The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with over 3,000 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.
What we do:
The Trade Desk is seeking a Staff UX Visual Designer to help define and elevate the visual and interaction design quality of our platform. This is a senior individual-contributor design role for someone with exceptional visual craft, strong UX judgment, and a systems-level eye for detail.
The Trade Desk is transforming the way advertising is bought, sold, and consumed as a global leader in the programmatic industry. As our platform grows more powerful and more complex, this role will shape how it looks, feels, and behaves for advertisers and agency partners — bringing clarity, consistency, and craft to sophisticated, data-dense experiences.
As Staff UX Visual Designer, you will own high-fidelity design execution across key areas of The Trade Desk's platform and serve as a design partner to Product, Engineering, and UX Leadership, helping set the visual and interaction design bar across the company.
At The Trade Desk, great design is what makes complexity usable. As Staff UX Visual Designer, you will help shape the visual and interaction design quality of the platform, lead its execution hands-on, and set the standard for thoughtful, well-crafted design across adtech.
What you'll do:
Define & Champion Visual Design Excellence
- Set the visual and interaction design bar for how The Trade Desk platform looks, feels, and behaves across complex, data-dense workflows
- Translate ambiguous, technical, or data-heavy problems into clear, compelling, well-crafted product experiences
- Define what “good” looks like for visual design and interaction quality across the platform — typography, layout, motion, and information hierarchy
- Build and evolve design patterns and systems that bring consistency and polish across surfaces
- Partner with UX Leadership to align design quality standards with broader product and company strategy
Lead End-to-End Design Execution
- Lead hands-on, high-fidelity design for flagship product features — from early concept and prototyping through detailed interaction design and launch
- Design across a wide range of experience types, including dashboards, workflow tools, data visualization, and — where relevant — AI-assisted features embedded in the product
- Rapidly prototype concepts to test feasibility, gather feedback, and align stakeholders around a shared design vision before heavy investment
- Drive user research and usability testing to validate design decisions and inform iteration
- Partner closely with Product and Engineering to ensure design vision and technical feasibility evolve together
Elevate Craft & Set the Bar for Visual and Interaction Design
- Set the craft standard for visual and interaction design across the UX organization, raising the bar on clarity, polish, and consistency
- Champion strong design fundamentals — typography, layout, color, motion, and information design — applied to complex, data-dense interfaces
- Ensure experiences are accessible, inclusive, and usable across a wide range of customer sophistication and contexts
- Provide critique and design direction across the design team, acting as a go-to reviewer for visual and interaction design quality
Partner Cross-Functionally
- Act as a strong design voice in product strategy conversations with Product and Engineering leadership
- Identify opportunities to improve the customer experience through better visual design, interaction patterns, and information architecture
- Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and serve as a thought partner on product design direction
- Represent the customer experience perspective in cross-functional discussions about product capability and behavior
Mentor & Grow Design Talent
- Mentor designers across the UX organization on visual craft, interaction design, and design systems thinking
- Lead by example through visible, hands-on craft — modeling what excellent design execution looks like in practice
- Contribute to a shared point of view, vocabulary, and set of patterns that help the broader design team raise the bar on craft
Represent TTD's Design Point of View
- Represent The Trade Desk at industry events and design conferences, sharing perspective on design craft in adtech
- Position TTD as a company at the forefront of thoughtful, well-crafted, customer-centered design
- Contribute to broader UX design community conversations, research, and thought leadership
Who you are:
- You are an experienced designer with a track record of shaping the visual and interaction design of complex, data-rich products.
- You combine exceptional craft with strong UX judgment and systems thinking, turning ambiguous, technical problems into experiences that feel clear, intuitive, and considered.
- Bachelor’s degree in Design, HCI, Cognitive Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
- 10+ years of experience in product design or UX design, with a strong emphasis on visual and interaction design craft
- Proven track record shaping end-to-end design from concept through shipped product within complex enterprise or platform-based products
- Exceptional visual design skills across typography, layout, color, information hierarchy, and complex, data-dense interfaces
- Deep interaction design expertise across dashboards, workflow tools, data visualization, and sophisticated multi-step experiences
- Strong command of Figma and modern prototyping tools, with experience building or evolving design systems
- Strong research instincts, using qualitative and quantitative insights to inform and validate design decisions
- Experience partnering closely with Product and Engineering and influencing design direction with senior leadership
- Ability to navigate ambiguity, establish a strong design point of view, and raise the craft bar through critique and mentorship
- Working familiarity with AI-powered product patterns and how they show up in modern UX (preferred, not required)
- Portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual craft, interaction design, systems thinking, and measurable impact on user experience and product outcomes
The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Please reach out to us at accommodations@thetradedesk.com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.
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