Principal Design Director

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The CoreAI Computational Design team is shaping the next generation of coding environments across VS Code, Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and Visual Studio. We are looking for a design leader who can guide this frontier with courage and curiosity.

As coding evolves from a one-way act of writing instructions into a dialogue with agentic systems, we see new possibilities for how software can be built, deployed, and maintained. Our vision is to make this future tangible by designing experiences that feel natural to use, draw strength from scale, and create the sense of working with a true collaborator.

This role calls for someone who loves to live in code—equally at home guiding a team of designers as they are prototyping and exploring new interaction paradigms themselves. By combining leadership with craft, you will help a passionate community of developers realize their ideas and build the software of tomorrow. We are committed to building with responsibility and trust at the foundation, moving quickly while ensuring the innovation we deliver is both lasting and meaningful.

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.

Required Qualifications:

• Master's 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 Bachelor's 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.
• Basic knowledge of either VS Code, Visual Studio, GitHub, or other development tools
• Comfortable with advancements in Large Language Models and how they accelerate coding tasks today—especially in multi-agent scenarios.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Comfortable with Machine Learning, Terminal, CLI, IDE, and/or Editor-first experiences
• Experience creating interactive, coded prototypes
• Experience working in an engineering sprint-based environment
• Basic knowledge of VS Code, Visual Studio, GitHub, and other development tools
• Fluency in basic web fundamentals (semantic and accessible HTML, CSS variables, progressive enhancement, modern vanilla JavaScript, and web components)

Product Design IC6 - 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.

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 October 31, 2025.

• Shape the future of coding: Define and communicate a bold vision for AI-native developer tools that inspire and empower millions of developers worldwide.
• Lead with craft: Mentor and grow a team of designers and UX engineers, modeling what it means to design in and with code while pushing the edges of what is possible.
• Prototype the frontier: Explore new agentic workflows, rapidly test concepts, and translate the latest ideas into tangible, shippable experiences.
• Simplify the complex: Turn what are often confusing AI capabilities into easy-to-comprehend interactions that feel truly human.
• Collaborate across disciplines: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with engineering, product, and research partners to bring strategies to life.
• Champion the developer: Advocate for the needs of individual makers and enterprise teams alike, ensuring our tools serve the full spectrum of creative work.
• Balance speed with responsibility: Move quickly to explore new patterns while grounding every design decision in trust, accessibility, and long-term impact.
• Stay ahead of change: Continuously investigate emerging technologies, frameworks, and prototyping methods to keep CoreAI at the forefront of the coding revolution.