Overview

The Frontier Design team is a multidisciplinary, agile team that helps turn visions into products people love. We are driven by curiosity and the ambition to build software and experiences that are engaging, useful, accessible, and inclusive. As part of the Frontier Design team, you’ll help imagine what is possible and build future-forward, cutting-edge AI product experiences, grounded in design and research excellence.

We are hiring a Principal Product Design Researcher to lead generative and evaluative research across the Frontier Design team’s product portfolio. This person will be a senior, high-craft, design-integrated researcher who synthesizes qualitative and quantitative evidence into clear design direction, leads teams through complex problem spaces, and helps them deliver products that feel more coherent, usable, and useful. In this role, you will define and lead research across product areas and mentor design researchers across the organization. We’re hiring a player-coach, a hands-on researcher who still leads studies, runs sessions, and produces artifacts themselves, but also shapes team culture and research practice for the broader organization. This is a rare, high-leverage role for someone who wants to combine rigor with taste, influence with craft, and impact with humility.

Responsibilities

  • Plan and execute research that is directly actionable for designers and PMs: discovery studies, opportunity assessments, task flows, concept validation, usability testing, field research, and diary studies
  • Lead research synthesis and sense-making, defining the framing and implications for our design approach, translating insights into clear product recommendations
  • Develop and maintain research deliverables (personas, archetypes, journey maps, design principles, behavioral models, and evidence-backed synthesis decks)
  • Lead research-informed design decisions in close partnership with product managers and design leaders on the team
  • Partner with data science on data-informed insights: partner with data teams to define metrics and integrate qualitative and quantitative evidence into a complete picture of customer experience
  • Manage research operations, recruiting, participant management, tooling, and budget, and ensure the team has the research infrastructure to support high-quality work
  • Champion research culture and mentoring: mentor other researchers on methods and career development, and advocate for high-quality research practices across the organization
  • Own the research roadmap, prioritizing where to spend research energy given strategy, product constraints, and uncertainty
  • Drive methodological rigor: use a wide range of generative and evaluative research methods, including surveys, contextual inquiry, and unmoderated testing
  • Communicate across the organization to make the work visible and actionable: present research findings clearly and persuasively to executives, product leaders, and stakeholders, including in the context of Frontier (AI) products and strategies

Throughout Engagements

  • Own the research through line: lead the research narrative and artifacts that help teams understand their users
  • Establish a research-led culture: ensure research is not a nice-to-have, but an essential component of product development
  • Deliver research-led recommendations that are both inspiring and practical, and help teams move forward with confidence

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Master’s Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Design, or related field AND 6+ years of experience in design research OR Bachelor’s Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Design, or related field AND 8+ years experience in design research OR equivalent experience
  • 5+ years of experience leading mixed-method research programs: moderated and unmoderated usability testing, contextual inquiry, diary studies, field studies, interviews, surveys, and product analytics integration
  • Experience with qualitative analysis (coding, affinity diagramming, thematic synthesis), and a strong grasp of quantitative techniques such as statistical analysis, survey design, and triangulation
  • Experience conducting research on AI products or AI-inflected products
  • Experience with research tools: UserTesting, Qualtrics, Dovetail, Maze, dScout, or equivalent
  • Experience developing research practices and mentoring peers on design research craft and methodology
  • Experience influencing product strategy through research-informed recommendations
  • Experience partnering closely with designers, product managers, and engineers to ship products

Preferred Qualifications

  • Doctorate in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Design, or related field AND 4+ years of experience in design research OR Master’s Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Design, or related field AND 8+ years experience in design research OR Bachelor’s Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Design, or related field AND 10+ years experience in design research OR equivalent experience
  • Experience with enterprise software (productivity tools, business applications, collaboration platforms), and with complex multi-user workflows
  • Experience with quantitative data analysis and visualization (Excel, R, Python, Tableau, Power BI)
  • Experience with Figma and design tools
  • Experience working with cross-functional teams to deliver products that are both user-friendly and business-relevant
  • Experience with research operations and infrastructure, including participant recruiting, panel management, and research repository management
  • Experience with design research in the context of AI products and services
  • Experience with Microsoft tools and technologies

Product Design IC5 – The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 – $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.

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until December 12, 2026.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.