Senior Design Program Manager

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

4d

About The Position

Microsoft’s Copilots, Agents, and Platform (CAP) Experience Studio is a creative community on a mission to design and deliver holistic, AI‑powered user experiences for enterprise customers. We’re looking for a Senior Design Program Manager who is passionate about empowering designers to achieve more through leading design operations, cross studio communications, AI enablement, and process development. Design PMs are the connective tissue of our Studio—building the systems, practices, and operational rigor that give teams clarity, alignment, and confidence as they deliver impactful design at speed and scale. Design PMs at Microsoft work collaboratively with designers, researchers, content writers, product managers, and developers, leading projects throughout the planning, design, and development lifecycle to implement simple, scalable approaches that amplify our design studios efforts. As a member of our Design Operations team, you will contribute to our charter of better cross-product integration, stronger customer experiences, improved efficiencies at scale, and ultimately a healthy and strong design culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 4+ years experience working in product or service design.
• Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience, Interaction Design, or related field AND 5+ years experience working in product or service design.
• equivalent experience (e.g., demonstrated experience working in product or service design or using design thinking to solve problems).

Nice To Haves

• 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.
• 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.
• equivalent experience (e.g., demonstrated experience working in product or service design or using design thinking to solve problems).
• 4+ years experience spearheading internal design processes from concept to scaled operations.
• 4+ years experience shipping products, services, or games and/or delivering to customers as a result of an end-to-end design process.
• Familiarity with project management best practices, tools, and methodologies AND Agile, Lean, and/or other modern product development methodologies.
• Hands-on experience with design and project management tools such as Figma, Sketch, Jira, or Azure DevOps.

Responsibilities

• Partner closely with product design leaders to drive tight alignment of activities across their teams through cross-functional planning, strong communication, and rigorous program management.
• Drive consistency and harmony in design team operating rhythm, including communication structures, project templates, and resource utilization.
• Contribute to the Design Operations practice, including running horizontal initiatives that help improve the Design org’s operations and cross-functional ways of working.
• Define and track operational KPIs and metrics (cycle time, throughput, predictability, satisfaction/health signals) and drive continuous improvement based on evidence.
• Deliver on design-specific OKRs and reporting that align operational work to business outcomes and create transparency on progress and tradeoffs.
• Compose, implement, and document comprehensive and user-friendly processes.
• Orchestrate and build team rituals that focus on tracking progress, execution, celebration, and communication across the program of work, and celebration of product milestones ensuring teams are on track, work is high quality, and designers feel recognized for their contributions.
• Actively use AI tooling to enhance your own work and champion AI enablement across teams, including identifying opportunities where AI can reduce friction, improve quality, or unlock new ways of working.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior