Principal UX Design Strategist - Agentic AI Experiences

Location : Santa Clara, CA About Eightfold Eightfold's mission is to unlock human potential through AI. As the world moves from software tools to intelligent agents, we are building the next generation of experiences that help organizations hire, develop, retain, and empower talent at scale. We believe the future of work will be powered by collaboration between humans and AI agents. Our products are evolving beyond workflows and dashboards into intelligent systems that proactively guide decisions, automate tasks, and help people achieve better outcomes. We're looking for a Principal Design Strategist to help define that future. About the Role This is not a traditional UX strategy role. We're looking for a hands-on builder, strategist, and systems thinker who can identify opportunities, envision future experiences, and rapidly bring ideas to life through prototypes. You will help shape how AI agents collaborate with recruiters, hiring managers, employees, managers, HR leaders, and candidates. You'll define when agents should act, when they should ask, how they should explain decisions, and how they can create value while maintaining trust and transparency. The ideal candidate believes that prototypes are more powerful than presentations and that customer feedback is more valuable than internal opinions. You won't simply design screens; you'll help design the future operating system for work. What You'll Do Define the Future of Agentic Experiences Shape the vision for Human + AI collaboration across the Eightfold platform. Identify opportunities where AI agents can automate, assist, recommend, coach, or act autonomously. Create future-state concepts that reimagine how work gets done. Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to influence long-term strategy and investment decisions. Define how AI can help recruiters, hiring managers, employees, managers, and HR teams make better decisions and achieve better outcomes. Lead Through Prototypes Rapidly transform ideas into interactive experiences. Build prototypes that help customers and stakeholders experience the future before it's built. Use AI-native tools to explore agent behaviors, workflows, multimodal interactions, and new product concepts. Validate concepts early and reduce product risk through experimentation. Create proofs of concept that influence roadmap decisions and investment priorities. Design Human + AI Systems Define frameworks for: Agent behavior and decision making Memory and context management Trust and explainability Permissions and governance Human oversight and intervention Escalation models Agent-to-agent collaboration Establish patterns for conversational, proactive, multimodal, and workflow-based experiences. Create principles that guide how agents interact with users across the Eightfold platform. Drive Strategic Discovery Work directly with customers to uncover unmet needs and future opportunities. Conduct research and synthesize insights into actionable product strategies. Explore emerging trends in AI, talent intelligence, workforce transformation, and enterprise software. Translate customer problems into product opportunities and investment recommendations. Facilitate customer co-creation and innovation workshops. Influence Across the Organization Facilitate visioning workshops and strategic design sessions. Help teams think beyond current workflows and interfaces. Mentor designers, product managers, and leaders on AI-first experience design. Champion human-AI interaction principles across the organization. Serve as a thought leader on Agentic AI and the future of work experiences. What you Bring 10+ years of experience in Product Design, Design Strategy, Service Design, Product Innovation, UX, or related disciplines. Experience building AI-powered products. Experience designing conversational, voice, or multimodal experiences. Experience with talent, HR, recruiting, workforce, productivity, or enterprise platforms is preferred. Proven track...