Principal Design Architect – Collaboration Experience Design (CxD)

Do you want to shape how hundreds of millions of people connect, create, and collaborate every day? The Collaboration Experience Design (CxD) studio at Microsoft crafts the experiences that bring Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner, and Engage together, empowering people and organizations to achieve more through intelligent, inclusive, and integrated collaboration.

We’re looking for a Principal Design Architect to help shape the future of AI-powered collaboration across Microsoft 365. This is a unique opportunity to define cross-product frameworks and interaction models that connect people, content, and intelligent agents across our ecosystem.

As a Design Architect, you’ll lead early explorations and help define frameworks that guide the next generation of connected, intelligent experiences. You’ll influence strategic bets, partner across design, product, and engineering, and ensure that what we create is visionary, cohesive, and grounded in customer needs.

The Collaboration Experience Design (CxD) studio designs Microsoft’s collaboration agents and platform, the tools people rely on to work together across organizations and geographies. Our vision is to empower every person and organization to achieve more, with intelligent, integrated, and inclusive collaboration solutions.

If you’re inspired by designing systems that scale across products and defining how AI transforms collaboration, you’ll feel right at home in CxD.

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.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic design explorations that define the future of AI, intelligent agents, and cross-product collaboration within Microsoft 365.
• Develop experience frameworks, patterns, and principles that create coherence across Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner, and Engage.
• Partner closely with engineering architects, product leaders, and research teams to align early investments and long-term product direction.
• Ground your work in customer insights and data, ensuring design directions solve real-world problems and create measurable impact.
• Collaborate across Microsoft Design, the Fluent Design System, and the AI design community to evolve our model-forward design language.
• Mentor, coach, and inspire designers across CxD, scaling system-level thinking and design maturity throughout the organization.
• Influence senior leaders and partners through compelling storytelling, clarity, and vision.
• Craft rich and inviting experiences that connect the world.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Master's 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 Bachelor's 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.
• 6+ years experience shipping products, services, or games and/or delivering to customers as a result of an end-to-end design process.
• OR Bachelor's 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's 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 Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 12+ 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).
• Deep experience defining frameworks, interaction models, or design systems that unify complex product ecosystems.
• Exceptional ability to translate user needs, technology, and business goals into coherent, scalable design strategies.
• Solid storytelling and facilitation skills, with experience influencing executive audiences.
• Proven ability to drive design coherence across multiple product surfaces (web, mobile, desktop, embedded).
• Experience designing for AI, agents, or adaptive user experiences.
• Track record of mentoring design talent and building design maturity at scale.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, evolving spaces where frameworks are still being defined.
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 12+ 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).

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.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until November 9, 2025.

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.

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