Principal Design Engineer, Interactive Graphics, Copilot

The opportunity

We’re looking for a hands-on design engineer who thinks like an artist and builds for the browser. On the Copilot Design team at Microsoft, you’ll originate a distinctive visual point of view and turn it into expressive, useful interactive experiences. Composition, typography, light, material, timing and physical behavior are part of your design vocabulary; JavaScript, shaders and real-time rendering are part of your medium.

This is a specialist role for someone who can invent the experience and code it, not only implement a finished design. You’ll work across artistic exploration and production engineering, balancing surprise and delight with clarity, accessibility and responsiveness. The work asks for both ambition and restraint: know when motion makes an interaction more understandable, and when a quieter experience serves people better.

Responsibilities

• Conceive, sketch in code and refine distinctive interactive experiences. Make artistic decisions about composition, typography, light, material, rhythm and physical behavior, then test how those choices work in a real interface.
• Create code-driven motion, custom shaders and procedural or generative visuals that respond to user input and product state. Design coherent transitions and behaviors, not just isolated effects.
• Explore useful assistant interactions such as activity and progress, transitions, interruption and feedback. These are illustrative opportunities to investigate, not a commitment to a particular product roadmap.
• Develop production-ready components and partner with product engineering on integration, testing and maintenance. Carry the visual intent through implementation, including state changes, edge cases and graceful degradation.
• Turn successful explorations into reusable motion and graphics primitives, components and tools. Document the artistic and technical choices so other designers and engineers can extend the work without losing its character.
• Profile CPU and GPU work, frame time, memory, loading and input responsiveness. Build accessible, reduced-motion and non-GPU alternatives, and validate behavior across browsers, devices and different levels of graphics capability.
• Set a high creative and technical craft bar while staying hands-on. Mentor through critique and code review, explain trade-offs clearly and help partners choose purposeful expression over unnecessary spectacle.

Qualifications

• We value demonstrated craft and ownership, whether developed through professional roles, independent practice, open-source work or self-directed learning.
• Equivalent practical experience and nontraditional paths are welcome.
• The specialist capabilities below matter more than having used every tool in a particular stack.

Required skills

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Graphic Design, Product Design, Visual Design, Human Computer Interaction, or related field AND 4+ years experience working in product or service design and/or shipping production code
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Graphic Design, Product Design, Visual Design, Human Computer Interaction, or related field AND 6+ years experience working in product or service design and/or shipping production code
• OR 8+ years experience working in product or service design and/or shipping production code
• OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• A portfolio showing original artistic direction and the ability to originate, develop and iterate visual ideas in code. You can explain why your choices in composition, typography, light, material and motion serve the experience.
• Strong hands-on coded motion and interaction design, including timing, easing, sequencing, spring or physics-based behavior, and responsive or interruptible transitions. Motion is a core craft, not a finishing layer.
• Hands-on real-time browser graphics using WebGL or WebGPU, including writing and adapting custom shaders. You understand rendering fundamentals well enough to shape the result, debug it and explain the trade-offs; GLSL or WGSL are examples of relevant shader languages.
• Strong JavaScript/TypeScript and contemporary browser engineering skills, including component architecture, asynchronous state, input handling, responsive interfaces and code review. You can integrate a graphics experience into a maintained product, not only a standalone demo.
• Experience profiling and improving browser rendering, loading, memory and input responsiveness. You can preserve visual intent while meeting accessibility needs, honoring reduced motion and providing reliable non-GPU paths across browsers and devices.
• Demonstrated ownership of ambiguous work from creative direction through delivery, with clear communication and effective design–engineering partnership. You welcome critique, make sound trade-offs and help others raise their artistic and technical craft.
• Libraries are flexible. Three.js, React Three Fiber, GSAP and Motion are examples of useful tools, not a checklist. We care about the ideas you originate, your depth in motion and real-time graphics, and the quality of the browser experience you deliver.
• Deeper WebGPU, compute or GPU profiling experience, including rendering pipelines, simulations or techniques for efficient procedural and generative graphics.
• Experience building reusable motion or graphics systems, authoring tools or creative workflows that other people adopt and can maintain.
• Experience designing for AI or assistant experiences, especially making complex or changing states understandable. An AI-specific background is welcome, not required.
• A practice of sharing craft through thoughtful technical writing, creative coding experiments, open-source contributions, teaching or mentorship.

Pay and benefits

UX Engineering 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.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.