I am new to this industry and have been asked to help find an XNA programmer.

What skill set should I be looking for?

Well, the same skill set you look for for any game programmer, but with XNA knowledge as well. Depending on just what exactly you're looking for of course you're going to want to know what games they've worked on before and take a look at their resume and portfolio. The XNA framework is very new so you're not going to find many published games with it (in fact, there's currently only one I know of with a few more in the wings), but if you need an experienced game programmer, they should have experience with other framework and languages with games they have developed and released.

Along with that you're going to want to check the requirements for the job. Do they need networking knowledge? Do they need to know how to build and scale a game to support large amounts of players? Do they need to create something original? Would experience with a Physics API you have in house help?

Honestly, there's not much you need to know about using the XNA framework (other then some exposure to it and familiarity with C# development). The real key is just game development experience in general. Of course, if you're looking for a total newbie, just ask them to show you their current projects. If you like what you see, then sounds like you have your candidate.

I agree with everything George said, but I would also say that you want someone who has familiarity (and the more the better) with the .Net framework and programming model.  There’s a big difference between someone who programs in C and someone who programs with a fully OO language like C#.  Knowing the namespaces and programming conventions already of the base language (and XNA isn’t a language, it’s really just a set of libraries and a pipeline) will be a huge help to your programmer. 

 

Now if they haven’t worked in C# before, but have worked in Java/C++ or even VB.Net, they should be able to pick up the syntax side of C# very easily.  But if they are coming from a purely procedural language or even a partially OO language like VB6, then they will miss a lot of the fundamental power of a language like C#. 

 

Remember, a programmer is a programmer.  Any game programmer can be taught to write business applications, and any business application programmer can be taught to write games, it’s all about mindset.  But there are design patterns that have to be learned and assimilated into one’s way of thinking.  Some jumps (like procedural to OOP, or event driven programming to a game loop) are very jarring to people.  Some are not.

how on earth did you get in a position to hire someone in the gaming industry and  you don't even know what their skill set should be?  You are one lucky guy i'll give you that much.