Director of Product Design

Overview

Microsoft is a place where passionate innovators come together to collaborate, envision what's possible, and take their careers further. In a world driven by cloud-enabled innovation, we embrace openness, creativity, and limitless thinking.

Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We bring this to life through a growth mindset, a commitment to innovation, and a culture grounded in respect, integrity, and accountability , where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

The Global Skilling Product Team (GSPT) is on a mission to build world-class skilling products and experiences that inspire customers, partners, Microsoft sellers, and future generations. Our goal is to reach 100M+ learners globally through impactful skilling, upskilling, and reskilling solutions.

We are looking for a Director of Product Design to lead and scale a multidisciplinary team of designers, researchers and customer experience program managers. This leader will shape the end-to-end experience strategy, ensuring our products are human-centered, inclusive, and insight-driven .

This role is well suited to someone who thrives at the intersection of strategy, design, research, and leadership and is passionate about building products that create meaningful global impact.

Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, mentor, and grow a diverse team of UX designers, researchers and customer experience program managers.
• Foster an inclusive, psychologically safe, and collaborative environment where all voices are valued.
• Support career development through coaching, feedback, and sponsorship.

Design Vision & Strategy

• Define and drive the end-to-end product design and research strategy aligned with GSPT goals.
• Partner with cross-functional leaders to shape roadmaps, priorities, and long-term vision.
• Ensure alignment between user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility.

AI driven design development:

• Embrace, evolve and help team grow their AI skills for design and research.
• Familiarity modern design tools to accelerate their time to land designs with their. stakeholders.
• Build AI prototypes built on real code to help teams bring their ideas to life faster.

User-Centered Design Excellence

• Champion inclusive and accessible design practices across all products and experiences.
• Oversee the full design lifecycle: research, ideation, prototyping, testing, and iteration.
• Embed a deep understanding of diverse user needs, behaviors, and contexts.

Research & Insights

• Establish and scale a robust UX research strategy using qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Translate insights into actionable recommendations that influence product decisions.
• Advocate for data-informed decision-making across stakeholders.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with engineering, product, marketing, and business stakeholders.

• Build dependable relationships and drive alignment across distributed, global teams.

• Communicate effectively with executive stakeholders on vision, progress, and impact.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Stay current with industry trends in design, research, and emerging technologies.
• Identify opportunities to innovate and evolve design systems, tools, and processes.
• Drive a culture of experimentation and continuous learning.

Operational effectiveness

• Oversee multiple initiatives, ensuring timely delivery and high-quality outcomes.
• Implement scalable processes for design and research operations.
• Measure success through user impact, product adoption, and business outcomes.

People Management

• Managers enable success through empowerment, accountability, and inclusion-by modeling, coaching, and caring:

• Model: Champion our culture by living our values, demonstrating inclusive behaviors, and applying leadership principles in everyday actions.
• Coach: Set clear, meaningful goals and outcomes; support collaboration across teams and boundaries; and foster continuous learning, adaptability, and growth.
• Care: Build and sustain diverse, high-performing teams by recognizing individual strengths, understanding aspirations, and investing in each person's development and well-being.

Other

• Embody our culture and values.

Qualifications

Minimum 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).
• 5+ 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 12+ 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 15+ 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).
• 12+ years of experience across product management, UX design, and/or user research.
• 8+ years people management experience with a focus on coaching and development.
• 8+ years' experience shipping products, services, or games and/or delivering to customers as a result of an end-to-end design process.
• 5+ years in a leadership role managing multidisciplinary teams.
• Proven track record of delivering user-centered, impactful products at scale.
• Experience working in agile and distributed team environments.
• Background in skilling, education technology, or learning platforms a plus.
• Familiarity with inclusive design, accessibility standards, and global user experiences.
• Proficient in:

• Design strategy and lifecycle management.
• Human-centered design principles.
• Research methodologies (qualitative & quantitative)
• Modern design tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch)

• • Proficient communication, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills.

Product Design M6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 per year.


Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

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.