.

What does a principal designer do?

A principal designer leads the design team and oversees the development of user experience and visual design for products or services. They set design strategies, ensure consistency, and collaborate with stakeholders, often using tools like Adobe Creative Suite or Figma. This role requires strong leadership, communication skills, and a deep understanding of design principles.
More about Principal Designer jobs

What cities are hiring for Principal Designer jobs?

Cities with the most Principal Designer job openings:

What states have the most Principal Designer jobs?

States with the most job openings for Principal Designer jobs include:

Infographic showing various Principal Designer job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 89% Full Time, 9% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 90% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 7% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $109,393 per year, or $52.6 per hour.

Principal Designer

Chicago, IL • On-site


Northern Trust

8.2

Company rating: 8.2 out of 10

Based on 27 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

Good employer

Respectful managers


Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

This job post has expired 1 day ago. Applications are no longer accepted.


Job description

About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world's most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
Overview
Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead strategic design efforts on our flagship client facing wealth management platform at Northern Trust. A key contributor on our design team that's transforming the way wealth management clients engage with our advice and financial services. Join us in collaborating with cross-functional product teams, facilitation of human centric design methodologies, ensuring agile delivery of high-quality financial service solutions and seamless experiences for high-net-worth clients and their advisors. Enjoy a culture of design excellence, continuous learning, and career growth opportunities. This is a full time, hybrid role in Chicago, IL.
As a key member of the design team, your primary role and responsibly is leading the design experience and maturity of our product design system, Storybook components, and Figma Library that support the design and agile teams. To improve client trust and perception of the firm's digital sophistication through a cohesive, polished, and premium user experience. And ensure that design assets, components, and experience standards continue to evolve with ever changing environment of digital products and services.
Working Model: Hybrid
We have a balanced hybrid working model to ensure you get the flexibility you need, and the successful candidate will spend their time between working in the office and working from home.
Objectives and Responsibilities :
  • Accelerate product delivery by increasing the availability of reusable, production-ready components, templates, patterns, and page frameworks.
  • Improve consistency across advisor, client, prospect, and operational experiences through standardized interaction and visual patterns.
  • Strengthen alignment between future-state experience vision, product roadmaps, and implementation through continuous Storybook enhancement.
  • Reduce long-term technical and design debt created by delivery-driven compromises that were necessary to support near-term roadmap commitments.
  • Increase operational efficiency by reducing duplicate component development and fragmented experience patterns across domains.
  • Improve scalability of the platform by creating extensible component architectures that support future products, channels, and business capabilities.
  • Increase development efficiency through improved component documentation, implementation guidance, governance, and code reuse.
  • Expand enterprise design system integration to ensure greater consistency across platforms, business domains, and delivery teams.
  • Continuous accessibility maturity by systematically remediating gaps and aligning digital experiences with evolving accessibility standards and best practices.
Summary
A Principal Designer ensures that the design of a new or existing product or offering exceeds the needs of the people who these experiences serve. The principal design is a subject matter expert, with deep experience, who leads and collaborates to create truly differentiating experiences reflective of Northern Trust's capabilities and business objectives as well as client and partner needs and behaviors.
Principal designer s work with leadership to craft, refine, implement, and communicate design vision and strategy across teams, business units, and the larger organization .
Principal designers take ownership for complex design initiatives, delivering solutions that are driven by deep design and business experience . They a ct as a resource for colleagues with less experience and will run point on specific design activities. They are a master storyteller, systems thinker, and have high levels of influence within business, and technology teams.
Major Duties
  • Helps to establish an open culture of optimism, experimentation, curiosity, and rapid prototyping
  • Leads multidisciplinary teams to work together with a shared purpose to deliver great design that addresses user's needs.
  • Achieves success through trial and experimentation, recognizes that prototyping can be done at various levels of fidelity, and has experience doing and leading work
  • C omfortable synthesizing multiple and sometimes conflicting inputs into a common point-of-view
  • Designs and specifies user interfaces and information architecture using human-centered techniques including observational studies, client and partner interviews, and usability testing
  • Has a passion for developing others and will help to identify talent and build teams with a lens to how different personalities and capabilities could fit together on a project to create real impact
  • Looks outside for inspiration around new approaches and tools and has a desire to build bridges to corporate innovation initiatives and the broader design community
Knowledge/Skills
  • Ability to put Human-Centered Design and UI/UX best practices to work within a professional setting
  • Ability to recognize, predict and incorporate use cases and user interactions into design
  • Expertise in a range of relevant design methods and concepts, which may include low-fidelity sketching, information architecture, wireframe development, usability testing, research planning, competitive analysis
  • Exceptional presentation and storytelling skills , leading teams to a common vision.
  • Highly flexible, adaptable to change and comfortable with ambiguity
  • Exceptional use of collaborative/communication tools, able to present work and decisions effectively within EDR team, through presentation and storytelling skills
  • Clear growth mindset, looking for opportunities to learn and motivated to approach challenges proactively
Experience Required
  • 12+ years demonstrated work experience delivering digital experiences
  • Educated in design or related field, formally or though comparable training
  • Design thinking and UI/UX best practices, as demonstrated in a portfolio of professional work.
  • Experience working with a cross-functional team or large-scale software development lifecycle, preferably in an agile environment
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa)
Salary Range:
$137,400 - 233,600 USD
Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.
Work Authorization
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust's history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com , or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.

What Northern Trust employees say

Pay

Benefits

Hours and flexibility

Workplace

Get the full story on Breakroom