Principal Design Manager

The CoreAI Computational Design team is shaping the next generation of experiences in Microsoft Foundry. We support developers who build and operate AI apps and agents with enterprisegrade security, observability, and governance, using a single unified platform. We are looking for a design leader who can guide this frontier with courage and curiosity.

This role calls for someone who loves to design and is 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 designers realize their ideas and build the experiences 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.

• Shape the future of building and operating AI agents: Define and communicate a bold vision for AI-native developer tools that inspire and empower millions of developers worldwide.
• Leadwith craft: Mentor and grow a team of designers, 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.

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).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Comfortable in Figma, Terminal, CLI, IDE, and/or Editor-first experiences
• Experience creating interactive prototypes
• 5+ years people management experience.
• Basic knowledge of either VS Code, GitHub, or other development tools
• Comfortable with advancements in Large Language Models and how they accelerate coding tasks today-especially in multi-agent scenarios.
• Experience working in an engineering sprint-based environment
• Fluency in basic web fundamentals (semantic and accessible HTML, CSS variables, progressive enhancement, modern vanilla JavaScript, and web components)

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.

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 requestvia theAccommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

Product Design M5 - 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

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.