About the role
Job Application for Principal Designer at Maven Back to jobs New Principal Designer United States Apply About Maven Maven is reinventing professional education. For five years, we’ve been the category-defining platform for cohort-based courses, helping 50K+ alumni and 500K+ users learn from world-class experts. AI is moving fast. While many believe it will replace teachers, we believe the opposite: Human expertise will matter more than ever. Learning needs are evolving just as quickly. Sometimes you want a multi-week transformation. Other times, you need a two-hour 1-day workshop, a quick coaching session, or the right resource to unblock you. Since April 2026, Maven has expanded to support all of it: the home for human expertise on the internet. A place where people don’t just consume information, but learn directly from humans . — Maven is a founder-led company—our CEO, Gagan co-founded Udemy, and our CTO, Shreyans , was the first engineer at Venmo. We’ve raised $25M from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round, and top industry angels. We’re a tight-knit team of 25, on track to profitability while growing over 2X YoY. Role overview We’re looking for a Principal Product Designer to help define this next chapter of Maven. This is an experienced IC role for someone who operates at the intersection of product strategy, systems thinking, and exceptional craft . You’ll work directly with CEO and leadership to shape how Maven bring this vision of human expertise to life. As one of the most senior designers at Maven, you’ll define new product surfaces, shape strategy, and build systems that scale across an evolving platform. What you’ll do Shape product strategy and set design vision: Lead the design vision for complex, cross-functional initiatives, defining strategic direction and ensuring experiences align with both customer and business goals. Simplify complex problems: Translate ambiguous product challenges into clear, elegant, and accessible design solutions. Elevate design quality at scale: Champion strong visual design craft, thoughtful interaction design, and scalable visual systems. Lead by example and set the bar for design quality at scale. Drive cross-functional strategy: Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Marketing to define holistic customer-centered strategies that drive high impact. Leverage AI-driven workflows: Apply AI-powered tools within the design process to accelerate ideation to production. Lead through influence: Provide design leadership and mentorship across the company, elevate the work of others without formal people management. Design with AI at Maven This is evolving quickly, but here’s how designers at Maven work with AI today: Design, code, and prototyping are increasingly unified. As a team, we prefer to use Claude Code and MCP workflows to move quickly from idea to production. Designers are also free to experiment and evolve their own tool stack. We build our own leverage. Designers are encouraged to create internal tools and workflows to eliminate repetitive work, accelerate asset production, and more. Experimentation is encouraged. We provide monthly stipends and encourage designers to explore new tools. Optimize for impact. What matters is how quickly ideas turn into real product. We do not track token usage or number of PRs. You should apply if you have 8–10+ years of experience designing digital products, including time operating at a Lead or Principal level A track record of owning ambiguous, high-impact problems and turning them into clear product direction Exceptional visual and interaction craft, with a high bar for quality and detail Strong systems thinking, designing for scale rather than one-off solutions AI fluency, with experience integrating AI into your workflow to increase speed and/or exploration Excellent communication and storytelling skills to influence cross-functional partners and leadership Experience shaping product direction and strategy, not just executing within it Team & Culture Design is a strategic partner at Maven. We work closely with founders and cross-functional leaders to shape the roadmap and deeply understand our customers. We move quickly, iterate often, and value people who take ownership and bring strong perspectives. Our EPD team is small (3 PMs, 3 Designers, 7 Engineers), but highly leveraged. As a Principal Designer, your impact will be felt across the entire product and company—especially as we expand formats, scale the business, and redefine how people learn from experts. We value people who: Think like owners and operate with high agency Care deeply about craft and product quality Communicate clearly and challenge ideas constructively Are comfortable with ambiguity and proactive in defining direction Focus on high-leverage work that drives real impact Open to anyone within +1/-1 US/Canadian time zones. Salary range: $200-270k, with strong equity and