Principal UX Researcher
Microsoft
If you’re passionate about how technology can improve people’s lives, like exploring new ideas and product possibilities, and lead with a growth mindset, we want to hear from you!
The Microsoft AI Design & Research team is a creative community of designers, researchers, prototypers, and writers on a mission to create and deliver holistic, AI-powered customer experiences across apps and the web. Between Copilot, Edge, Bing, MSN, and apps, we’re creating end-to-end experiences for assistance, shopping, search, ads, news, sports, and gaming. Our diverse team works collaboratively and moves fast to build useful, usable, and delightful experiences for billions of customers worldwide. Learn more about our team here.
We are seeking a Principal UX Researcher to help us set the path for our next generation of AI-powered products. For this role we’re looking for someone who can move between exploratory, generative research to rapid evaluations of prototyped ideas. Someone who works across organizational roles to uncover the unspoken questions and beliefs and answers them with precision, detail, and durability. Someone who always puts people first and centers their needs, problems, goals, and aspirations for the team. Someone who is energized by direct, tangible product impact. A strong mixed methods researcher comfortable in interviews and with deep data analysis. If this sounds like you, please apply!
In this role, you will focus on research for AI-powered Commerce and Shopping experiences across Microsoft surfaces, including agentmediated discovery, evaluation, checkout, payments, cashback, and postpurchase journeys. You will partner closely with Product, Design, and Engineering leaders to shape trustworthy, humancentered agentic commerce scenarios—where Copilot helps people research, decide, transact, and manage economic relationships with confidence.
This role is a hybrid position, 4x a week in office in Redmond, WA or Mountain View, CA.
#MAIPrincipal #MAI #MicrosoftAI #UXResearch
Responsibilities
- Understand the behaviors, motivations, needs, and aspirations of our customers to create a differentiated advantage in our ability to build relevant and impactful experiences for people across the world.
- Lead research across complex commerce ecosystems, including shopping discovery, merchant evaluation, payments, cashback, and post‑purchase experiences where AI agents act on users’ behalf.
- Define and evaluate agentic commerce scenarios, uncovering user mental models, trust boundaries, emotional expectations, and decision‑making behaviors in AI‑mediated purchasing contexts.
- Partner with Product Management and Design leadership to inform foundational decisions for AI‑native commerce systems.
- Translate research insights into durable frameworks that guide product strategy and platform investments across Microsoft AI Commerce initiatives.
- Balance rigor with scrappiness and the ability to push with a fast-moving team.
- Identify new opportunities and generate innovative ideas to improve our processes, culture, and influence our approach to research (e.g. mindsets, methodologies).
- Lead research on 0→1 business initiatives with notable risk, complexity, and ambiguity.
- Regularly influence at the highest levels of organizations.
- Embody our culture and values
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Doctorate in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 3+ years User Experience Research experience OR Master's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 4+ years User Experience Research experience
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 6+ years User Experience Research experience
- OR equivalent experience.
Preferred Qualification
- Experience conducting research on commerce, shopping, financial transactions, payments, subscriptions, cashback, or loyalty‑related user experiences, particularly in trust‑sensitive, high‑impact flows.
- Demonstrated ability to influence product direction in complex, multi‑stakeholder systems involving consumers, merchants, platforms, and AI agents.
- 8+ years experience working in UX research or a related field.
- High level research skills across methods, qualitative and quantitative (i.e. a Mixed Methods researcher).
- Excellent communication and presentation / storytelling skills, with the ability to energize and activate teams.
- Experience with commonly used research tools.
UX Research IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
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.