Principal Designer

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.
The Commerce + Ecosystems (C+E) Commerce team is working to enable an easier experience for customers and partners to grow, as well as to buy and do business with us by delivering a dependable, safe and secure commerce infrastructure. The Ecosystems team is committed to driving discovery and awareness of Microsoft within our ecosystem of products and services, as well as reaching technical communities around the globe.
We are building a Startup dream team in the Microsoft for Startups organization. Our P&G (Platform & Growth) team is maniacal about democratizing access to resources for founders all over the world with an idea. We are excited to support and bring to life global programs that bridge digital and in-person experiences. We are spreading awareness of Microsoft as an incubation platform for startups everywhere, so founders can do what they love; create, disrupt, and breakdown bureaucracy.
This is the heart and soul of reinventing Microsoft's relationship with startup founders. Sound exciting? This is your opportunity to join and be a key part of our mission!
We are seeking a Principal UX Designer to lead and drive Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub products. Startups is an exciting, fast-paced org, which is much like a startup itself within Microsoft. We are a team of scrappy professionals who embody a "Startup mentality" in all things we do. We move fast, get things done efficiently, iterate, and constantly improve. This role will play a critical part in building new products and growing existing products. We are looking for a leader well-versed in all stages of the product development cycle, as well as a strategy, with a solid background in the human-centered design process.ResponsibilitiesProduct Design

• Creates alignment on schedules and plan definitions, including dependency tracking, across the discipline. Influences the product strategy and leads others in defining needs of large and/or complex product designs based on multiple factors such as user insights and business needs. Leads team in identifying needs that are not spoken and including them in end-to-end design plan and process. Guides others to develop a synthesis of user insights and compare with data to identify larger issues that may not be apparent for user desires. Makes the case for investments in product designs to senior leadership. Collaborates with product owners and development team members to shepherd end-to-end experiences from concept to ship for large and/or complex products.
• Directs others to generate ideation solutions for complex products (e.g., involving many constraints, needing workarounds, requiring holistic view of interconnected systems) to improve product designs. Brings diverse teams together and provides input on the strategic utilization of a variety of perspectives when ideating (e.g., business, experience, technology). Synthesizes complex and challenging ideation solutions to a concise articulation of user wants and subsequent solutions.
• Leads expansive prototyping initiatives (e.g., large scale, involving coordination of multiple groups, higher cost). Provides guidance to other team members about what the prototype should communicate and how to find the right prototype for a problem. Leads complex prototyping (e.g., large scale, involving coordination of multiple groups, higher cost) for new products as efficiently as possible. Presents to teams (e.g., Design, Engineering), mid-level leadership, and/or customers to receive feedback and understand user needs. Seeks to understand user needs and propose a design prototype, evaluate its usefulness, and determine next steps to ensure optimal product designs. Ensures prototypes are in accordance with company's brand and guidelines, and leads the invention/improvement of guidelines when existing guidelines are unclear. Recommends best-in-class tools.
• Leads interactions with teams across the company for successful design implementation, and leads design question-and-answer forums (QAs) to ensure "pixel perfect" or detailed designs. Directs collaboration with developers to iterate further on designs during implementation to ensure optimal designs. Drives negotiations with Engineering and pushes design agenda forward while finding compromises and alternatives. Acts as the owner approving the ship readiness from a design perspective.
• Leads the production of visual designs from concept to delivery. Creates, evangelizes, and oversees a variety of visual design documents including mood boards, storyboards, creative briefs, three-dimensional (3D) models, product renderings/visualizations, color and materials design, motion studies, iconography, illustrations, layouts, and redlines for a set of products, tools, and services. Works closely with multiple disciplines on aligned goals. Communicates and executes strategic product/service visual design direction to leaders at all stages from intent to implementation to ensure alignment. Organizes feedback sessions with team members, ensuring appropriate feedback and coaching is given. Champions and sets expectations for brand adherence and promotion of inclusivity principles.
• Identifies and evangelizes for scenarios that will ultimately turn into interaction designs for hardware and/or software-based experiences. Serves as an architect over the strategy for a product design and for multiple systems. Ensures alignment with other relevant disciplines and teams. Directs team to develop and enhance product user experiences via creation of interaction models and detailed designs for new and existing product features while serving as a liaison between users and products. Guides team to ensure the designs of the products allow the user to complete the desired functions in the best possible manner.

Design Components

• Owns, as a gatekeeper and reviewer, the use and adoption of latest design system (e.g., content templates, icons, form design, user-interface [UI] controls, navigation models, design trends) updates in the industry and/or making a case for acquiring the system. Helps others use the system and drives consistency, alignment, and standards across multiple teams.

Communication and Collaboration

• Sets context for senior leadership stakeholders. Guides communication with cross-disciplinary teams inside and across studio(s) through all stages of design and development. Cultivates communication workstreams for effective communication across groups. Demonstrates executive maturity in communication interactions. Recognized by others as an expert because of evangelizing designs through communication.
• Communicates a compelling, convincing product story to a variety of audiences in a way that inspires excitement and support of the product. Influences for impact and buy in from key stakeholders through storytelling. Coaches team members on storytelling techniques.
• Leads collaboration with creative team members, program managers, and developers (e.g., the triad/quad) to define and iterate on new and existing product features, as well as to make decisions on behalf of One Microsoft. Collaborates with leadership and team members, creates, and helps the team deliver product design results while also guiding the team's newer members. Influences stakeholders across disciplines (e.g., Marketing, Sales). Ensures that voice is needed, sought out, and asked for to promote optimal product designs. Connects dots between teams to enable collaboration, identifying opportunities to build on the work of others and leverage previous work.

Leadership

• Creates clarity and builds energy for stakeholders. Provides oversight and guidance to the team of product designers. Owns accountability for team and product outcomes. Ensures full understanding of the original design and vision, and links to established problem and/or goal. Mentors designers in all areas of ownership. Influences those outside of design. Espouses values as a leader. Is an expert and leader in the craft of design. Acts a steward of creative work across their team. Interviews and screens candidates.

Qualifications Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, or related field AND 8+ years experience working in product or service design
  • OR Master's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, or related field AND 6+ years experience working in product or service design
  • OR equivalent experience (e.g., experience using design thinking to solve problems).

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant design experience with proven success in working with cross functional teams or equivalent experience
• 4+ years of experience in leading design teams and people management.
• Experience conducting research, or working with user researchers
• Good problem-solving skills and ability to think strategically and tactically.
• Excellent written and verbal communication/presentation skills.
• An online portfolio

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Product Design IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $133,600 - $256,800 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 $173,200 - $282,200 per year.
Microsoft has different base pay ranges for different work locations within the United States, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets (see below). The range above reflects the potential base pay across the U.S. for this role (except as noted below); the applicable base pay range will depend on what ultimately is determined to be the candidate's primary work location. Individual base pay depends on various factors, in addition to primary work location, such as complexity and responsibility of role, job duties/requirements, and relevant experience and skills. Base pay ranges are reviewed and typically updated each year. Offers are made within the base pay range applicable at the time.
At Microsoft certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including merit increases, annual bonus and stock. These awards are allocated based on individual performance. In addition, certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the plan and the employee's role. Benefits/perks listed here may vary depending on the nature of employment with Microsoft and the country work location. U.S.-based employees have access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan and company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and wellbeing benefits, among others. U.S.-based employees also receive up to 10 paid holidays, accrue up to 15 paid vacation days, and receive up to 80 hours paid sick time (front-loaded) per calendar year.
Our Commitment to Pay Equity
We are committed to the principle of pay equity - paying employees equitably for substantially similar work. To learn more about pay equity and our other commitments to increase representation and strengthen our culture of inclusion, check out our annual Diversity & Inclusion Report. (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/inside-microsoft/annual-report)
Understanding Roles at Microsoft
The top of this page displays the role for which the base pay ranges apply - Product Design IC5.
The way we define roles includes two things: discipline (the type of work) and career stage (scope and complexity). The career stage has two parts - the first identifies whether the role is a manager (M), an individual contributor (IC), an admin-technician-retail (ATR) job, or an intern. The second part identifies the relative seniority of the role - a higher number (or later letter alphabetically in the case of ATR) indicates greater scope and complexity.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.