Internship Freelance Surface Pattern Design Jobs in Seattle, WA

Overview
Microsoft Commerce is building the shopping layer that spans Copilot, Bing, Edge, and partner surfaces - from the moment a shopper forms an intent, through discovery and comparison, to checkout and the experience that follows it. As shopping moves from browsing pages to conversational and agentic interaction, the patterns that govern it are largely unsettled.
We are seeking a design leader to own that experience and to lead the team that delivers it. The role is accountable for design quality, cross-surface coherence, and the development of the Commerce Design, Research & Content team. It reports to the VP of Product for Commerce and operates as a peer to the product pillar leads.
The central problem is trust. A shopper expresses intent in conversation, evaluates options they did not browse for, and acts on a recommendation they did not search for. Defining how those interactions work - and what earns confidence when a system acts on someone's behalf - is the substance of the job.
The successful candidate will have led design organizations in areas without established precedent, and will be equally effective directing design craft, developing managers, and representing design among senior product and engineering leadership.
The Product Design Director will own design for Commerce end to end. Commerce UX on Copilot covers the conversational shopping experience - how a shopper expresses and refines intent, how products are represented in dialogue, and how a purchase completes without leaving the conversation. Commerce UX on Bing covers shopping within search: vertical results, generative shopping experiences, product detail, and the discovery patterns that convert high-intent search traffic. Commerce UX on Edge and Checkout covers the browser shopping surface and the checkout flow itself, including native checkout, wallet, and the payment moments that determine whether a shopper completes or abandons. Special projects covers pitch work, partner-facing concepts, and the exploratory design that shapes where Commerce goes next. The team spans three disciplines. Product design owns the interaction and visual design of these surfaces. Content design owns the language of the shopping experience - the terminology, guidance, and conversational copy through which an agentic surface communicates with a shopper. User research is embedded within the organization and provides the evidence base for design decisions across all of these areas.
Success Measures

• A coherent Commerce shopping experience across Copilot, Bing, and Edge that presents as a single product rather than three separate ones.
• Established, documented interaction patterns for agentic commerce that other teams adopt.
• Measurable improvement in shopping engagement and conversion attributable to experience quality.
• Design patterns and standards that are adopted by partner teams building on Commerce surfaces.
• A design team that grows in capability and retains its talent, with managers capable of leading independently.
• Design credibility with product and engineering peers, evidenced by design influencing the roadmap rather than responding to it.

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Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.
Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end design vision for Commerce across Copilot, Bing, Edge, and partner surfaces, delivering a single coherent shopping experience rather than three surface-specific ones.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of four direct reports and their designers, spanning product design, content design, and user research.
• Design the shopping experience for an agentic era: goal expression, guided discovery, recommendation, comparison, approvals, transparency, confidence, recovery, and purchase - establishing the interaction patterns where no settled conventions exist.
• Partner as a peer with the product pillar leads for Consumer, Core Experiences, Business Enablement, and Platform, and represent design in roadmap and prioritization decisions.
• Create experience coherence across Commerce surfaces, connecting discovery, comparison, checkout, and post-purchase into a single shopper journey rather than a set of independent surfaces.
• Establish and maintain design quality standards, including design systems, content standards, critique, review cadence, and the operational practices that keep quality consistent across surfaces.
• Champion responsible AI patterns that make automation legible, controllable, inspectable, reversible, and respectful of shopper intent.
• Ground design decisions in research, experimentation, customer signal, and business context, and connect experience quality to measurable shopping outcomes.
• Represent Commerce design to senior leadership, and to external partners in pitch and partnership conversations.

Qualifications
Required 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).
• A portfolio that demonstrates solid product thinking, interaction design, visual design, customer empathy, systems thinking, and impact through shipped products.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary design teams spanning product design, content design, and user research.
• Experience setting experience vision, leading design strategy, and influencing product direction across multiple teams or product areas.
• Experience with AI-powered, agentic, recommendation, or decision-support experiences, including conversational interfaces and assistant surfaces.
• Fluency in patterns for delegation, supervision, transparency, approvals, error recovery, and human-in-the-loop control.
• Experience designing commerce, retail, marketplace, payments, or marketplace-adjacent products.
• Demonstrated ability to use research, experimentation, analytics, and business context to guide design decisions.
• Experience operating in large, matrixed organizations with multiple dependent surfaces.
• Experience with Figma and modern design collaboration and design-system practice.

#MicrosoftAI
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:
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.