Principal Design Architect
Explicitly mentions vibe coding and rapid AI prototyping; role expects hands-on prompting and creative experimentation with AI.
About the Role
Microsoft’s M365 Core Design Studio is hiring a Principal Design Architect to shape human-centered AI experiences across productivity products by designing AI behavior, prototyping systems, and influencing long-term product direction. The role is a senior individual contributor position focused on rapid prototyping, prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration, and close collaboration with PM, Engineering, Data Science and Research.
Job Description
Role
The Principal Design Architect (Creative Technologist) will operate as a senior individual contributor focused on designing how AI behaves and integrates into people’s lives. The role emphasizes hands-on prototyping, experimentation, and influencing technical and product decisions for AI-powered productivity experiences.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead rapid, hands-on prototyping and creative experimentation using prompts, models, and real data.
- Explore and adopt emerging AI tools and techniques (prompt engineering, vibe coding, rapid prototyping) to validate concepts and set quality expectations for complex, multi-turn scenarios.
- Partner closely with engineering and data science to shape backend services, LLM model requirements, and system behaviors from a design perspective.
- Identify and steward strategic design choices that influence long-term direction for AI experiences while delivering on near-term execution.
- Raise technical fluency of the design organization through coaching, workshops, and shared frameworks; collaborate across Design, PM, Engineering, Data Science, and Research.
Qualifications
Required
- Master’s degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, HCI, UX, Interaction Design, or related field plus 6+ years of product/service design experience; OR
- Bachelor’s degree in the above fields plus 8+ years of product/service design experience; OR
- Equivalent demonstrated experience using design thinking to solve problems.
Preferred
- Portfolio with AI behavior work, model shaping, or prototypes showing orchestration and agent behavior beyond UI.
- Experience with agents, tool integration/orchestration, evaluation frameworks, and handling ambiguity in AI systems (partial answers, uncertainty, fallbacks).
- Deep experience designing for AI/LLM-powered experiences; familiarity with conversational and voice systems.
- Proficiency in Figma and AI prototyping tools; experience with vibe coding or similar creative prototyping approaches.
- Strong storytelling and communication skills and ability to thrive in fast-paced, evolving environments.
Compensation
- Typical base pay range across the U.S.: USD 139,900 - 274,800 per year.
- Typical base pay range in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area: USD 188,000 - 304,200 per year.
Notes
- The role emphasizes responsible, inclusive design and collaboration across global, multidisciplinary teams.