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 Director level. You will not manage a team of direct reports; instead, you will manage complex problem spaces, drive holistic systems thinking, and elevate the craft of our design organization.

You are a master of your craft, a visionary systems thinker, and a strategic partner to our stakeholders. You have been in the industry long enough to have seen trends come and go, allowing you to anchor your work in timeless design principles, deep behavioral research, and measurable business outcomes. You possess a strong, well-founded point of view and the strategic alignment skills to bring stakeholders along on the journey.

What You Will Do:

Vision & Holistic Systems Thinking

• Define and drive the overarching user experience vision across our most complex and critical product ecosystems.
• Connect the dots across disparate product lines, ensuring a seamless, holistic, and unified user journey from end to end.
• Architect scalable design systems and interaction paradigms that anticipate future business needs and technological advancements.

Craft Obsession & Execution

• Act as the ultimate standard-bearer for design quality. You sweat the details and are obsessed with the micro-interactions as much as the macro-journeys.
• Get your hands dirty. While you operate strategically, you still love the craft and will actively create high-fidelity prototypes, journey maps, and architectural frameworks to demonstrate your vision.
• Push the boundaries of what is possible, bringing innovative, world-class design solutions to market that redefine industry standards.

Strategic Influence & Stakeholder Management

• Partner directly senior level stakeholders to align design strategy with core business objectives.
• Navigate complex organizational dynamics with ease. You can effectively manage stakeholders, resolve conflicting priorities, and drive alignment without relying on hierarchical authority.
• Present and defend design decisions with a compelling narrative, grounded heavily in qualitative research, quantitative data, and market strategy.

Research-Grounded Innovation

• Champion a deeply research-driven approach. You don't just design based on intuition; you actively partner with (and sometimes lead) UX Research to uncover foundational human truths.
• Translate ambiguous behavioral insights into concrete, actionable, and innovative design architectures.

Mentorship & Design Culture

• Act as a multiplier for the design organization. While you have no direct reports, you will mentor Lead and Senior designers, elevating their strategic thinking and craft.
• Foster a culture of rigorous design critique, continuous learning, and intellectual curiosity.

What We Are Looking For

• Experience: 15+ years of experience in UX, Product Design, or HCI, with a proven track record of operating at a Principal, Senior Principal, or Distinguished level.
• Portfolio: A world-class portfolio demonstrating profound systems thinking, mastery of craft, and the ability to solve highly complex, multi-faceted systemic problems at an enterprise scale.
• Design Advocacy & Strategic Alignment: You command a room through expertise rather than title. You are exceptional at building consensus among C-suite leaders and translating complex, systems-level design thinking into clear business value.
• Conviction & Humility: You have a strong, defensible point of view, but you hold your opinions loosely. You are eager to be proven wrong by data or user feedback.
• Deep Research Literacy: Expert ability to synthesize complex qualitative and quantitative data into clear design directives.
• Resilience: You thrive in ambiguity and have the grit to drive long-term, multi-year design transformations across a matrixed organization.

Why Join Us?

At this level, you aren't just designing a product; you are shaping the future of our company's relationship with its users. If you are deeply passionate about the craft of UX, love solving the hardest systemic problems, and want the autonomy and influence of an executive without the operational overhead of people management, this is the role for you

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What do we offer?

Gartner offers world-class benefits, highly competitive compensation and disproportionate rewards for top performers.

In our hybrid work environment, we provide the flexibility and support for you to thrive - working virtually when it's productive to do so and getting together with colleagues in a vibrant community that is purposeful, engaging and inspiring.

Ready to grow your career with Gartner? Join us.

Gartner believes in fair and equitable pay. A reasonable estimate of the base salary range for this role is 136,000 USD - 189,000 USD. Please note that actual salaries may vary within the range, or be above or below the range, based on factors including, but not limited to, education, training, experience, professional achievement, business need, and location. In addition to base salary, employees will participate in either an annual bonus plan based on company and individual performance, or a role-based, uncapped sales incentive plan. Our talent acquisition team will provide the specific opportunity on our bonus or incentive programs to eligible candidates. We also offer market leading benefit programs including generous PTO, a 401k match up to $7,200 per year, the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount, and more.

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