Principal, Product Design – Search

Expedia Expedia · Hospitality · Seattle, WA +2

Expedia is seeking a Principal Product Designer to lead the design direction for their AI-powered search experiences. This role involves owning and advancing the design for search, translating AI/ML capabilities into intuitive user experiences, and partnering with product, engineering, and data science teams to deliver intelligent, human-centered travel discovery.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own and lead the design direction for Expedia Group’s AI‑powered Search experiences, driving outcomes from concept through execution while orchestrating the work across interconnected search initiatives.
  2. Define how travelers express intent, explore options, and understand results—bringing clarity, transparency, and trust to complex search interactions.
  3. Work hands‑on with high‑fidelity design, prototyping, and systems thinking, while helping shape how search work is sequenced, scoped, and delivered to tackle the most complex discovery challenges.
  4. Partner closely with senior leaders in Product, Engineering, Research, and Data Science to coordinate priorities, align roadmaps, and ensure design effort is focused where it matters most.
  5. Translate advanced AI and machine‑learning capabilities into intuitive, human‑centered experiences used by millions of travelers worldwide.

Skills

Required

  • 12+ years of experience in product design with, at least, 4 years leading design teams at scale.
  • Expertise in search, discovery, or recommendation systems, with a deep understanding of how AI and ML shape relevance, ranking, and explainability.
  • A proven track record of designing experiences that simplify complex information and build trust with users.
  • Skilled in translating ambiguous technical opportunities into clear, inspiring product experiences.
  • Adept at building, scaling, and coaching design teams that deliver at both craft and strategic levels.
  • An exceptional communicator who can bring stakeholders along through strong storytelling and influence.
  • Deep understanding of AI and conversational design tools and methods, including prototyping with LLMs, prompt engineering, data-informed interaction design, and expert knowledge of modern design and prototyping platforms including but not limited to Figma, Cursor, etc.

Nice to have

  • Deep knowledge of semantic and natural language search, conversational interfaces, and AI explainability principles.
  • Experience working with data scientists and ML engineers to translate advanced models into user-facing experiences at scale.
  • Demonstrated strength in connecting design quality to measurable product outcomes through experimentation and data-driven metrics.
  • Track record of driving design excellence across multiple brands, platforms, and domains in a fast-moving, results-oriented environment.
  • Demonstrated experience taking products from concept to scaled adoption.

What the JD emphasized

  • AI-powered Search experiences
  • intelligent search
  • AI and machine-learning capabilities
  • Deep understanding of AI and conversational design tools and methods
  • translating ambiguous technical opportunities into clear, inspiring product experiences

Other signals

  • AI-powered experiences
  • intelligent search
  • translate advanced AI and machine-learning capabilities into intuitive, human-centered experiences