Lead Product Designer, Applied AI
circleso • Remote
Posted: January 30, 2026
Job Description
About the role
We're looking for a Lead Product Designer for Applied AI at Circle.
You'll design AI-native experiences—agents that act on behalf of community managers, workflows that reduce manual work, and a copilot that helps creators run their communities more effectively.
You'll work with our Applied AI engineering team to turn AI capabilities into real workflows and product experiences for our customers. You'll own the design direction for Applied AI surfaces across Circle.
These aren't typical product design challenges. You'll make AI behavior legible, build trust in non-deterministic systems, and give users meaningful control without overwhelming them. You'll shape how creators and AI collaborate inside Circle.
You'll be joining a design team where context is shared openly, ownership is real, and talented people are trusted to do their best work.
What you’ll be doing
- Own the design strategy for Applied AI surfaces, from discovery through shipped experiences
- Provide thought leadership for Applied AI at Circle: stay on top of AI and UX trends and drive our direction in this area
- Operate with high autonomy: you identify opportunities, frame the problem, and drive from 0→1 with minimal guidance
- Act as a peer to Product and Engineering on product decisions, not just a downstream executor
- Design end-to-end AI experiences—from initial concept to launch—including agents, workflows, and copilot features
- Define patterns for AI-assisted and AI-automated actions: triggering, monitoring, correcting, and building user trust
- Tackle novel UX problems around transparency, control, and error handling for unpredictable systems
- Prototype and test AI-powered flows and interactions quickly with users
- Collaborate closely with engineers and design engineers using Cursor and Claude Code to turn your concepts into working experiences
- Work embedded with engineering and ML teams, iterating as capabilities evolve
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.
- 6+ years of product design experience with a strong portfolio demonstrating UX and visual craft
- You already use AI deeply in your design work today—you can explain concretely how AI is integrated into your workflows (research, exploration, prototyping, content, visuals)
- Hands-on experience with AI-assisted prototyping tools (e.g., v0, Lovable, Cursor + Claude Code)
- Experience designing AI-powered tools, conversational interfaces, automation systems, or similarly complex products
- Strong prototyping skills—you build clickable, realistic prototypes yourself, not just static screens
- Proficiency in Figma for high-fidelity design and collaboration
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills—able to clearly explain complex ideas, influence decisions, and align teams asynchronously
- Comfortable designing in ambiguity and solving problems without existing patterns
- Attention to detail that results in polished, shippable work
$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.
Additional Content
About the role
We're looking for a Lead Product Designer for Applied AI at Circle.
You'll design AI-native experiences—agents that act on behalf of community managers, workflows that reduce manual work, and a copilot that helps creators run their communities more effectively.
You'll work with our Applied AI engineering team to turn AI capabilities into real workflows and product experiences for our customers. You'll own the design direction for Applied AI surfaces across Circle.
These aren't typical product design challenges. You'll make AI behavior legible, build trust in non-deterministic systems, and give users meaningful control without overwhelming them. You'll shape how creators and AI collaborate inside Circle.
You'll be joining a design team where context is shared openly, ownership is real, and talented people are trusted to do their best work.
What you’ll be doing
- Own the design strategy for Applied AI surfaces, from discovery through shipped experiences
- Provide thought leadership for Applied AI at Circle: stay on top of AI and UX trends and drive our direction in this area
- Operate with high autonomy: you identify opportunities, frame the problem, and drive from 0→1 with minimal guidance
- Act as a peer to Product and Engineering on product decisions, not just a downstream executor
- Design end-to-end AI experiences—from initial concept to launch—including agents, workflows, and copilot features
- Define patterns for AI-assisted and AI-automated actions: triggering, monitoring, correcting, and building user trust
- Tackle novel UX problems around transparency, control, and error handling for unpredictable systems
- Prototype and test AI-powered flows and interactions quickly with users
- Collaborate closely with engineers and design engineers using Cursor and Claude Code to turn your concepts into working experiences
- Work embedded with engineering and ML teams, iterating as capabilities evolve
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.
- 6+ years of product design experience with a strong portfolio demonstrating UX and visual craft
- You already use AI deeply in your design work today—you can explain concretely how AI is integrated into your workflows (research, exploration, prototyping, content, visuals)
- Hands-on experience with AI-assisted prototyping tools (e.g., v0, Lovable, Cursor + Claude Code)
- Experience designing AI-powered tools, conversational interfaces, automation systems, or similarly complex products
- Strong prototyping skills—you build clickable, realistic prototypes yourself, not just static screens
- Proficiency in Figma for high-fidelity design and collaboration
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills—able to clearly explain complex ideas, influence decisions, and align teams asynchronously
- Comfortable designing in ambiguity and solving problems without existing patterns
- Attention to detail that results in polished, shippable work
$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.