Principal Product Designer, Retail
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Are you actively looking for a new opportunity? Or just checking the market? Well… you might just be in the right place!
We're looking for a Principal Product Designer — a rare, senior individual-contributor role reporting directly to the Head of Design for Retail. Lightspeed AI is our biggest bet: an intelligence layer that acts like a partner for every merchant, evolving from an assistant that answers questions into an agent that takes action. Almost nothing about designing this experience has an established playbook — how merchants delegate work to an agent, supervise it, learn to trust it, and stay in control. You'll help write that playbook.
The role has two centers of gravity. First, leading design for our agentic AI experience — the defining product challenge of the next several years. Second, raising the craft bar across the entire Retail design organization: not by writing standards, but by making things — designing alongside teams in every product area to show, concretely, what great looks like. You'll also help shape our mobile point-of-sale strategy as a secondary focus.
This is not a management role. It's for a maker who moves fluidly between defining strategy and pushing pixels — someone who can hold the full context of a large product portfolio and still be the strongest hands-on designer in the room.
Location: Toronto preferred; open to other locations in Ontario, Quebec and Eastern Canada.
What you'll be doing:
Define new interaction patterns for agentic AI — designing how merchants converse with, direct, supervise, and build trust in an intelligent agent that works on their behalf.
Lead design for our AI experience end-to-end as a hands-on IC: from concept and prototype through polished, shipped product, in close partnership with AI engineering and product leadership.
Raise the craft bar across the organization through direct contribution — jumping into any product area to explore, elevate, and unblock the most important work, and leaving teams stronger than you found them.
Lead vision work that rethinks core merchant experiences through hands-on exploration and prototyping — concept work ambitious enough to shape strategy and concrete enough to build.
Prototype with AI, daily: work AI-first — using modern tools to move from intent to working prototype fast — and model this way of working for designers across the org.
Shape our mobile strategy with design thinking and hands-on support, as an ongoing secondary focus.
Influence without authority: align designers, leaders, and cross-functional partners across multiple teams through clarity, storytelling, and the quality of the work itself.
What you need to bring:
12+ years of product design experience with a maker's mindset — moving fluidly between strategic thinking and detailed, polished execution.
A portfolio demonstrating exceptional hands-on craft across UX, interaction, and visual design — work that other designers point to.
Experience leading large, ambiguous initiatives across multiple teams and delivering measurable outcomes — without formal authority.
Genuine fluency with AI: active use of LLMs and AI prototyping tools in your workflow, and a strong point of view on designing AI-powered products.
Enough technical understanding to be a real partner to engineers — you can build prototypes to communicate ideas and reason about constraints.
The ability to influence senior stakeholders through clear communication, storytelling, and tangible design work.
Taste. You know what great looks and feels like, and you push — and help others push — to get there.
We know that people are more than what's on their CV. If you're unsure that you have the right profile for the role… hit the 'Apply' button and give it a try!
Be a changemaker
You’ll enjoy:
A flexible work environment that empowers you to do your best work
A culture that celebrates performance
The chance to make an impact in a team that’s big enough for career growth, but lean enough to make your voice heard
Career-defining opportunities
Plus benefits designed to keep you happy, healthy and fulfilled.
Flexible paid time off and remote work policies
Equity options, because this is your company too
Contributions to your pension plan. Your future matters
Training opportunities to grow your skills and career
Health and wellness credit so you feel your best
Time off to volunteer and give back to your community
Interest groups, employee led networks, social committees to sponsored sports teams
Computer purchase program to get your personal Macbook
Enhanced parental leave to support growing families
Fuel your growth. Find your people.
At Lightspeed, your growth is our priority. We invest in you with continuous learning opportunities, global mobility and benefits designed to support you—all within a driven, diverse and inclusive team that’s passionate about empowering our communities
At Lightspeed, we carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining compensation, including your skill set, qualifications, experience, and market data. These considerations can cause your compensation to vary. We reasonably expect the base compensation for this position to be in the range of $200,000 - $240,000 CAD. Lightspeed also provides a variety of employee benefits including, but not limited to, medical, dental, wellness, life and disability insurance, RRSP plan and match, paid parental leave top-up, and paid time off.
Please note that this compensation information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within Ontario and reflects the amount Lightspeed is willing to pay at the time of this posting. This role represents an existing vacancy at Lightspeed. Lightspeed uses artificial intelligence–enabled tools to support certain aspects of the recruitment process; all hiring decisions are made by our recruiting and hiring teams.
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To all recruitment agencies: Lightspeed does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. If we have not directly engaged your company in writing to supply candidates for a specific vacancy, Lightspeed will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.
Lightspeed is a proud equal opportunity employer and we are committed to creating an inclusive and barrier-free workplace. Lightspeed welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.
Where to from here?
Obviously, this has to be mutually beneficial: we want you to step into a role you love, and we want to offer you a place you’re proud to come to every day. For a glimpse into our world check out our career page here.
Lightspeed is building communities through commerce, and we need people from all backgrounds and lived experiences to do that. We were founded in 2005, in Montreal’s gay village and our original members were all part of the LGBTQ+ community. The ethos of our business has been about inclusion from the very beginning, and we strive to provide a workplace where everyone belongs.
Who we are:
Powering the businesses that are the backbone of the global economy, Lightspeed's one-stop commerce platform helps merchants innovate to simplify, scale, and provide exceptional customer experiences. Our cloud commerce solution transforms and unifies online and physical operations, multichannel sales, expansion to new locations, global payments, financial solutions, and connection to supplier networks.
Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: LSPD) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: LSPD). With teams across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the company serves retail, hospitality, and golf businesses in over 100 countries.
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