Senior Principal UX Designer | Shared Technology (FTC to Mar 2027)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Principal UX Designer | Shared Technology (FTC to Mar 2027)

Company: King

Location: Stockholm, Sweden; Malmö, Sweden

Job Type: Temporary, Other

Category: User Experience (UX) Design / Product Design

Date Posted: 2026-08-25

Experience Level: Senior/Principal (10+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the transformation of the developer experience within King's Shared Technology group, focusing on modernizing Continuous Integration (CI) orchestration.

• Drive complex user research initiatives to understand game team needs, pain points, and unmet requirements within the CI ecosystem.

• Design and implement intuitive, efficient CI workflows and coherent end-to-end journeys across the developer ecosystem.

• Provide senior design leadership and expertise to influence technical direction and align cross-functional teams on priorities.

• Establish sustainable practices for continuous user feedback and improvement within the evolving CI environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the role is titled "Senior Principal UX Designer," the responsibilities strongly lean towards product design and service design within a technical infrastructure context, specifically focusing on the developer experience (DevEx). The emphasis on "Shared Technology" and "Build & Infrastructure" indicates a B2B-like internal facing product. The fixed-term contract (FTC) ending March 2027 is a critical detail for candidates.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and execute comprehensive user research plans for King's existing CI workflows, employing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

• Conduct in-depth analysis of user pain points, workarounds, and unmet needs, translating these findings into prioritized outcomes, jobs-to-be-done, or user stories.

• Map current and future state developer journeys across the CI ecosystem and broader developer platforms.

• Collaborate closely with engineers, product partners, and game teams to design, prototype, and iteratively evaluate intuitive and efficient CI workflows.

• Facilitate workshops and design sprints to foster shared understanding, explore innovative solutions, and align diverse teams around strategic priorities.

• Articulate complex systems, technical constraints, and design decisions clearly to various stakeholders, influencing initiative direction through data, systems thinking, and constructive challenge.

• Develop and implement sustainable practices for ongoing user research and feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement of the CI experience.

• Contribute to the strategic reset of King's CI orchestration, addressing accumulated complexity and modernizing foundational elements.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic research, user advocacy, and hands-on design for complex internal tools. The "Jobs-to-be-Done" framework is explicitly mentioned, indicating a need for a user-centric approach focused on user outcomes rather than just feature sets.

✅ Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, Computer Science, Psychology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Experience:

• A minimum of 10+ years of progressive experience in UX Design, Product Design, or Service Design roles, with a proven track record of leading complex, high-impact projects.

• Demonstrable experience in leading substantial user research studies from planning to execution and translating findings into actionable product strategies and design decisions. Required Skills:

• Extensive expertise in user research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative), including planning, conducting, analyzing, and synthesizing findings.

• Strong interaction and workflow design skills, with a proven ability to create intuitive and efficient experiences for complex tools, systems, or end-to-end user journeys.

• Proficiency in applying outcome-led frameworks such as Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) or comparable methodologies.

• Demonstrated experience in working closely with engineering teams and engaging effectively with technical subject matter experts.

• Exceptional facilitation, communication, and stakeholder management skills, with a strong ability to build consensus and drive alignment across diverse groups with competing needs.

• Proven ability to work independently, bring structure to ambiguous problem spaces, and effectively balance user needs with technical and delivery constraints.

• Systems thinking and service design principles applied to complex, interconnected systems. Preferred Skills:

• Prior experience designing developer tools, internal platforms, or products specifically for technical users.

• Familiarity with Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipelines, build systems, or software development workflows.

• Experience with CI/CD platforms such as Jenkins, Buildkite, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or comparable systems.

• Experience in simplifying legacy systems or supporting large-scale platform transformations.

• Experience working within a large-scale engineering or game development organization.

• Deep understanding of how to foster a user-centric culture within engineering and infrastructure teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Must have" section emphasizes senior-level leadership and strategic influence, not just execution. The "Particularly valuable" section points towards a strong preference for candidates with direct experience in developer tools or infrastructure, though direct platform experience (Jenkins/Buildkite) is not a strict requirement but rather a strong advantage that can be gained through curiosity and confidence.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing a range of complex UX design and research projects, with a strong emphasis on developer tools, internal platforms, or intricate workflow optimization.

• Detailed case studies that clearly articulate the problem, your role, the design process, research methodologies employed, and the measurable impact of your solutions.

• Examples demonstrating the application of Jobs-to-be-Done or similar outcome-focused frameworks.

• Visualizations of complex systems, workflow maps, user journey maps (current and future state), and interaction designs.

• Evidence of successful stakeholder management, workshop facilitation, and cross-functional collaboration in bringing designs to fruition. Process Documentation:

• Showcase examples of how you have documented and communicated complex workflows and system designs to technical and non-technical audiences.

• Demonstrate your approach to establishing sustainable user feedback loops and continuous improvement processes for evolving systems.

• Provide evidence of how you've translated research insights into actionable design specifications and implementation plans for engineering teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a Senior Principal role, the portfolio is paramount. It needs to demonstrate not just design output but strategic thinking, research rigor, and the ability to influence complex technical environments. The emphasis should be on "how" the candidate achieved results, particularly in ambiguous or technically challenging situations.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Based on regional research for Senior/Principal UX Designers in Stockholm and Malmö, Sweden, with 10+ years of experience, the estimated annual gross salary range is approximately SEK 700,000 to SEK 1,000,000. This range can vary based on the specific qualifications, negotiation, and the exact nature of the contract. Benefits:

• Competitive compensation package commensurate with a senior-level role.

• Fixed-term contract with a clear end date (March 2027).

• Opportunity to work on high-impact projects that shape the developer experience at a leading mobile gaming company.

• Access to King's internal resources, tools, and a collaborative work environment.

• Potential for professional development and learning opportunities within the Shared Technology domain.

• Standard Swedish employment benefits (e.g., pension contributions, potential for paid time off accrual, etc. - specific details to be confirmed with HR). Working Hours:

• Standard full-time working hours, estimated at 40 hours per week. The role is on-site, requiring presence in the Stockholm or Malmö offices. Flexibility may be offered based on team agreements and project needs, but the primary expectation is on-site collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary estimation is based on average market data for senior UX roles in Sweden, considering the high demand for specialized design skills in tech companies. The fixed-term nature of the contract is a key compensation factor.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Mobile Gaming & Interactive Entertainment. King is a global leader with a significant history and a portfolio of iconic games, including the Candy Crush franchise. The company is now part of Microsoft.

Company Size: Large (King is part of Microsoft, and has a substantial global workforce with offices in multiple countries). This implies established processes, a broad range of technologies, and a structured corporate environment.

Founded: King was founded in 2003. Its long history suggests a mature organization with evolving technological stacks and established operational practices.

Team Structure:

• The role sits within the "Shared Tech" part of King, specifically with "Build & Infrastructure" teams. This team is responsible for the foundational technology powering King's live games, including data infrastructure, machine learning, payments, and the game engine.

• This specific role will focus on the CI orchestration, a critical component of the software development lifecycle.

• Collaboration will be extensive with engineers, product partners, and various game teams across King. Methodology:

• Focus on user-centric design principles, driven by research and data.

• Emphasis on transforming complex technical systems and workflows into more efficient and intuitive experiences.

• Adoption of outcome-led frameworks like Jobs-to-be-Done to guide product direction.

• Agile development methodologies are likely prevalent, fostering iterative design and development.

• Cross-functional collaboration is key, with a need to bridge the gap between infrastructure/build teams and game development teams.

Company Website: https://king.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: King's acquisition by Microsoft is a significant factor, potentially introducing new processes, standards, and opportunities. The "Shared Tech" group operates as an internal service provider, meaning the "customers" are King's game development teams, requiring a strong understanding of their needs and workflows.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Senior Principal UX Designer. This level signifies a high degree of expertise, strategic influence, and the ability to lead complex, ambiguous initiatives with minimal supervision. It's a leadership role that often involves mentoring junior team members and shaping design practices.

Reporting Structure: The role will likely report to a Design Lead, Head of UX, or a Product Management lead within the Shared Technology organization. The direct reports are unlikely, but the role demands influencing and guiding cross-functional teams.

Operations Impact: The impact of this role is significant. By improving the CI ecosystem, it directly impacts the efficiency, speed, and quality with which game teams can build and deliver games. This translates to faster iteration cycles, reduced development friction, improved developer morale, and ultimately, more successful game launches and updates.

Growth Opportunities:

• Skill Specialization: Deepen expertise in developer experience (DevEx), CI/CD systems, and complex platform design.

• Leadership Development: Hone leadership skills in influencing technical stakeholders, facilitating cross-functional initiatives, and potentially mentoring other designers.

• Strategic Contribution: Play a key role in the strategic direction of King's developer infrastructure and tooling.

• Networking: Build strong relationships with engineering and product leaders across King, and potentially within Microsoft.

• Contract Extension/Transition: While this is a fixed-term contract, successful performance could open doors for future opportunities within King or Microsoft, either in similar design leadership roles or in product management within technical domains.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Principal" title indicates a role that is expected to drive strategic initiatives and provide expert guidance, rather than just execute tasks. The growth opportunities are framed around deepening specialized skills and expanding leadership influence within a large organization.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: On-site work is required in King's offices in Stockholm or Malmö, Sweden. This suggests a collaborative office environment with dedicated workspaces.

Office Location(s):

• Stockholm, Sweden

• Malmö, Sweden

King has multiple offices, indicating potential for cross-office collaboration and a vibrant company culture.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative office spaces designed to foster teamwork and idea sharing.

• Access to modern design tools, prototyping software, and relevant technical infrastructure.

• Opportunities for regular interaction with engineers, product managers, and other game development teams.

• A dynamic environment within the fast-paced mobile gaming industry. Work Schedule:

• The role is full-time, with an estimated 40 hours per week. While on-site presence is expected, King likely offers some degree of flexibility in daily hours, subject to team agreements and project demands, common in Swedish work culture.

📝 Enhancement Note: The on-site requirement is crucial for a role focused on intensive collaboration, workshop facilitation, and deep engagement with engineering teams who are also likely on-site. The Swedish work culture often balances productivity with work-life balance, which may translate to some flexibility in working hours.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A brief call with a recruiter to assess basic qualifications, interest, and contract details (FTC to Mar 2027).

• Hiring Manager Interview: A discussion with the hiring manager (likely a Design Lead or Product Lead) to delve into experience, strategic thinking, and alignment with the role's objectives. Expect questions about your approach to complex problems and leadership style.

• Portfolio Presentation & Design Challenge: A significant part of the process will involve presenting your portfolio, focusing on 1-2 relevant case studies that demonstrate your research, design, and influence capabilities, particularly in technical or complex workflow environments. You may also be given a small design challenge or asked to walk through your thought process for a hypothetical problem related to developer experience.

• Team/Stakeholder Interviews: Meetings with key engineers, product partners, and potentially representatives from game teams to assess collaboration style, technical understanding, and ability to communicate effectively with diverse audiences.

• Final Interview: A concluding discussion, possibly with a senior leader, to confirm fit and discuss final details.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Clearly articulate the business and user impact of your projects. Quantify results whenever possible (e.g., "reduced task completion time by X%", "increased adoption by Y%", "decreased support tickets by Z%").

• Showcase Process: For each case study, detail your research methodology, how you translated insights into design, your iteration process, and how you handled constraints or disagreements.

• Highlight Influence: Demonstrate how you used your expertise, research, and communication skills to influence stakeholders and drive design decisions, especially in technical contexts.

• Address Ambiguity: Choose projects that showcase your ability to bring structure to unclear problems and work effectively with technical complexity.

• Tailor Your Presentation: Be prepared to tailor your portfolio presentation to highlight aspects most relevant to improving developer experience and CI workflows.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand DevEx: Familiarize yourself with common challenges in developer experience, CI/CD pipelines, and internal tooling. Think about pain points for engineers.

• Jobs-to-be-Done: Be ready to discuss how you'd apply JTBD to understand what developers are trying to achieve.

• Systems Thinking: Prepare to discuss how you approach understanding and designing for complex, interconnected systems.

• Communication: Practice articulating technical concepts and design rationale clearly and concisely.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a "Senior Principal" role means the interview process will heavily scrutinize strategic thinking, leadership potential, and the ability to drive complex initiatives. The portfolio presentation is critical and should be treated as a core part of the interview.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools (Expected):

• Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), InVision, Axure RP, or similar industry-standard tools.

• User Research Platforms: Tools for surveys (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Typeform), user testing (e.g., UserTesting.com, Lookback), and qualitative data analysis.

• Collaboration & Workflow: Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana, or similar project management and documentation tools.

• Diagramming & Mapping: Miro, Lucidchart, Whimsical, or similar for creating workflow diagrams, journey maps, and system diagrams.

Analytics & Reporting (Indirect Usage):

• While not directly responsible for building dashboards, the designer will need to understand how to leverage data from systems like:
  • CI/CD Metrics: Performance data from CI/CD platforms (e.g., build times, deployment success rates, pipeline failures).
  • Analytics Tools: Potentially internal analytics platforms or general BI tools for understanding user behavior if applicable.

CRM & Automation (Less Direct):

• Experience with CRM systems might be relevant if the developer ecosystem includes sales or customer success touchpoints, but less likely to be a primary focus for this specific role.

• Automation tools related to workflows or task management might be encountered.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role requires proficiency in standard UX/Product Design tools. While direct experience with CI/CD platforms like Jenkins or Buildkite is preferred, the candidate must be comfortable engaging with technical teams and understanding the data and workflows generated by such systems. Familiarity with tools for diagramming complex systems is essential.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and advocating for the user (in this case, game developers) by grounding decisions in research and empathy.

• Excellence & Craftsmanship: Striving for high-quality design and rigorous research, with a focus on delivering polished and effective solutions.

• Collaboration & Teamwork: Fostering an environment of open communication, shared learning, and mutual support across design, engineering, and product teams.

• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Encouraging new ideas, challenging the status quo, and actively seeking ways to optimize processes and experiences.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilizing data and evidence to inform design choices, measure impact, and demonstrate value.

• Ownership & Accountability: Taking responsibility for projects from conception through to implementation and ongoing iteration, driving them to successful outcomes.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Proactively working with engineers, product managers, QA, and game teams to ensure designs are technically feasible, meet user needs, and align with business objectives.

• Workshop Facilitation: Leading collaborative sessions to brainstorm, problem-solve, and align teams on complex issues.

• Constructive Challenge: Providing thoughtful, evidence-based feedback and challenging assumptions to drive better outcomes.

• Knowledge Sharing: Actively sharing insights, learnings, and best practices within the design team and with partner teams.

• Iterative Feedback Loops: Establishing clear channels for receiving and providing feedback throughout the design and development process.

📝 Enhancement Note: King, as a large gaming company, likely values creativity, collaboration, and a results-oriented approach. For this role, adding "Developer Empathy" and "Technical Acumen" to the core values would be highly relevant.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Complexity of Legacy Systems: Navigating and improving existing CI infrastructure that has evolved over many years, often with accumulated technical debt and undocumented processes.

• Ambiguity: The project involves "resetting" the CI orchestration, indicating a significant level of ambiguity and the need for strategic problem-solving.

• Diverse Stakeholders: Balancing the needs and priorities of various game teams, infrastructure engineers, and product management, each with potentially differing perspectives and requirements.

• Technical Domain Expertise: Developing a sufficient understanding of CI/CD, build systems, and infrastructure to design effectively and gain credibility with experienced engineers.

• Fixed-Term Contract: Working within a defined timeframe (until March 2027) requires efficient execution and prioritization to deliver maximum impact.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Dive into DevEx: Gain specialized knowledge and experience in designing for developer tooling and internal platforms, a highly sought-after skill.

• Mastering CI/CD: Develop a comprehensive understanding of the CI/CD lifecycle and its impact on software development velocity and quality.

• Large-Scale Transformation: Contribute to and learn from a significant platform transformation initiative within a major tech company.

• Advanced Research & Design: Refine advanced UX research techniques and complex system design skills.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Enhance skills in influencing and leading without direct authority across diverse technical and creative teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are framed around the inherent difficulties of working with complex technical infrastructure and a fixed-term role, while the growth opportunities focus on acquiring specialized, high-demand skills and leadership experience.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you had to simplify a complex technical system or workflow. What was your approach, and what was the outcome?"

• "How would you approach understanding the core 'jobs to be done' for King's game developers regarding their CI experience?"

• "Imagine you're presented with conflicting requirements from different game teams regarding CI. How would you facilitate a discussion to reach a consensus and prioritize?"

• "How do you ensure your designs are technically feasible and align with engineering constraints, especially when working with complex infrastructure?"

• "Given you have until March 2027, how would you prioritize your efforts to deliver the most impact on the CI experience?" Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about King, and specifically about improving the developer experience within the Shared Technology group?"

• "How do you approach building trust and rapport with engineering teams, particularly those with deep technical expertise?"

• "Describe your experience working in large, established organizations. How do you navigate their structures and processes?"

• "What does 'Making the World Playful' mean to you in the context of your work?" Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Select 2-3 High-Impact Case Studies: Choose projects that best demonstrate your research, workflow design, systems thinking, and influence skills, ideally related to complex tools or technical users.

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, follow a clear story arc: Problem -> Your Role -> Research & Discovery -> Design Process & Iteration -> Solutions & Outcomes -> Learnings.

• Emphasize Your Contribution: Clearly articulate what you did, the decisions you made, and the impact you had.

• Visual Aids: Use clear, concise visuals (wireframes, mockups, flow diagrams, research findings summaries) to support your narrative.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Expect questions about specific design choices, research methodologies, and how you handled challenges.

📝 Enhancement Note: The questions are designed to probe the candidate's strategic thinking, problem-solving abilities, research rigor, and ability to influence technical stakeholders within a large organization, all within the context of developer experience and CI.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on the King Careers website.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight experience in UX/Product Design, user research, workflow optimization, developer experience, and any relevant technical infrastructure or CI/CD knowledge. Use keywords from the job description.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that demonstrate your ability to tackle complex problems, conduct thorough research, design intuitive workflows, and influence technical stakeholders. Ensure your portfolio clearly articulates your process and impact.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Practice articulating your portfolio case studies, focusing on your role, methodology, challenges, and outcomes. Be ready to discuss your approach to developer experience and CI.

• Research King: Understand King's mission, its games, its position in the market, and its acquisition by Microsoft. Consider how improving developer experience aligns with King's overall goals.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.