Principal, UX Designer – AI Shopping

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Principal, UX Designer – AI Shopping

Company: Walmart

Location: San Bruno, CA, United States (Primary) / Sunnyvale, CA, United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: User Experience (UX) Design / Product Design / AI Product Development

Date Posted: 2026-02-26

Experience Level: 5-10 years (Equivalent to Mid-Senior to Senior level)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead the design of cutting-edge AI-powered shopping experiences, focusing on conversational AI, agentic behavior, and generative UX interfaces.
• Translate complex AI capabilities (LLMs, agents, APIs) into intuitive, human-centered customer journeys across discovery, decision-making, and purchase.
• Drive design strategy for AI Shopping initiatives, envisioning future states and establishing north star experiences within a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
• Collaborate extensively with cross-functional teams including Product Management, Engineering, Data Science, and User Research to deliver impactful, large-scale AI-driven products.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a "Principal" UX Designer, indicating a senior individual contributor role with significant strategic influence and a high degree of autonomy. The focus on "AI Shopping" and "Agentic Experiences" with mentions of "Sparky," "ChatGPT," and "Gemini" clearly places this within the advanced AI product design domain, requiring a blend of deep UX craft and strategic foresight in emerging technologies. The dual locations suggest flexibility within the Bay Area, a hub for tech innovation.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design best-in-class AI shopping experiences with a high bar for craft, clarity, and usability across various platforms.
• Shape agentic shopping journeys where AI proactively assists customers throughout their entire shopping lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain design consistency, trust, and brand integrity across Walmart-owned surfaces and third-party AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini).
• Partner closely with product managers, engineers, data scientists, and UXR to translate AI capabilities into meaningful customer value and actionable design solutions.
• Balance user needs, business objectives, and technical constraints within the dynamic AI and retail landscape.
• Rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on concepts to validate design hypotheses and drive product innovation in a fast-paced environment.
• Create scalable and extensible experiences in collaboration with Design Systems and Platform teams.
• Champion design thinking principles and advocate for responsible AI development and implementation throughout the organization.
• Stay abreast of the latest trends in AI, agentic behavior, conversational UX, generative AI interfaces, and the broader retail and technology sectors.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic design leadership and hands-on execution. The emphasis on "agentic shopping journeys" and designing for "third-party AI platforms" points to a complex, multi-faceted design challenge that requires strong systems thinking and experience with evolving AI paradigms.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education

• Minimum: Bachelor's degree in UI/UX design, graphic design, visual communication, product design, computer science, information technology, or a related field.
• Preferred: Master's degree in UI/UX Design, Interactive and Visual Design, Product Design, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, or a related area.

Experience

• Minimum: 5 years of experience in UI/UX, interactive and visual design, electronics art, multimedia design, or a related area.
• Preferred: 7+ years of experience in product design, with a strong track record of shipping successful products, particularly those involving complex systems, platforms, or AI-driven consumer products.

Required Skills

• Mastery across a wide spectrum of design disciplines, including visual design, interaction design, and systems design.
• Strong design craft and a dedication to efficient, high-quality execution.
• Exceptional ability to clearly communicate and negotiate complex, AI-driven flows through compelling narratives, designs, and prototypes.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to envision future states and define north star experiences.
• Systems-thinking approach to simplifying highly technical and ambiguous problem spaces for rapid iteration and learning.
• Proven track record of shipping successful products in fast-moving environments with multiple senior stakeholders.
• Experience facilitating design sprints, workshops, or research sessions across cross-functional teams.
• Comfort with ambiguity, especially in emerging spaces like AI, automation, and agentic behavior.
• Human-first mindset, demonstrating authenticity, empathy, and skill in building trust and alignment across disciplines.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing complex systems, platforms, or AI-driven consumer