Principal Design Director
Company: Microsoft
Location: Redmond
Posted on: October 31, 2025
|
|
|
Job Description:
Microsoft AI Monetization is a customer-first organization
dedicated to building the next generation of AI-powered products
that serve our customers business goals. Our Design, Research &
Content team is a creative community on a mission to create and
deliver holistic experiences for Advertisers, Publishers, Sellers
and Consumers. By leveraging our deep understanding of the user and
our business acumen, we are driving the future of advertising and
monetization in the era of AI. Our diverse team works
collaboratively to develop products and ideas which impact billions
of customers worldwide. We’re a small, friendly, diverse and a
fast-moving creative team, supporting one another to do the best
work of our lives, always looking to break new ground with an
unshakeable dedication to the user. We are proud of what we build,
how we build it, and that our products define the AI era while
earning the trust of our users. We prioritize quality, meaningful
innovation and polish, and always root our decisions in research
and evidence. We ship regularly, so your work will have real and
immediate impact. Our Core Values: Quality. We only deliver
category-defining products that delight with their ease of use,
guaranteed reliability, and beautiful, coherent design. Simplicity.
We don’t overcomplicate. Less is more, always. Safety & Security.
The highest standards of security, safety and responsibility are
non-negotiable across all our business areas. Evaluation. We pay
close attention to signals and aren’t afraid to change course when
data and our experience tells us to. We are also careful with our
metrics, focusing on delivering long-term sustainable value (rather
than short-term KPIs). Kindness. Kindness is at the heart of our
org and how we conduct ourselves. We care for, and support and
respect one another, beginning again and learning every day. We are
seeking a Principal Design Director to join our team, bringing a
solid consumer and enterprise product design experience to help us
with the next wave of news experiences. For this role we’re looking
for a leader with solid design skills, business skills and people
management skills; you should have superb visual and interaction
design skills, experience managing 15-20 individual contributors
and managers, be comfortable with ambiguity involved in inventing
v1 experiences. You will lead your team to concept, prototype and
evangelize new customer experiences as well as help evolve our
design system, working across teams to bring design coherence to
our framework and create beautiful, inclusive, and accessible
experiences that customers love. In addition to setting vision and
direction, the ideal candidate is a maker who can craft high
quality design work at a fast pace within our design principles.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come
together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and
collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our
values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a
culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
Qualifications Required Qualifcations: Masters Degree in Industrial
Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User
Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 7 years
experience working in product or service design OR Bachelors Degree
in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction,
User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 9 years
experience working in product or service design OR equivalent
experience (e.g., demonstrated experience working in product or
service design or using design thinking to solve problems). 5 years
people management experience. Experience leading technical design
teams and distilling complexities to create simple and beautiful
design solutions. Preferred Qualifications: Demonstrated sense of
Interaction Design attuned to the fundamentals of user experience,
including accessibility and inclusive design. Solid Visual Design
skills. Prior experience designing news content. Excellent
communication and presentation / storytelling skills, with the
ability to energize teams and advocate for your ideas. Experience
designing in Figma. Resume must include a link to design portfolio
. Product Design M6 - The typical base pay range for this role
across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $296,400 per year. There is a
different range applicable to specific work locations, within the
San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the
base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $220,800 -
$331,200 per year. Microsoft will accept applications for the role
until September 30, 2025. Responsibilities Lead a team of
designers, creating clarity, generating energy and delivering
results. Drive product experience strategy, interaction design,
creative direction and craftsmanship for a v1 product. Drive
cross-team collaborations between your team and other designers,
researchers, product managers, product planners, and developers
from early product stages to implementation. Understand the
behaviors, motivations, and needs of our customers to develop
relevant and impactful experiences. Contribute to strategic product
planning via experience roadmaps. Propose creative solutions to
complex user experience journeys, drawing on your ability to map
end-to-end experiences. Identify new opportunities and generate
innovative ideas to improve our processes, products, and culture,
influencing design direction and research methodologies.
Keywords: Microsoft, Redmond , Principal Design Director, Design, Graphic Design & CAD , Redmond, Washington
