Senior UX Engineer

Microsoft•Austin, TX

1d•$119,800 - $234,700

About The Position

The Senior UX Engineer works at the intersection of design and engineering, combining engineering skills and design sensibility to explore ideas and turn promising concepts into product experiences. The role involves thinking holistically about user journeys and jobs to be done, building proofs of concept and prototypes, and contributing production code to improve customer experiences. It calls for curiosity, initiative, collaboration, and enthusiasm for experimentation and emerging technologies. The position partners with designers, engineers, product managers, and UX researchers to develop, evaluate, and refine experiences. The engineer uses AI in ideation, prototyping, development, and experimentation, and may build AI-powered tools or workflows for the team. They gather user feedback through lightweight research and focused studies, synthesize findings into design and engineering decisions, and help promising ideas mature into durable product experiences while advocating for quality and craft. The role is listed as UX Engineering IC4. The typical U.S. base pay range is USD $119,800–$234,700 per year, with a range of USD $160,200–$261,000 per year for specified locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled, and the posting will remain open for at least five days.

Requirements

A Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Graphic Design, Product Design, Visual Design, Human Computer Interaction, or a related field and 3+ years of experience working in product or service design and/or shipping production code; or a Bachelor's degree in one of those fields and 4+ years of such experience; or equivalent experience.
Experience in software engineering or front-end development, with the ability to contribute production code.
Demonstrated experience with UX, product design, interaction design, or another design discipline.
Strong product and design judgment, with close attention to interaction details and craft.
Ability to think beyond individual features and understand end-to-end user journeys.
Experience building interactive prototypes or proofs of concept.
High comfort using AI-assisted tools in design and development workflows.
Curiosity about users and an instinct to seek evidence rather than rely solely on assumptions.
Comfort conducting user research and independently leading focused studies to gather actionable feedback quickly.
Ability to synthesize user feedback and translate insights into design and engineering decisions.
Proactive, self-directed working style and ability to make progress independently in ambiguous situations.
Collaborative approach, including sharing ideas and building on teammates’ thinking.
Constructive, positive presence that supports experimentation, learning, and collaboration.
Comfort working in a fast-paced environment with significant experimentation and rapid iteration.

Nice To Haves

Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging and frontier technologies, with a desire to explore what is newly possible.
Experience designing or building products for developers.
Understanding of enterprise developers, developer workflows, and the needs of large organizations.
Experience with AI-powered developer tools or AI-native product experiences.

Responsibilities

Partner with designers, engineers, and product managers to explore and build new product experiences.
Translate user needs, journeys, and jobs to be done into thoughtful, well-crafted interactions.
Design and build functional prototypes and proofs of concept to test ideas quickly.
Contribute production-quality code to improve customer experiences in shipping products.
Use AI in everyday work to accelerate ideation, prototyping, development, and experimentation.
Explore and build AI-powered tools or workflows that help the team work more effectively.
Move between design thinking and technical implementation to connect experience visions with shippable solutions.
Conduct lightweight user research and evaluative studies to gather feedback on concepts, prototypes, and working experiences.
Plan and lead focused user studies when appropriate, using findings to test hypotheses and iterate on solutions.
Partner with UX researchers and independently gather user feedback to answer immediate product and design questions.
Experiment rapidly, learn from results, and help promising ideas mature into durable product experiences.
Advocate for experience quality and craft throughout product development.