Lead Product Designer

About the role

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

What you'll need to be successful

• 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

Compensation & benefits

$140,000 - $170,000 USD per year

We are hiring at a Lead level for this role; however, we may consider offering this position at the Senior level depending on a candidate’s experience level alignment with the role. In either case, the offer would fall within the published compensation range.

Circle offers U.S.-benchmarked compensation globally, equity in the company with ongoing refresh grants, and 35 days of paid time off each year.

We’re a remote-only team that comes together twice a year for company retreats in incredible destinations around the world. Alongside incredible flexibility and autonomy, we offer a benefits package that supports health, wellbeing, and professional growth. Learn more in our Candidate Hub.