Principal Designer, Mobile Apps

Overview

As Principal Designer, Mobile Apps, you own the end-to-end design vision for The Economist’s mobile apps across iOS and Android. You set the experience direction, tackle the hardest design problems hands-on, and raise craft standards across teams. You work with cross-functional partners to ground decisions in evidence and analytics, aligning design with product strategy. Your leadership shapes accessibility, design systems, and the brand experience to drive engagement and retention. This role offers a chance to influence how millions read, listen, and watch across a global audience.

Pay / Benefits

• Highly competitive pension/401(k)
• Private health insurance
• Employee Assistance Program (wellbeing)
• Work From Anywhere up to 25 days/year
• Generous annual and parental leave
• Volunteer days and relocation support

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the app experience vision aligned to product strategy
• Tackle complex design problems hands-on (navigation, offline experience, subscription journeys)
• Ground decisions in User Research, Data, and Product through tests and analytics
• Set and maintain the quality bar for app design (interaction, motion, typography, copy)
• Lead evolution of the mobile design system with engineering
• Champion accessibility and ensure WCAG/platform standards are met
• Mentor Product Designers and shape design practice and hiring
• Translate design decisions into product metrics (engagement, retention, app-store ratings)
• Collaborate with engineering to ensure buildable and ambitious designs

Key requirements

• Substantial experience designing consumer mobile apps at scale, preferably with leadership or principal contributor roles
• Deep command of iOS and Android conventions, typography, layout for long-form reading on small screens
• End-to-end product thinking from research through to shipped outcomes
• Experience building and evolving a design system across platforms with tokens and components
• Evidence-led practice using user research, analytics and A/B testing
• Ability to influence design direction across multiple teams without line authority
• Exceptional craft demonstrated in a mobile portfolio with modern tools (e.g., Figma)
• Strong communication skills to present to product, engineering, editorial and executive audiences

• Influencing without direct authority
• Clear written and verbal communication
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Figma
• Prototyping software
• Design systems design and governance

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