Principal Design Researcher
The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.
Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.
The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.
Who We Are Looking For
The Trade Desk is seeking a Principal Design Researcher to lead meaningful customer research that shapes our next-generation product vision — with a focus spanning the Kokai customer journey, our Core and Signature use cases, and emerging areas like AI. This is a senior individual-contributor research leadership role for someone who is energized by getting close to customers, uncovering what they truly need, and turning that understanding into a clear, evidence-based vision for where the product should go next. The Trade Desk is transforming the way advertising is bought, sold, and consumed as a global leader in the programmatic industry. As Kokai matures as the backbone of the end-to-end customer journey, and as our Core and Signature use cases continue to evolve, this role will build the customer understanding that informs what comes next: where our platform should go, what problems are worth solving, and how we know we're solving them well. Our industry is complicated, but we don't believe our platform should be.
As Principal Design Researcher, you will own the end-to-end research vision and execution across a defined set of strategic priorities: Kokai customer journey mapping, Core and Signature use cases, and next-generation product exploration — including AI where it serves genuine customer needs. You will anchor this work in a clearly defined set of customer stories that keep the whole design organization grounded in real customer needs rather than assumptions. You will bring a rare combination of rigorous research craft and product thinking, with a genuine curiosity about how people work, decide, and navigate complexity within our platform. This is
not a tooling or infrastructure role; it is a hands-on research leadership role focused on deeply understanding our customers and using that understanding to inform what we build next.
You will serve as a strategic research partner to Product, Engineering, Data Science, and UX Leadership, bringing customer evidence into the room for major product direction decisions. This role reports directly to the Vice President of UX Design and is a key member of the UX leadership team at The Trade Desk, as well as a key member of our Core UX team — looking across all design initiatives for the team, including current and next-generation initiatives.
What You Will Be Doing
As Principal Design Researcher at The Trade Desk, you will
Build Deep Customer Understanding to Inform Next-Generation Product Vision
- Lead research that uncovers what customers genuinely need, where they struggle, and where real opportunity lies — across the Kokai customer journey, Core and Signature use cases, and emerging areas like AI
- Translate ambiguous problems and complex workflows into clear research questions, and clear research questions into a well-evidenced point of view on where the product should go next
- Build and maintain a clearly defined set of customer stories that ground product and design decisions in real customer needs, not assumptions
- Bring a grounded, evidence-based perspective on human-AI collaboration and complex customer journeys in advertising workflows, shaped by direct observation of real customer behavior
- Partner with UX Leadership and Product to align the research agenda with broader product and company strategy
Lead End-to-End Research Execution
- Lead hands-on, rigorous research across the Kokai customer journey, Core and Signature use cases, and next-generation product concepts, including AI — from early generative discovery through detailed evaluative research and post-launch measurement
- Map the end-to-end Kokai customer journey, identifying moments of friction, delight, and opportunity across Core and Signature use cases
- Test early concepts with customers to gather feedback and align stakeholders around a shared, evidence-backed direction before heavy investment
- Design and drive research programs that explore how customers build trust, adopt new capabilities, and adapt their workflows as the product evolves
- Maintain and evolve the team's set of customer stories, keeping them current as customer needs shift
- Partner closely with Data Science and Engineering to ensure product direction and customer understanding evolve together, not in isolation
Strengthen Research Practice Across the Team
- Share research methods, findings, and frameworks that help the broader design team ground their work in real customer evidence
- Support fellow researchers and designers with methodological guidance on journey mapping, evaluative research, and generative discovery
- Ensure research accounts for accessibility, inclusion, and usability across a wide range of customer sophistication and contexts
- Contribute to a shared vocabulary and set of frameworks — including the team's customer stories — that help the broader design team make confident, customer-grounded decisions
Partner Cross-Functionally to Bring Customer Evidence Into Product Direction
- Act as a primary research voice in strategy conversations with Product, Engineering, and Data Science leadership on the Kokai journey, Core and Signature use cases, and next-generation product opportunities
- Identify high-value opportunities — including where AI genuinely serves customer needs — grounded in research evidence rather than technology for its own sake
- Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and serve as a thought partner on where the product roadmap should go next
- Represent the customer perspective in technical and data science discussions about product direction, journey design, and model behavior
- Partner closely with existing research leadership to stay aligned on methodology, findings, and priorities across the broader research practice
Mentor & Grow Research Talent
- Mentor researchers and designers across the UX organization on research practices, journey mapping methods, and how to build a compelling, evidence-based case for product direction
- Lead by example through visible, hands-on research — modeling what deep customer understanding looks like in practice
- Help the broader team build fluency in using customer stories and research evidence to guide their own decisions
Represent TTD's Customer-Centered Point of View
- Represent The Trade Desk at industry events and design conferences, sharing perspective on customer journey research and next-generation product thinking in adtech
- Position TTD as a company that grounds its product direction in genuine customer understanding
- Contribute to broader UX research community conversations, publications, and thought leadership
What You Bring to the Table
You are an experienced research leader with a track record of shaping product direction through deep, meaningful customer research. You combine strong research craft and product sense with genuine curiosity about how people work, decide, and navigate complex platforms — including, but not limited to, AI-powered experiences. You are energized by ambiguity, driven by customer outcomes, and skilled at turning research into a clear, compelling vision for what a product should become.
- Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Design, or a related field (Master's or PhD preferred)
- 10+ years of experience in user research or design research, with a track record of shaping product vision and direction through research
- Proven track record leading end-to-end research that shaped next-generation product direction, from early discovery through shipped product, in a complex enterprise or platform-based product
- Demonstrated experience with customer journey mapping and defining core use cases and customer stories that anchor product and design decisions
- Strong command of qualitative and quantitative research methods, used in service of building genuine customer understanding
- Some experience or working knowledge of research methods for AI-powered or intelligent product experiences (preferred, not required)
- Strong methodological instincts, with experience designing and running mixed-methods research programs that validate product direction• Strong executive presence, with experience presenting research findings and direction to VP-level and senior leadership
- Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to translate research findings into a clear, compelling vision for product direction
- Experience partnering closely with Product, Data Science, and Engineering teams on shaping what gets built next
- Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive clarity and alignment in complex, fast-moving environments
- Experience in adtech, martech, or enterprise SaaS with complex, data-dense interfaces (preferred)
- Published thought leadership, talks, or case studies on customer research or product direction (preferred)
- Portfolio demonstrating research-driven product vision, customer journey mapping, and measurable impact on...