  We construct higher spin quasinormal modes algebraically in $D$-dimensional
de Sitter spacetime using the ambient space formalism. The quasinormal modes
fall into two nonunitary lowest-weight representations of $\mathfrak{so}(1,
D)$. From a local QFT point of view, the lowest-weight quasinormal modes of
massless higher spin fields are produced by gauge-invariant boundary conserved
currents and boundary higher-spin Weyl tensors inserted at the southern pole of
the past boundary. We also show that the quasinormal spectrum of a
massless/massive spin-$s$ field is precisely encoded in the Harish-Chandra
character corresponding to the unitary massless/massive spin-$s$ $\text{SO}(1,
D)$ representation.
