Lead Product Designer
About Us
Circle is building the world’s leading AI-powered, all-in-one platform for digital businesses. We make it possible for creators, coaches, educators, and businesses to bring together their audience with engaging discussions, live streams, events, chat, courses, and payments — all in one place, all under their own brand.
We’re proud to be a fully remote company of around 270 (and growing!) team members from 30+ countries around the world. We seek exceptional individuals around the world, set them up to do the best work of their lives, and in turn, create a meaningful impact in their own lives. We don't track hours, but we do manage for high expectations very closely. We collaborate across time zones, are highly async, and like to document a lot.
Twice a year, we bring the whole company together in beautiful places around the world for our company offsites. So far, we’ve hosted offsites in Turkey, Portugal, Mexico, Thailand, Colombia, Italy, Ireland, and more, with still more to come!
Check out our Careers page for more about working at Circle.
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
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.
Learn more
Candidate Safety & Interview Process Notice
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
How We Use Candidate Data
Equal Employment Opportunity
Visit our Candidate Hub to learn more about working at Circle, our benefits, and our hiring process.