Principal UX Designer

Principal UX Designer

AboutUpshop

Upshopis the market leader in Total Store Operations solutions for the Grocery and C-Store markets. We offer an AI-powered SaaS platform connecting FreshCenter eCommerce and DSD departmentoperations to deliver a simplified smarter more connected store experience. Customers runningUpshoprealize significant improvements in salesshrink food safety and sustainability across the entire store. 450 retail chain accounts trust our software in over 55k stores 35 countries and 3 continents.

Role Summary

As a Principal UX Designer atUpshop you will own the evolution of our Design Platform and Design System while acting as both a senior craft practitioner and mentor to the design this role you willhave the opportunity to bea platform-minded design leader partnering with other PMs to shape and operationalizeUpshop360 platform across allproduct will shape direction through hands-on contribution and thoughtful influence helping the team make decisions confidently in ambiguity and complexity.

You are a player-coach: a strategic thinker who leads by doing builds with your hands and elevates others work through mentorship and example. You will help define the future ofUpshopsdesign ecosystem from foundational components to interaction patterns and scalable UX paradigms ensuring consistency coherence and quality across products.

This role requires a strong blend of senior UX craft systems thinking advanced prototyping cross-functional influence and coaching experience.

WhatYoullDo

Design Platform & System Leadership

• Own and evolve theUpshopDesign Platform and System: components guidelines interaction language motion principles and shared patterns.

• Partner with engineering to ensure consistency scalability performance and technical feasibility atplatformscale.

• Define and document standards for how design is expressed across products from tokens to complex state behaviors.

• Advocate for accessibility performance and inclusive design across the system.

Hands-On UX & Interaction Craft

• Create and iterate high-fidelity prototypes interaction models and design artifacts that clarify intent and drive alignment.

• Use prototypes as a primary language for exploration communication and decision-making.

• Translate research insights user data and business goals into elegant scalable solutions.

Player-Coach Leadership

• Serve as a mentor and coach: provide regular design critique career guidance and hands-on support for more junior designers.

• Lead andfacilitatecross-disciplinary workshops to solve complex UX challenges collaboratively

• Elevate team craft through shared best practices tooling improvements and patterns for reuse.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner deeply with Product Engineering and Brand teams to shape outcomes that balance user needs with business strategy.

• Influence product direction through strategic reasoning and exceptional design judgment

• Represent design decisions to senior leadership and stakeholders with clarity and confidence.

Working in Ambiguity & Evolving Practice

• Thrive in exploratory environments where problems are undefined and outcomes are emerging.

• Define and refine processes that help teams navigate ambiguity whilemaintainingvelocity and quality.

Qualifications

Experience

• 7yearsof UX / product design experience with a strong portfolio of work thatdemonstratesbothstrategic depthandcraft excellence.

• Experience creating and scalingdesign systemsor shared UX platforms in complexmulti-product portfolios across different medium(web tablet mobile)

• Proventrack recordof mentoring designers and elevating team quality.

Skills &Expertise

• Hands-on design fluency:end-to-end interaction design advanced prototyping (Figma)motion whereapplicable.

• Deep systemsthinking:ability to decompose and organize design patterns that scale across productsand teams.

• Excellent communication:ability to articulate decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Comfort working with engineering on implementation patterns constraints and performance realities.

• Strong understanding of user-centered design accessibility and usability best practices.

• Experience contributing code to UIcomponentlibraries:ReactTailwindDesign TokensshadcnCSS-in-JS;able to meaningfully engage oncomponentstructure and implementation quality.

• Familiarity with analytics data used to inform design decisions

• Experience in high-growth SaaS or platform organizations

What Makes You Successful Here

• You set direction through clarity of thought and strength of craft not hierarchy.

• You enjoy making complexity feel simple forothers -both in product and in how design works.

• You are motivated by empowering others sharing craftexpertise and defining scalable design strategies.

• You embrace ambiguity and drive forward with both curiosity and discipline.

Portfolio Requirement

An online portfolio isrequiredand should highlight:

• Design system thinking and platform-level impact

• High-fidelity prototypes and interaction work

• Examples of coaching mentoring or elevating team outcomes

The estimated pay ranges for this role are as follows:

• $120000 - 170000 CAD

The successful candidates starting salary will be determined based on permissible non-discriminatory factors such as skills experience and geographic location.