Principal Product Designer – Design Systems & Editorial Platforms

Be Part of What's Next

Help shape the systems behind some of the most influential editorial experiences in media. As Principal Product Designer – Design Systems & Editorial Platforms, you will define the foundations, patterns, and AI-enabled workflows that empower teams across Hearst Magazines to create smarter, more scalable, and more compelling audience experiences.

About Hearst Magazines (Why Us?)

Hearst Magazines is one of the world’s largest publishers, with a portfolio of more than 30 iconic brands in the U.S. and global markets, including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s BAZAAR, Popular Mechanics, Town & Country, and Oprah Daily. Our teams create trusted, engaging content and experiences that reach millions of consumers across print, digital, social, video, and emerging platforms.

Key Responsibilities (What You Are Doing)

Editorial Experience & Design Systems

• Design and refine scalable editorial experiences across web, mobile, and emerging platforms
• Evolve Hearst's design system — patterns, components, tokens, and interaction paradigms — balancing consistency with brand expression
• Keep Figma libraries and front-end implementations in sync
• Define content presentation standards: typography, layout grids, multimedia integration, and responsive behaviors
• Establish documentation and governance practices that drive confident adoption
• Treat the design system as a living product, continuously refined through usage and feedback

AI Enablement

• Prototype AI-supported workflows for design systems and editorial tools
• Identify opportunities for AI to automate repetitive work, improve accessibility testing, enhance localization, and support intelligent pattern reuse
• Build toward an AI-ready architecture — structured components, metadata, and tokens that scale
• Partner with Engineering to evaluate and integrate emerging tools thoughtfully

Collaboration & Influence

• Work closely with engineers as a design thought partner from problem definition through implementation
• Partner with Editorial, Product, Commerce, and Ad teams to translate needs into scalable system solutions
• Influence product roadmaps through systems-level insight
• Mentor designers and elevate systems thinking across the organization

Accessibility & Quality

• Embed WCAG 2.0 A/AA accessibility into system foundations from the start
• Support research and usability testing to ensure systems perform in real-world editorial contexts
• Define and track metrics for system adoption, editorial efficiency, and audience experience quality

Qualifications (What We’re Looking For)

Experience

• 8+ years in product design, UX engineering, or design systems roles
• Significant experience designing scalable consumer-facing editorial or content experiences
• Proven ability to evolve design systems across multiple brands or teams
• Demonstrated cross-functional influence and shipped systems-level outcomes
• Experience experimenting with or implementing AI in design or development workflows