Job Description We are looking for a Principal AI Design Systems Engineer for a large retail company to be a hands-on generalist / force multiplier, not a pure design systems specialist.

The Principal Design Systems Engineer will operate at the intersection of UX design, software engineering, and artificial intelligence. The contractor will help define the technical architecture for a new, AI-enabled "one experience design" system that unifies customer-facing and associate-facing software experiences. This is a hands-on architectural role requiring fluency in both design principles and advanced engineering, specifically involving AI tool integration.

Day to day:

• Help define the technical architecture for a new, "one experience design" design system that unifies customer-facing and associate-facing software experiences.
• Provide technical recommendations and frameworks for design system governance for managing, communicating, and supporting the design system across the enterprise.
• Help define the change management approach and adoption metrics for scaling the design system across many 'vertical' application teams and 'horizontal' business groups.
• Design and build technical parts and pieces of the AI-enabled design system, potentially including: Claude plugins, MCP integrations, agentic workflows, and prompt/context engineering tools that designers use directly in their daily work.
• Drive the technical execution and architecture of the design system as a product: understand the problems it solves; define strategy, objectives, and measurements; describe how it should be built; test it; ship it; and help teams implement it.
• Partner with balanced teams (designers, engineers, and product managers) to pressure-test whether the design system actually solves their problems and meets their needs, and iterate based on real usage.
• Navigate infrastructure and enterprise constraints (permissions, security review, deployment) to get a working design system into people's hands, not just into a demo.
• Help build the documentation and training supporting layer around each part and piece of the design system so it's adoptable without you standing next to it.

Pay rate: between 70-80/hr. determined by the hiring manager during the interview process based on level of experience and ownership Skills and Requirements

• Expert-level architectural development experience with design principals and advanced engineering involving AI tool integration
• Shipped Claude/LLM tooling to production (MCP servers, agentic workflows, prompt/context engineering
• Strong SQL and data engineering
• Full-stack coding (Python and/or TypeScript/React
• Working UX/UI skills (Figma, front-end implementation
• Delivered inside enterprise constraints (security review, permissions, deployment) We are a company committed to creating diverse and inclusive environments where people can bring their full, authentic selves to work every day.

We are an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer that believes everyone matters. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, genetic factors, age, disability, protected veteran status, military or uniformed service member status, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to HR@insightglobal.com.