Job Description

About The Company And The Team 

In Mixed Reality, people —not devices—are at the center of everything we do. Our tech moves beyond screens and pixels, creating a new reality aimed at bringing us closer together—whether that’s scientists “meeting” on the surface of a virtual Mars or some yet undreamt-of possibility. To get there, we’re incorporating groundbreaking technologies, from the revolutionary Holographic Processing Unit to computer vision, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and more. 

  

We’re growing a team of talented engineers, program managers and designers putting technology on a human path across all Mixed Reality devices. Our team has people from a wide variety of backgrounds, identities, previous work histories, life experiences, and we are eager to maintain and grow that diversity. Our varied backgrounds and unique experiences enable us to be better at building the best solutions for our customers and make for dynamic and joyful collaborations with colleagues! 

  

If you are passionate about groundbreaking Mixed Reality technology and want to work on a team dedicated to a culture of inclusion, growth mindset and collaboration, we need you! 

About The Role 

Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Design & UX Research team is looking for an Employee Experience Designer who is passionate about working at the forefront of innovative employee experience, empowerment, and retention. Our work is motivated by our company mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. As part of our team, you will help to define and inform compelling new ways for how we can empower and delight people operations in Mixed Reality. With a focus on crafting new employee onboarding, to scaffolding creative retention efforts, this position will require human centered design thinking and the ability to tailor programs to the unique ecosystem of people on this team. This individual will need to be insights-driven, iterative, and requires competencies in communication and chartering employee experience roadmaps.

As an Employee Experience Designer, you will apply design thinking and contextual inquiry to architect tools for employees. You will be responsible for helping to drive clarity and satisfaction in the employee journey and culture in our Mixed Reality team. With your innovative work you will help to lay the foundation for a thriving ecosystem, build an experience blueprint, and tools to guide the employee journey from onboarding and beyond. You will closely work with Designers, Researchers, Engineers, and Product Managers across the organization to define the strategy for your programs from the early stages of planning, piloting, and implementation. This requires creative collaboration, strong communication skills, strategic planning, implementation skills, and the ability to negotiate solutions in relation to our business goals. In close collaboration with our HR team, our D&I community, and our Design UX Research team, we will persist in asking questions to better understand how we can serve our employees.

This team supports our employees in all locations around the country. This job has the option to be remote or located in one of our hubs.

Responsibilities

• Drive employee onboarding and programs for touchpoints along the first-year experience
• Closely collaborate with Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion efforts on shared strategies for people operations
• Develop a comprehensive career development initiative for teams and roles
• Identify opportunities for increased support and scaffolding of employee resource groups and networks in business
• Deliver impactful programs that result in increased recruitment and retention of diverse employees.
• Create and implement programs that foster a sense of belonging and inclusion
• Communicate strategies, insights and opportunities in clear, concise, and compelling ways that resonate across teams
• Collaborate with other teams to leverage and synthesize previous work to provide new insights
• Apply established onboarding guidelines and create new innovative programs
• Identify priorities based on data inquiry processes and build a strategic roadmap to help inform next steps for human experience design on the team
• Be a positive and creative force in the team
  

Qualifications

Required: 

• Master’s degree (or equivalent practical experience) in Human Centered Design, Social Sciences, or a related field
• 5+ years or relevant experience in an enterprise, design consultancy, agency, or other environment where you’ve worked on multidisciplinary design teams with similar accountabilities to DesignOps
• Demonstrated experience in developing community-based programs and scaffolding programs that result in retention and employee success
• Excellent skills in program management and strategic planning 
• Proficiency and demonstrated professional experience with written and verbal communication and facilitation
• Familiarity with managing complex project schedules and nurturing cross-group collaboration
• Proven track record for articulating the implications of data in clear, concise and compelling ways, translating them into actionable recommendations and insights
• Excellent team player supporting others as well as showcasing excellent problem solving and project management skills to organize and drive work by yourself within tight timelines
  

Preferred: 

• Experienced in matrixed systems improving outcomes for historically marginalized communities
• Strong analysis of diversity, equity, inclusion, and allyship
• Great sense of human-centered design and ability to synthesize complex problems and innovate solutions
• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams of Designers, Researchers, Engineers, and Project Managers throughout the development and design process
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects at the same time
• Experience aligning or influencing design thinking with teams working in other geographies
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and manage multiple projects that require fast iteration and pivoting
• Track record of cutting through ambiguity to generate results. 
  

#mixedreality

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.