Principal Product Designer, Design Systems

About the role

The Microsoft Advertising Advertiser UXD team is hiring a Principal Product Designer to build the foundation the rest of the org designs and ships on. The role spans two tightly connected areas: the MAI Monetization Design System (components, tokens, patterns, and standards) and the AI-Native Tooling suite—Vibe Kit, a GitHub-based repository of skills, context, and standards for building with AI, and Vibe Studio, an AI-powered design and prototyping environment. The team is transforming into a product factory where designers ship production-quality work with AI, grounded in a system that guarantees quality, context, and access. Everything shipped is used by every designer and engineer in the org.

Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50-mile commute of a designated U.S. Microsoft office or a 25-mile commute of a non-U.S. location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week, subject to local law.

Responsibilities

• Design, document, and evolve core components and patterns of the design system.
• Drive adoption and migration work with engineering partners.
• Contribute skills, standards, context files, and Evals to Vibe Kit; expand its adoption beyond design into PM and engineering.
• Shape Vibe Studio workflows: prototype, test, and refine how designers go from intent to working product.
• Partner with AI UX engineering efforts to make the system machine-readable, not just human-readable.
• Set and uphold the quality bar: audit usage, critique output, and close the gap between spec and shipped.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human-Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 6+ years of experience working in product or service design
• OR Bachelor’s Degree in the same fields AND 8+ years of 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:

• Master’s Degree in the same fields AND 8+ years of experience working in product or service design
• OR Bachelor’s Degree in the same fields AND 12+ years of experience working in product or service design
• OR equivalent experience.
• Hands-on design systems experience: components, tokens, and documentation.
• Demonstrated experience partnering closely with engineering teams.
• Solid AI acumen and lived experience in creating AI tooling and tools for designing with AI.
• Experience with Fluent or other large enterprise design systems.
• Experience with React or AI-assisted coding tools.
• Background in advertising, B2B, or data-dense tooling.
• Experience building internal tools or developer/designer experience products.
• Demonstrated interest in AI as a design material, not just a feature.
• Portfolio demonstrating systems-level design work (components, patterns, or tooling).
• Solid written communication: standards and documentation are first-class deliverables on this team.
• Ability to prototype in code or with AI-assisted tools.

Pay

The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 – $274,800 per year. A different range applies to specific work locations, including the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, where the base pay range is USD $188,000 – $304,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.