Principal Design Director

Principal Design Director at Microsoft

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 and drive scale.

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 tomorrow’s software. We are committed to building with responsibility and trust, moving quickly while ensuring the innovation we deliver is lasting and meaningful.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We bring a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize shared goals. We cultivate a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive.

Responsibilities

• 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 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 while ensuring our tools serve the full spectrum of creative work.
• Balance speed with responsibility : Explore new patterns quickly 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.

Required Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

Compensation : Product Design IC6—U.S. base pay range USD $163,000 – $296,400 per year. Different ranges for the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area : USD $220,800 – $331,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for additional benefits and compensation. Find more details at https : / / careers.microsoft.com / us / en / us-corporate-pay.

Microsoft will accept applications for this role until November 17, 2025.

Microsoft is an equal‑opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and / or a reasonable accommodation because of a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

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