Principal Product Designer, Games Discovery

About the role

We are seeking a thoughtful and experienced Principal Product Designer (Games) to lead discovery and acquisition experiences across the Yahoo Games ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Own the discovery experience for Yahoo Games — designing the surfaces, entry points, and moments that move people from curious to playing.
• Make discovery feel worth discovering. Bring a sense of fun, personality, and delight to every surface — from a first impression on Yahoo News to a returning player's daily entry point.
• Design and optimize acquisition entry points across the Yahoo ecosystem that introduce the right game to the right person at the right moment.
• Partner with Marketing, Creative, and other Yahoo surface owners to shape promotional surfaces that convert without feeling like ads.
• Work closely with Product, Engineering, and Analytics to define and prioritize discovery opportunities, moving from strategy to shipped experiences.
• Use research, data, and experimentation to understand what earns attention and what loses it — then iterate.
• Lead and contribute to design systems and scalable frameworks, leveraging AI-assisted component generation to keep the Yahoo Games experience coherent as it scales.
• Participate in playtests and product reviews to stay close to the player perspective that informs your work upstream.
• Identify opportunities to integrate AI-driven workflow efficiencies into daily design practices, collaborating with team members on effective AI tool integration.

Requirements

You must have 10+ years of experience designing consumer-facing digital products, with a track record of shaping product strategy and shipped experiences.

Your portfolio should demonstrate strategic and systems-level leadership across end-to-end product experiences and shipped consumer products.

You should have experience designing marketing, discovery, or acquisition surfaces — with a track record of moving people from awareness to action.

Familiarity with game mechanics, player motivations, and community dynamics — understanding why people choose certain games, what draws them in, and what keeps them coming back — is essential.

Strong UX fundamentals, including visual design, interaction design, information architecture, and usability, are required.

You should have experience designing for desktop and mobile web platforms.

You must have experience designing discovery or growth surfaces (e.g., feeds, entry points, recommendation modules) that move users from awareness to engagement.

A strong product and analytical mindset, with hands-on experience using A/B testing, experimentation frameworks, analytics, and user insights to shape strategy and inform product direction, is necessary.

You must have proven ability to lead cross-functional collaboration with product managers, engineers, and leadership stakeholders to drive product direction and business outcomes.

Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence product strategy, align cross-functional stakeholders, and advocate for user-centered decisions at multiple levels of the organization, are required.

A strong sense of craft, with the ability to infuse personality, delight, and fun into discovery experiences — making the path to a game feel as rewarding as the game itself, is crucial.

Hands-on proficiency with design and AI-assisted prototyping tools such as Figma, Cursor, and Claude Code to execute prompt-driven UI generation and rapid functional prototyping, is expected.

Experience defining, scaling, or evolving design systems and product frameworks across teams or platforms is nice to have.

Qualifications

Experience with casual, daily, or puzzle games is nice to have.

An active relationship with games as a player — curiosity about what makes them compelling, sticky, and worth coming back to — is nice to have.

Skills

Strategic and systems-level leadership across end-to-end product experiences and shipped consumer products.

Experience designing marketing, discovery, or acquisition surfaces — with a track record of moving people from awareness to action.

Familiarity with game mechanics, player motivations, and community dynamics — understanding why people choose certain games, what draws them in, and what keeps them coming back.

Strong UX fundamentals, including visual design, interaction design, information architecture, and usability.

Experience designing for desktop and mobile web platforms.

Experience designing discovery or growth surfaces (e.g., feeds, entry points, recommendation modules) that move users from awareness to engagement.

A strong product and analytical mindset, with hands-on experience using A/B testing, experimentation frameworks, analytics, and user insights to shape strategy and inform product direction.

Proven ability to lead cross-functional collaboration with product managers, engineers, and leadership stakeholders to drive product direction and business outcomes.

Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence product strategy, align cross-functional stakeholders, and advocate for user-centered decisions at multiple levels of the organization.

A strong sense of craft, with the ability to infuse personality, delight, and fun into discovery experiences — making the path to a game feel as rewarding as the game itself.

Hands-on proficiency with design and AI-assisted prototyping tools such as Figma, Cursor, and Claude Code to execute prompt-driven UI generation and rapid functional prototyping.

Experience defining, scaling, or evolving design systems and product frameworks across teams or platforms.

Benefits

The material job duties and responsibilities of this role include those listed above as well as adhering to Yahoo policies; exercising sound judgment; working effectively, safely and inclusively with others; exhibiting trustworthiness and meeting expectations; and safeguarding business operations and brand integrity.

At Yahoo, we offer flexible hybrid work options that our employees love!

If you need accessibility assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, please submit a request via the Accommodation Request Form (www.yahooinc.com/careers/contact-us.html) or call +1.866.772.3182.

Requests and calls received for non-disability related issues, such as following up on an application, will not receive a response.

We believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace strengthens Yahoo and deepens our relationships.

When you support everyone to be their best selves, they spark discovery, innovation and creativity.

Among other efforts, our 11 employee resource groups (ERGs) enhance a culture of belonging with programs, events and fellowship that help educate, support and create a workplace where all feel welcome.

Pay

The compensation for this position ranges from $143,625.00 - $299,375.00/yr and will vary depending on factors such as your location, skills and experience.

The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus or commissions.

Schedule

Our comprehensive benefits include healthcare, a great 401k, backup childcare, education stipends and much (much) more.