Principal Model Designer

About the team

The Zillow Experience Design (ZxD) team is a fast-paced, collaborative, and driven product design team. Our mission is to make Zillow the most-loved place to discover, buy, sell, or rent a home. We’re a tight-knit, fun-loving, and upbeat group. Meet us and learn more at https://www.zillow.com/careers/design

ZXD is a multidisciplinary team of user experience practitioners, including research, design, and content. Content design is a distinct team within the greater design organization.

We build useful, usable, and innovative experiences for Zillow customers. These experiences live across web, mobile, and internal software platforms.
Our team cares deeply about solving problems for real people – customers, co-workers, and everyone else. We seek to make everything a little better than we found it.

This role will be Zillow’s first Model Designer.

About the role

Zillow is reimagining how people buy, sell, rent, and tour homes — and AI is key to that reinvention. We’re looking for a Model Designer to partner with our AI Product and Science teams to design the language and interaction patterns behind intelligent, user-centered experiences. 

In this role, you’ll contribute to some of Zillow’s most innovative product work. You’ll shape how our AI communicates, behaves, and earns user trust — especially as we develop new ways for users to interact with Zillow.  And you’ll work on cutting-edge AI tools that help millions of users and thousands of real estate agents.
 

Responsibilities 

• Add new AI/ML/LLM deep expertise to the Content Design team, and advocate for Model Design as an emerging discipline across Zillow

• Partner with other content subject experts to optimize AI and ensure a cohesive approach across all our products.

• Work inside collaborative prompt development loops, evaluating AI behavior, iterating on language, and influencing system design

• Design and test prompts that align AI output with Zillow’s voice, product goals, legal compliance, and user needs 

• Collaborate with researchers and data scientists to to understand, predict, and assess model behavior 

• Partner with the broader Content Design team to define how Zillow’s voice and tone show up in AI-generated and AI-assisted experiences

• Champion governance and ethical design through clarity, accuracy, tone, inclusive language, and user transparency

• Participate in design activities like journey mapping, co-design sessions, prototyping, design critique, and user testing

• Present content design work and regularly engage with partners for feedback

• Lead multiple projects independently and deliver high-quality work on time

• Contribute, learn, grow, and have fun

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $178,300.00 - $284,700.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont the standard base pay range for this role is $169,300.00 - $270,500.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside.

Who you are

• Strong communication and collaboration skills

• 8+ years as a content designer, product content strategist, or similar role

• Experience working on complex or emerging technologies, especially AI/ML-powered products

• Experience with prompt design, conversational UI, or content governance for generative AI

• Skilled at working across ambiguity, simplifying technical concepts, and advocating for clarity