Principal Design & Research Head

About the role

This role will lead a team of researchers and designers within the Employee Experience space, working closely with Design, Engineering, Product, and Business Leadership to envision and deliver a future Microsoft workplace that enables innovative, creative, and intelligent employee experiences across both digital and physical environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of researchers, designers and content writers who conduct diverse product research and design activities, spanning generative to evaluative research, and end-to-end design processes.
• Foster and facilitate agile research and design practices and methodologies.
• Drive role acceleration with AI for user experience research, design and content across the product development lifecycle.
• Work closely with key stakeholders across Engineering, Product, and Business Partners to establish trust and alignment for maximum research and design influence.
• Partner with other Research and Design Leads to enhance the team's ability to plan, execute, analyze, synthesize insights, and deliver high-quality design solutions.
• Understand the competitive landscape and innovations in both research and design.
• Provide mentorship and career growth to a diverse set of multi-disciplinary user researchers and designers.
• Foster a diverse and inclusive team environment that empowers team members to do their best work.

Qualifications

• 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 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 equivalent experience (e.g., demonstrated experience working in product or service design or using design thinking to solve problems).
• 3+ years people management experience.

Preferred qualifications

• Master'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 Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 12+ 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.
• 6+ years experience shipping products, services, or games and/or delivering to customers as a result of an end-to-end design process.
• Well-established portfolio of research and design techniques, including ethnography, field studies, interviews, usability studies, concept validation, user journey mapping, surveys, scorecards, competitive analysis, wireframing, prototyping, and visual design.
• Deep knowledge of designing experiences across endpoints and informing the development of V1 platforms and products.
• Influential leader who can develop key partnerships with stakeholders and deliver a strategic research and design roadmap across multiple business areas.
• Proven track record of translating insights into product and design strategy, and the ability to define success outcomes for those experiences which are tracked and measured by research and design metrics.