Principal, Experience Designer - AI Incubation Lab

Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.

Why Join Us?

To shape the future of travel, people must come first. Guided by our Values and Leadership Agreements, we foster an open culture where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated and know that when one of us wins, we all win.

We provide a full benefits package, including exciting travel perks, generous time-off, parental leave, a flexible work model (with some pretty cool offices), and career development resources, all to fuel our employees' passion for travel and ensure a rewarding career journey. We’re building a more open world. Join us.

Principal, Experience Designer - AI Incubation Lab

Locations: London, New York, Seattle, Austin, San Jose / San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, with other EG Locations up for discussion.

As a part of a small incubation team, lead exploration work on the future of travel powered by AI.

Expedia Group builds end-to-end experiences that millions of travelers, partners, and employees rely on every day. Within the Design team, we’re reimagining how people discover and book trips across Hotels.com, Vrbo, and Brand Expedia. We’re looking for a Principal Product Designer for incubation, helping explore the possibilities that AI opens in the space of travel and transfer that knowledge into current products.

In this position, you’ll be a part of a small prototype-oriented team that helps explore different futures and initiatives to inform Expedia's key strategies. You will work autonomously and will balance strategic thinking with the ability to produce tangible artifacts and conduct evaluations as well as share learnings.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the creation and evolution of an AI‑forward customer experience vision and strategy for the AI Incubation Lab, defining clear success metrics and connecting them to business outcomes at the organizational level.

• Develop, formalize, and teach best‑in‑class problem framing, experimentation, and synthesis practices that combine qualitative research, quantitative data, and AI‑driven insights to uncover high‑value opportunities.

• Architect foundational experience frameworks, interaction patterns, and enterprise‑grade design system components that support rapidly evolving AI‑driven products and proofs‑of‑concept across multiple domains.

• Champion simple, elegant, and trustworthy experiences for AI‑enabled workflows, driving a high design quality bar through critique, mentoring, and hands‑on collaboration with cross‑functional partners.

• Build and nurture an innovation‑oriented design culture within the Lab and partner teams, facilitating collaborative concept development, rapid prototyping, and clear communication that links vision, strategy, and execution.

• Safely integrate and operate AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve customer and business outcomes, designing responsibly for automation, augmentation, transparency, and human oversight in AI‑driven experiences.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Design, Human‑Computer Interaction, User Experience, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience applying advanced design methods to digital products and services.

• 10+ years of professional experience in experience design, interaction design, product design, or a closely related discipline, with visible impact at product, platform, or organizational levels.

• Demonstrated expertise in at least two core design skills (such as interaction design, visual design, service design, or systems thinking), strong capability in at least two others, and the ability to apply this breadth across multiple product domains.

• Proven track record defining and driving customer experience strategy, design frameworks, and success metrics for multi‑team or organization‑level initiatives, including collaboration with senior stakeholders.

• Hands‑on experience using data, customer research, and AI‑driven systems, tools, or workflows to inform design decisions, including applying AI/ML concepts to real‑world products.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading the design of complex AI‑enabled or data‑rich products from early‑stage concept through scaled adoption, including framing problem spaces, validating opportunities, and iterating based on learning.

• Demonstrated ability to architect and evolve cross‑product design systems, foundational utilities, and reusable patterns that support rapid incubation and experimentation across multiple teams or platforms.

• Track record of shaping organizational design culture—establishing critique practices, coaching senior designers, and influencing leaders to adopt scalable, evidence‑based design processes and standards.

• Expertise integrating qualitative and quantitative methods, experimentation, and business analytics to guide decision‑making for AI‑infused experiences, including safely integrating and operating AI/ML‑enabled solutions that improve outcomes.

• Deep familiarity with AI‑driven systems, tools, or workflows in a design context, including leading design for human‑AI collaboration patterns (such as copilot experiences, recommendations, or generative interfaces) and advancing AI‑informed design practices within an incubation or lab environment.

Expedia Group is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to support employees and their families, including medical/dental/vision, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program. To fuel each employee’s passion for travel, we offer a wellness & travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and an International Airlines Travel Agent (IATAN) membership. View our full list of benefits.

The total cash range for this position in New York is $242,000.00 to $338,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $387,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role. The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $224,000.00 to $313,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $358,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role. The total cash range for this position in San Francisco is $242,000.00 to $338,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $387,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

Expedia Group is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to support employees and their families, including medical/dental/vision, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program. To fuel each employee’s passion for travel, we offer a wellness & travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and an International Airlines Travel Agent (IATAN) membership. View our full list of benefits.

Accommodation requests

If you need assistance with any part of the application or recruiting process due to a disability, or other physical or mental health conditions, please reach out to our Recruiting Accommodations Team through the Accommodation Request.

We are proud to be named as a Best Place to Work on Glassdoor in 2024 and be recognized for award-winning culture by organizations like Forbes, TIME, Disability:IN, and others.

Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. © 2024 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group’s Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never provide sensitive, personal information to someone unless you’re confident who the recipient is. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or any other messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official website to find and apply for job openings at Expedia Group is careers.expediagroup.com/jobs.

Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.