Lead Product Designer
Circle
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: Anywhere in the World
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Salary
💰 $140,000 - $170,000 per year
Job Level
About the role
- 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
Requirements
- Strong alignment with our values, find our values on our career page if you haven’t read up on them yet
- 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. You write well because that’s how decisions get made in a distributed team
- 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. This isn’t a checkbox; it’s a real part of how we evaluate fit.
Benefits
- Fully remote: work from anywhere in the world!
- Autonomy and trust to do your job: we care about outcomes over everything else.
- Paid time away: all employees are given 35 days of PTO annually. We also offer a paid sabbatical after 5 years.
- Generous U.S. benchmarked compensation and startup equity no matter where you are in the world.*
- Awesome medical coverage with 100% coverage for you and your family, or medical reimbursement options where applicable!*
- Parental leave for parents expanding their family, or just starting one.
- Home office stipend to help you get up and running.
- Learning & development stipend to help you level up your professional skills.
- Annual bonus potential for roles that don't already receive variable income or commission.
- Company retreats: Twice a year, the Circle team gets together for a fully paid company retreat in incredible places around the world! We’ve had past retreats in Colombia, Portugal, and Mexico, with more planned on the horizon.
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
product designsystems-level thinkingprototypinginteraction designvisual qualityAI-assisted prototypingshipped 0→1 workcomplex multi-user flowsdesign directiontradeoffs
Soft Skills
communicationinfluencecollaborationfeedbackiterationproblem framingconviction buildingalignmentambiguous designownership