Overview
The mission of Global Skilling Product Team - is to develop world-class, innovative Skilling Products & Experiences that inspire customers, partners, Microsoft sellers, and future generations to achieve more by skilling, upskilling, and reskilling, thereby reaching 100M+ learners. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing AI powered innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.
The Global Skilling team is looking for a Principal Content Designer, who will lead the strategy and craft of clear, compelling, and inclusive content experiences across our products. You’ll partner closely with design, product, engineering, and research to shape end-to-end experiences, define content systems, and drive consistency at scale. You’ll influence product direction through content, ensuring every interaction is purposeful, human-centered, and help lead the evolution our voice and principles.** **
Drives terminology decision-making to bring an informed point of view, experience, and data/research. Supports team members in utilizing metrics and establishing processes to plan for identified needs. Leads concepting and iterating for complex products in design meetings. Guides others in defining needs of large product designs based on user insights. Leads the combination of User Experience (UX) thinking with design execution. Champions a shared vision and tools for UX writing across product experiences. Identifies and ideates on solutions for potential security threats in user flows. Owns terminology decision-making with clear communication standards. Mentors, influences, persuades, and sells work effectively in all contexts. Seeks user needs to propose design prototypes and evaluates usefulness.
Responsibilities
Effective Communication
Leads brainstorming sessions and the development and facilitation of workshops to answer critical business questions through design thinking, rapid prototyping, and testing ideas
Mentors, influences, persuades, and sells work effectively in all contexts to amplify individual and team capabilities, expand design thinking, and broaden the impact of work
Presents ideas and concepts at all stages of the design process, adapting presentations for different audiences
Strategic Value
Defines and applies marketing strategy to devise product positioning, messaging direction, and creative execution guidance across the customer journey
Uses and creates design system patterns, brand voice principles, and style guides; creates and extends style and usage guidance across product families
Drives integration of security guidelines and best practices throughout the design system and content guidelines
Leads and owns innovation and investment in the future of Content Design
Strategy
Understands business metrics and translates company goals and objectives into customer experiences
Leads the identification of customer needs and business requirements; establishes processes to plan for identified needs
Understands, envisions, and influences product families and their written content strategies across the company
Knows the product area and demonstrates knowledge of customer personas, their jobs/tasks/needs, and competitive landscape
Leads others in defining needs of large and/or complex product designs based on user insights, business needs, and security improvement initiatives
Guides others to generate and align concepting and iterating for complex products in design meetings
Leads collaboration with Design and Engineering team members, program managers, and developers to define and iterate on product features
Structure
Leads team members to create and optimize sound Information Architecture (IA) for coherent task completion
Provides subject matter expertise on structuring product content, developing taxonomies, crafting navigation, naming components/controls, and defining messaging hierarchy
Leads the combination of UX thinking with design execution to produce usable and intuitive user interfaces
Collaborates with product owners and development teams to shepherd end-to-end experiences from concept to product shipment
Surface
Identifies and addresses potential security threats and vulnerabilities in user flows
Owns terminology decision-making, setting an example for purposeful, concise, and conversational communication
Champions best practices across the company to drive clear, concise, and meaningful language aligned with Microsoft voice and style standards
Champions a shared vision and tools to create, collaborate, and build effective products at scale
Is recognized as a content design and customer communications subject matter expert; understands broader business landscape and leverages knowledge to guide long-term vision
Invents the future of content design by identifying automation opportunities, design approaches, and emerging experiences
Qualifications
Required/minimum 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 (e.g., demonstrated experience working in product or service design or using design thinking to solve problems).
Additional or preferred qualifications
- Proven experience designing or shipping Generative AI / LLM-powered experiences.
- Industry experience with evaluation strategies for AI systems, including qualitative and quantitative approaches.
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
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.**