Agentic Product Design Lead at APPLY

Job description

ABOUT APPLY APPLY is the Agentic Customer Experience (ACx) partner for the world's most ambitious consumer and entertainment brands. We bring together deep domain expertise across Retail, CPG, Sports, and Media with AI-native delivery capability, designing and delivering agentic solutions that turn CX vision into commercial reality. We are the partner of choice for brands like Arc'teryx, NFL, Lululemon, and Kraft Heinz. For more information, visit applydigital.com. LOCATION: APPLY is hybrid/remote friendly. The preferred candidate should be based in Canada, working in hours that align to ET (Eastern Timezone) or PT (Pacific Timezone). THE ROLE: As an Agentic Product Design Lead, you will be a hands-on senior design leader at the intersection of craft, systems thinking, and AI-native workflows. Reporting to the Head of Design, you will lead complex client engagements end-to-end — owning design quality across multi-product and multi-platform projects while actively designing alongside AI agents as a core part of how you work. This is a role for a practitioner who leads by doing. You bring deep expertise in design systems — from token architecture and component governance to CMS integration and developer handoff — and you know how to operationalize that expertise within modern agentic workflows using tools like Claude for Design, Figma MCP, and BMAD. You are equally comfortable presenting design rationale to senior client stakeholders and rolling up your sleeves to build the systems and screens yourself. You will mentor and guide designers at various levels, champion design system standards across your engagements, and contribute to evolving how Apply Digital designs and delivers in an AI-accelerated world. RESPONSIBILITIES Design Leadership & Quality: • Set and uphold the bar for UI design quality across all client engagements, ensuring deliverables reflect APPLY's standards and each client's brand vision from foundational token architecture and atomic component libraries through to polished, production-ready screen design. • Lead and actively contribute to the creation of high-quality screen designs, prototypes, and design systems across multi-product and multi-platform projects, with deep hands-on expertise in foundations, tokens, and atomic design methodology. • Define and govern design system standards including token naming conventions, tier structures (global, alias, component), theming strategies, and component documentation ensuring systems are scalable, maintainable, and developer-ready. • Establish and champion design frameworks, UX principles, and visual consistency practices across the team, embedding design system thinking at every stage of the project lifecycle. • Drive design critique culture and create structured feedback loops that elevate the work, with a sharp eye for system integrity, component reuse, and cross-platform consistency. • Champion the integration of agentic design workflows and AI-powered tooling including Claude for design to accelerate design system production, automate token management, and unlock new levels of craft and efficiency across the team. Client & Stakeholder Partnership: • Act as a senior design voice in client relationships, presenting concepts, rationale, and recommendations with confidence and clarity. • Lead discovery, alignment, and design review sessions with senior client stakeholders. • Build trusted relationships with clients, earning confidence as a strategic partner not just a delivery lead. • Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, strategy, and delivery teams to ensure design is integrated throughout the project lifecycle. Practice & Strategic Growth: • Define and evolve APPLY's UI and experience design practice, including tooling, process, and standards. • Contribute to business development efforts by supporting proposals, pitches, and capability demonstrations. • Represent APPLY's design perspective externally through thought leadership, community en