Principal Product Designer

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 fast-moving creative team, supporting one another to do the best work of our lives. We are 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 will 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. Your work will have real and immediate impact. 

Our core values guide our work:

• 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.
• 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.  

This role will be part of our Monetization Inventory Design team, which is focused on supporting the current and future monetization experiences for Microsoft Copilot, Bing (including Copilot Search), MSN, gaming, and other key consumer surfaces. You will work on everything from traditional advertising experiences to future state explorations that leverage AI technology to redefine traditional ways of interacting with computers and the underlying business models for monetization. Your work will be at the heart of change within the advertising industry.

As a Principal Product Designer, you will bring the technical skills, leadership, and passion that will help us to build the next wave of monetization-centered capabilities for our consumers. You can drive the end-to-end process of setting a design vision and delivering the work necessary for innovative zero-to-one products.

The right candidate for this role takes the initiative and enjoys building world-class consumer experiences and products in a fast-paced environment. You are a player/coach, willing to spend time to lift up those around you. You create a vision and direction for the products you support and are skillful at winning buy in for your work. You are a maker and tinkerer, hungry to build new things with new tools. You are actively using AI (e.g. vibe coding), and when comparing yourself to other designers, you are on the leading edge of reinventing our discipline of design.  You are adaptable and scrappy, with the ability to move quickly to new methodologies, processes, technologies, and products to get things done. You recognize the role of designer has fundamentally changed - we are also product managers, engineers, and researchers; you dont stand behind a role description - you do what needs to be done to make things happen. You are a highly effective communicator and recognize that the best designers are also exceptional storytellers. You have an abundance of energy, empathy, and kindness and are a positive catalyst for action. Finally, you are passionate about figuring out how to make the new technologies around us serve our users and the business in an equally meaningful fashion.

Beyond the specifics of this role and this team, you we be part of Microsoft’s mission 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. 

Are you ready to help us create the future?

By applying to this U.S. Mountain View, CA position you are required to be local to the San Francisco area and in office 4 days a week. Redmond, WA candidates are required to be local to the greater Seattle metropolitan area and in office 4 days a week.

Responsibilities

• Ship world-class AI-powered experiences (complex, non-deterministic) that delight consumers with an emphasis on craft, quality, trust, and positive user and societal impact.
• Stay aware of new technological innovations within AI and bring these new innovations into our products and teams design practices.
• Own the user experience for a product area/domain - be responsible for understanding user needs and behaviors, ensure product requirements are defined, and maintain a strategic lens for how the product evolves.
• Collaborate with other product leaders to manage the end-to-end product development process, and maintain accountability for user experience quality.
• Exhibit cross-functional communication and dependency management, scoping and scheduling.
• Find your own path to get things done despite roadblocks; ensure your work gets into the hands of users quickly and plan for continued iteration.
• Continually raise the bar for excellence and product quality; drive accountability for these standards.
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced, design-driven, product development cycle.   
• Partner with product teams to define goals and performance indicators - both business and customer success metrics. Set up and oversee experiments and evaluate effectiveness with data and research.   
• Collaborate effectively and communicate clearly with cross-functional teams, including product managers, engineers, sales, and other designers.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Masters Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 6+ 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 8+ 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)

Portfolio Note: 

• A portfolio or work samples that demonstrate experience designing world class consumer products from vision through launch. This portfolio should include direct evidence of designing with AI/code (i.e. vibe coding).

Preferred Qualifications:

• A portfolio or work samples that demonstrate experience designing world class consumer products from vision through launch. (please include password if applicable)
• Proven track record of setting design vision for innovative products that require bold thinking and risk taking.
• Experience prompting LLMs, working with generative AI, and understanding how to meaningfully integrate AI into products to help customers accomplish their goals.
• Experience with designing in code (vibe coding) to deliver prototypes quickly, exploring underlying technologies to drive innovation within products.
• Prototype-level engineering experience with HTML/CSS/JavaScript or other development languages such as Python. 
• Demonstrate high craft in design work; must value craft and translate vision into well-polished design prototypes.  
• Ability to break large bodies of work into a phased execution plan, and lead a cross-functional team from idea to polished implementation.  
• Experience that demonstrates proven ability to advocate for design thinking, effectively influence design outcomes, discover problems and address them in a fast-paced and ambiguous environments.  
• Experience identifying research needs, and then diving into the results, leveraging both qualitative and quantitative signals for design direction and refinement.
• Ability to own your work in a start-up like environment. This includes managing multiple priorities and adapting to ever-changing requirements and deadlines.  
• Proven ability to collaborate and contribute to a positive, inclusive work environment, fostering knowledge sharing and growth within the team.  
• Experience with designing in code (vibe coding) to deliver prototypes quickly, exploring underlying technologies to drive innovation within products.
• Optional, but meaningful: Prototype-level engineering experience with HTML/CSS/JavaScript or other development languages such as Python.  

Product Design IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.