Principal, Design Technologist , Agentic AI, Velocity Labs

Amazon
Seattle, WA, USA2026-04-30ONSITE

About the job

We are looking for a Principal Design Technologist to serve as a senior technical and design leader embedded within a cross-functional product innovation team. This role bridges the gap between design vision and engineering execution — you'll be hands-on in code and prototyping tools, shaping the future of AI-native experiences while raising the bar for design quality across the organization. This is an individual contributor role with broad organizational influence, not a people management position.

Responsibilities

Hands-On Prototyping & Development: Build high-fidelity, interactive prototypes using modern front-end technologies (React, TypeScript, etc.) and design tools (Figma, Framer) to validate and communicate design concepts at speed.

AI-Native Experience Design: Partner with product, science, and engineering teams to design and build novel user experiences powered by machine learning, generative AI, and large language models.

Strategic Technical Leadership: Identify and drive opportunities where design technology can unlock new product capabilities, reduce time-to-market, or improve customer outcomes — influencing roadmaps at the VP/Director level.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Principal Engineers, Applied Scientists, Product Managers, and UX Designers to ensure design intent is faithfully realized in production systems.

Design Systems & Tooling: Contribute to and evolve shared design systems, component libraries, and internal tooling that accelerate the work of designers and front-end engineers.

Raising the Bar: Mentor and influence designers and engineers across the organization through code reviews, design critiques, tech talks, and documentation of best practices.

Customer Obsession: Ground all work in deep understanding of customer needs, using data, research insights, and rapid experimentation to validate design decisions.

Qualifications

Minimum

10+ years in design technology, front-end engineering, or a related discipline

Expert-level proficiency in HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, and at least one modern front-end framework (React, Vue, Angular)

Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex, interactive product experiences

Experience working directly with design teams and fluency in tools like Figma, Sketch, or similar

Proven ability to influence technical and design direction without direct authority

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preferred

Experience building AI-powered or data-driven user interfaces

Familiarity with design tokens, design system architecture, and accessibility standards (WCAG)

Experience with rapid prototyping tools and creative coding environments

Track record of leading from the middle — driving alignment across senior stakeholders, engineering, and design

Experience in large-scale, ambiguous environments where you've defined the 'what' as well as the 'how'

Contributions to open-source projects or published thought leadership in design technology