Principal Product Designer, AI Lab

For over 180 years The Economist has helped subscribers understand the world - guided by a clear mission, global outlook and independent thinking. Recognising the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, we have launched the Economist AI Lab, an R&D initiative designed to create innovative, customer-facing AI-powered products and services that amplify our journalism and broaden the reach of our ideas.

We're now looking for a Principal Product Designer, AI Lab to join the Economist AI Lab. This is a full-time position at the centre of our new AI research and innovation initiative. This is a unique opportunity to work with a small team that will help shape how one of the world's most respected media brands adapts to advances in AI.

You'll lead the design activity within the AI Lab - helping to visualise and shape the direction of early-stage product and service concepts from a user-centred perspective. Your role will be to collaborate with the team to craft a compelling vision for new AI-powered experiences, and then to bring that vision to life through prototyping, testing and iterative design. You will work closely with product, editorial and engineering to ensure we're creating experiences that are genuinely meaningful and engaging for future Economist subscribers.

This role will suit someone who thrives in ambiguous, formative environments; who can connect new technical capabilities to customer needs; and who relishes the challenge of shaping the future rather than merely refining current practices.

This role will be based in our London headquarters.

More about the Economist AI Lab:

We believe AI will fundamentally change both our business and the world around us, making our mission more vital than ever. While we already use AI across The Economist Group, we think the changes to come in the next few years could be even more far-reaching.

This is why we are launching the Economist AI Lab–to reimagine Economist journalism for an AI-driven world. It is a deliberately ambitious project, exploring new ideas and possibilities beyond our existing AI initiatives and engineering roadmap.

A small, dedicated team, the AI Lab will serve as an innovation engine for The Economist –investigating bold new ideas that will shape how we serve our global audience in the future.

Responsibilities

• Bring to life new concepts for AI-enabled, user-facing experiences for The Economist by designing intuitive user flows and interactive prototypes
• Facilitate workshops and/or design sprints that bring stakeholders and others along the product development journey
• Prototype novel interaction patterns across conversational, multimodal and ambient interfaces
• Create clear, compelling design assets and artefacts - from rough sketches to high-fidelity prototypes - that help the team test, learn and align with internal stakeholders and research groups
• You will work with product and research to support user research activity to understand user behaviour and identify needs
• Collaborate with editorial, product and engineering to ensure experiences are buildable, brand-aligned and strategically sound

What sort of person we are looking for

• A curious and creative thinker who enjoys developing new concepts and exploring unconventional interaction patterns
• Comfortable working from ambiguity - able to quickly wireframe, prototype and evolve ideas based on a shifting set of user needs, technical constraints and team input
• Works well in a small team with the freedom to make decisions and communicate clearly with others
• Understands The Economist's core values of classical liberalism, intellectual rigour and editorial independence
• A brilliant communicator, who is comfortable thinking on their feet as well as expressing themselves in written documentation

Specific skills and expertise

• A portfolio that demonstrates strong interaction and information design craft, along with a capacity for creative exploration across unfamiliar formats or technologies
• Familiarity with emerging AI capabilities and a perspective in how they might shape new forms of interaction patterns and customer experiences
• Skilled in using tools like Figma, Miro or ProtoPie to develop ideas at the right level of fidelity for the task - whether sketching rough flows or simulating a complex interactions
• Able to lead design-led discovery activities, synthesise user research, and communicate concepts clearly to multidisciplinary teams at various levels of seniority

Strong candidates might also have

• Direct experience working in a startup, innovation lab or corporate R&D environment
• Experience developing and analysis customer research activities to identify and assess product market fit
• Interest or background in using (Generative) AI in newsrooms, media, entertainment or other customer-facing contexts
• Experience designing for multi-modal interaction patterns including audio and conversational experiences

How to submit an application

Candidates should submit a CV and optional cover letter by the end of September.

As part of the application, we're also asking candidates to submit a short, self-recorded video (2-3 minutes) describing an idea for a future AI-enabled product experience at The Economist. This is not a test of technical delivery, nor your production skills (a selfie video is fine). It's a way for us to understand how you think, imagine and communicate.

[By submitting your application materials, you confirm that the information and ideas shared are submitted voluntarily and for the purposes of evaluation only. You retain rights to your own intellectual property, and The Economist Group assumes no ownership. However, you acknowledge that The Economist Group may independently develop or already be exploring similar concepts, and submission does not create any obligation of confidentiality, compensation or future collaboration.]

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