[Hiring] Lead Product Designer @Circle

Role Description

You’ll own design for one of Circle’s most important product areas. That means you define the problem, shape the direction, and ship the experience—not wait for a brief. The specific area will be determined based on your strengths and company priorities.

You’ll report into the product design organization and work as the most senior design IC on your product area, partnering directly with product managers, engineers, and design leadership. You’ll also work alongside other Leads across Circle’s product surface. As the team grows, you’ll be expected to raise the bar for the designers around you.

AI is not a section on this job description—it’s how we work. Circle’s design team builds with AI tools daily: exploring product directions, prototyping with code-generation tools, stress-testing ideas faster than traditional workflows allow. We’re looking for someone who already works this way and wants to push it further.

What you'll be doing

• Own a product area end-to-end: identify opportunities, frame the problem, set design direction, and ship—operating as a peer to Product and Engineering, not a downstream executor.
• Design complex, multi-step product flows that serve multiple user types—balancing creator needs against member experience, and making sophisticated behavior feel simple.
• Prototype and test at speed—using AI-assisted tools, code-generation workflows, and whatever gets you to a testable concept fastest.
• Influence product strategy beyond your own surface: contribute to roadmap conversations, flag opportunities other teams miss, and connect dots across the product.
• Drive the craft standard on your area—interaction design, visual quality, and the small details that separate polished product from “good enough.”
• Collaborate closely with engineers and design engineers to turn concepts into working, shippable experiences—not hand off specs and hope.
• Raise the bar for the broader design team through feedback, shared frameworks, and the quality of your own output.

Qualifications

• Strong alignment with our values.
• You are proficient in English (spoken, written, and reading) at a CEFR Level C2 / ILR Level 5.
• 5–7+ years of product design experience. Your portfolio should show systems-level thinking: shipped 0→1 work, complex multi-user flows, and evidence that you shaped the product direction—not just the interface.
• Experience operating as the most senior designer on a product area—setting direction, making tradeoffs, and owning outcomes without constant guidance.
• Strong prototyping skills—you build clickable, realistic prototypes yourself. Bonus if you’re already using AI-assisted prototyping tools like Cursor, Claude Code, v0, or Lovable.
• Proficiency in Figma for high-fidelity design and collaboration.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication—able to clearly explain complex ideas, influence decisions, and align teams asynchronously.
• Comfortable designing in ambiguity and building conviction through iteration, not waiting for perfect requirements.
• An active, evolving AI workflow—you already use AI tools in your design process and can speak concretely about how.

Requirements

• Strong alignment with our values.
• Proficient in English (spoken, written, and reading) at a CEFR Level C2 / ILR Level 5.
• 5–7+ years of product design experience.
• Experience as the most senior designer on a product area.
• Strong prototyping skills.
• Proficiency in Figma.
• Exceptional communication skills.
• Comfortable designing in ambiguity.
• An active AI workflow.

Benefits

• U.S.-benchmarked compensation globally.
• Equity in the company with ongoing refresh grants.
• 35 days of paid time off each year.
• Remote-only team with company retreats twice a year.
• Benefits package that supports health, wellbeing, and professional growth.