Lead Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Product Designer

Company: HighLevel

Location: United States

Job Type: EE Full-Time

Category: Product Design / UX/UI

Date Posted: 2026-08-17

Experience Level: 7+ Years (with 2+ years in leadership/mentorship)

Remote Status: Remote Solely

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead design strategy and execution for critical product pillars, driving innovation and user-centric experiences within a complex SaaS platform.

• Elevate product quality through exceptional design craft, systems thinking, and a deep understanding of user needs and business objectives.

• Influence product direction and team culture by mentoring designers, establishing design standards, and fostering a collaborative, high-performance environment.

• Partner closely with product management and engineering leadership to define product vision, prioritize initiatives, and ensure seamless execution of world-class product design.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is for a senior individual contributor with significant leadership and influence responsibilities, focusing on strategic product areas rather than just features. The emphasis on "systems thinking," "craft," and "raising the bar" indicates a need for a designer who can operate at a strategic level and mentor others.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the design strategy and execution for one or more product pillars, managing the entire product lifecycle from discovery through delivery.

• Translate complex customer needs, business goals, product strategy, and technical constraints into clear experience direction and actionable design roadmaps.

• Collaborate with product and engineering leaders to define product vision, prioritize opportunities, and align teams around high-quality, customer-centric outcomes.

• Drive design quality reviews, establish and enforce standards for usability, accessibility, interaction quality, visual consistency, and design system alignment across teams.

• Mentor junior and mid-level designers, improve team critique processes, strengthen shared design patterns, and make design standards easier for teams to adopt.

• Define, socialize, and track key metrics for design quality and impact, such as usability signals, accessibility compliance, task success rates, adoption, retention, or customer satisfaction.

• Lead complex discovery and design efforts in ambiguous environments by synthesizing inputs, framing critical decisions, and guiding teams towards clarity and momentum.

• Partner with product, engineering, data, and customer-facing teams to ensure a holistic and effective product development process.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strategic leadership role. The emphasis on "defining product vision," "influencing leadership decisions," and "driving design quality reviews" suggests a need for strong strategic thinking, communication, and advocacy for design best practices.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating equivalent experience and expertise in product design principles is essential.

Experience: 7+ years of relevant product design experience, with a minimum of 2 years in a leadership, mentorship, or design direction capacity. Experience in SaaS, B2B, platform, workflow-heavy, or similarly complex digital product environments is highly valuable.

Required Skills:

• Exceptional product design craft, with a strong portfolio showcasing systematic thinking, customer empathy, measurable product impact, and leadership beyond individual execution.

• Proficiency in leading data-informed product design across the full lifecycle: research, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, prototyping, content strategy, and usability testing.

• Deep understanding of design systems, accessibility standards (WCAG), reusable patterns, and scalable product experience decisions.

• Proven experience in influencing design direction for high-impact product areas, systems, or platforms, not just individual features.

• Strong cross-functional leadership and collaboration skills, with the ability to work fluently with product managers, engineers, data partners, customer-facing teams, senior stakeholders, and other designers.

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and storytelling skills, with the ability to simplify complex ideas, lead critiques and workshops, and persuade through rationale and evidence.

• Experience designing for AI-driven or intelligent interfaces, including collaboration with machine learning, data, automation, or platform teams.

• Fluency in using AI-powered tools for exploration, prototyping, critique, synthesis, or workflow acceleration. Preferred Skills:

• Experience in workflow-heavy SaaS platforms or business operating systems.

• Demonstrated ability to improve team operations, design standards, processes, and tools.

• Expertise in visual design sophistication, including hierarchy, layout, typography, grids, spacing, and motion design.

• Experience with user research methodologies and synthesizing insights into actionable design strategies.

• Familiarity with agile development methodologies and working within fast-paced tech environments.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for AI tool experience is explicitly stated as mandatory. The emphasis on "craft," "visual sophistication," and "systems thinking" points to a need for a designer with a high level of aesthetic and architectural design skill.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio is mandatory and must demonstrate systematic thinking, customer empathy, exceptional craft, and measurable product impact.

• Showcase experience in leading data-informed product design across the full lifecycle, from research to delivery.

• Include examples of system thinking, how you've contributed to or managed design systems, and how you've ensured scalability and consistency.

• Highlight leadership experience, including mentorship, driving design standards, and influencing product direction beyond individual feature contributions.

• Demonstrate proficiency with AI-powered tools for design exploration, prototyping, critique, synthesis, or workflow acceleration. Process Documentation:

• Illustrate your process for translating customer needs, business goals, and technical constraints into clear experience direction and design roadmaps.

• Provide examples of how you've driven design quality reviews and set standards for usability, accessibility, and visual consistency.

• Showcase your approach to defining and tracking metrics for design quality and impact.

• Include case studies that detail your involvement in complex discovery and design efforts, demonstrating how you navigated ambiguity and synthesized inputs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio is critical and must go beyond showcasing individual UI work. It needs to demonstrate strategic impact, leadership capabilities, and a systematic approach to design, especially in complex, AI-driven environments.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $152,000 - $191,000 annually.

Benefits:

• While specific benefits are not detailed in the provided text, typical benefits for a full-time role at a growing tech company like HighLevel often include:

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.

  • Stock options or equity grants.

  • Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) and holidays.

  • 401(k) or similar retirement savings plan with company match.

  • Professional development and learning stipends.

  • Remote work infrastructure or home office stipends.

  • Opportunities for bonuses based on company and individual performance. Working Hours: 40 hours per week. Employees are expected to be flexible and thoughtful about working hours to ensure effective collaboration with US- and India-based colleagues, given the global, remote-first nature of the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is for the United States market. Given the remote-first nature and global team, candidates should be aware of potential variations in benefits or compensation structures if they are outside the primary hiring region, though the range suggests a US-based compensation structure. The note about working hours is crucial for remote collaboration.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, Software, Business Operating Systems, AI-Powered Solutions. HighLevel operates in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving tech landscape, providing essential infrastructure for agencies, entrepreneurs, and SMBs to build, automate, and scale their operations. This context means a fast-paced, innovative environment focused on delivering scalable solutions.

Company Size: Over 2,000 team members across 10+ countries. This indicates a large, established, yet agile organization with significant global reach and operational complexity.

Founded: HighLevel was founded with a mission to provide shared infrastructure for businesses to scale, aiming to reduce complexity and enable efficient execution.

Team Structure:

• The design team is part of a larger product and engineering organization, likely structured around product pillars or domains.

• Designers operate in close partnership with Product Managers and Engineering teams, emphasizing a collaborative, cross-functional approach.

• The reporting structure likely involves design leadership overseeing multiple designers, with this Lead role influencing strategy across several product areas. Methodology:

• HighLevel emphasizes an AI-powered, data-driven approach to building its platform, processing billions of API hits and message events daily.

• The company values speed, ownership, clarity, and execution, encouraging ambitious individuals to build robust systems.

• Design processes are expected to be integrated with product development cycles, utilizing customer insights, data synthesis, and a strong understanding of technical constraints.

Company Website: https://www.gohighlevel.com/ (Implicitly derived from domain)

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's scale (250+ microservices, terabytes of data) suggests a complex technical environment where robust design systems and scalability are paramount. The "remote-first" and "global" nature implies a strong focus on asynchronous communication and distributed collaboration.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Lead Individual Contributor (IC) with significant leadership and strategic influence. This role is positioned at a senior level, expected to shape product direction, design standards, and team culture, rather than solely executing tasks. It's a step beyond senior individual contributor, focusing on setting strategic vision and mentoring.

Reporting Structure: While the direct reporting manager isn't specified, the role involves deep partnership with Product and Engineering leaders. The Lead Designer will likely report into a Head of Design, Design Director, or a similar senior design leadership position, while influencing multiple product teams.

Operations Impact: The Lead Product Designer will have a direct impact on HighLevel's platform by defining and improving strategically important product experiences. This influence extends to customer outcomes, product quality, roadmap direction, and the overall design maturity of the organization. The role is crucial for ensuring the platform remains user-friendly, scalable, and competitive.

Growth Opportunities:

• Strategic Leadership: Opportunity to shape the design vision and strategy for key product areas, influencing the long-term direction of the HighLevel platform.

• Mentorship & Skill Development: Grow as a design leader by mentoring other designers, refining team rituals, and elevating the design practice across multiple teams.

• Impactful Projects: Work on complex, high-impact product initiatives that directly contribute to the success of millions of businesses worldwide.

• Advancement: Potential to move into management roles (e.g., Design Manager) or further specialize in strategic design leadership (e.g., Principal Designer) within HighLevel as the company continues to scale.

• Skill Expansion: Deepen expertise in AI-driven product design, complex platform architecture, and global remote collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Lead" title signifies a step up from a Senior Designer, focusing on strategic impact and team enablement. Growth opportunities are tied to increasing influence, mentorship, and strategic ownership within HighLevel's product ecosystem.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: 100% remote environment. This means the work is conducted entirely outside of a traditional office setting, requiring strong self-discipline and effective remote collaboration tools and practices.

Office Location(s): United States (as the primary hiring region for this role, though the company operates globally). HighLevel is a global, remote-first organization with team members across 10+ countries.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: Despite being remote, the culture emphasizes collaboration, clarity, speed, and craft. This requires proactive communication and engagement with distributed teams.

• Tools & Technology: Access to and proficient use of a robust suite of collaboration and design tools are essential for effective remote work.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities for interaction will be primarily through virtual meetings, asynchronous communication channels (e.g., Slack, email), and collaborative design platforms. Flexibility in working hours is key for cross-timezone collaboration.

Work Schedule: Standard 40-hour work week, with an expectation of flexibility to accommodate collaboration across different time zones, particularly between US and India-based teams. This suggests a need for proactive calendar management and awareness of team member availability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "remote-first" and "global" nature are key aspects. Candidates must be adept at asynchronous communication and comfortable working across different time zones. The emphasis on flexibility underscores the need for proactive time management and communication.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely a brief call with a recruiter to assess basic qualifications, alignment with the role, and interest in HighLevel.

• Portfolio Review & Design Challenge: A deep dive into your portfolio, where you'll present case studies showcasing your strategic thinking, craft, and impact. This may be followed by a design challenge designed to assess your problem-solving skills, design process, and ability to think systematically under constraints.

• Cross-functional Interviews: Interviews with Product Management and Engineering leaders to assess collaboration style, strategic alignment, and ability to work effectively with technical partners.

• Design Team/Leadership Interviews: Discussions with other designers and senior design leadership to evaluate design philosophy, mentorship approach, and cultural fit within the design organization.

• Final Round: Potentially an interview with senior leadership to discuss overall product vision, strategy, and long-term impact.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select 2-4 of your most impactful projects that best demonstrate systematic thinking, leadership, and complex problem-solving in SaaS/B2B environments.

• Tell a Story: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the process you followed (research, ideation, iteration, solution), the rationale behind your decisions, and the measurable outcomes or impact.

• Highlight Leadership: Emphasize instances where you influenced design direction, mentored others, or improved design processes and standards.

• Showcase Craft: Ensure your visual and interaction design work is presented with exceptional polish, detailing your attention to hierarchy, typography, spacing, and usability.

• AI Tool Integration: Explicitly mention and demonstrate how you've leveraged AI-powered tools within your design process.

• Be Prepared for Questions: Anticipate questions about your design philosophy, how you handle ambiguity, how you collaborate with engineers and PMs, and how you measure design success.

Challenge Preparation:

• If a design challenge is given, focus on understanding the core problem and constraints quickly.

• Outline your approach clearly before diving into execution.

• Prioritize demonstrating your thought process, problem-solving skills, and strategic decision-making over pixel-perfect execution within a timed environment.

• Be prepared to articulate your rationale and defend your design choices.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a strong portfolio and "leadership beyond individual execution" means candidates should prepare to showcase projects where they've had strategic influence and mentored others. The mandatory AI tool requirement means portfolio examples should address this.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), InVision, Principle (or similar for advanced prototyping).

• Collaboration & Communication: Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Confluence, Jira.

• Design Systems: Experience with building, maintaining, or heavily contributing to design systems.

• AI-Powered Tools: Mandatory experience with AI tools for design exploration, prototyping, critique, synthesis, or workflow acceleration (specific tools not listed, but candidates should be ready to discuss their experience).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Familiarity with product analytics tools (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics) to understand user behavior and measure design impact.

• Experience interpreting data to inform design decisions and validate hypotheses. CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding the user base of HighLevel (agencies, SMBs) and how they use CRM and automation tools is beneficial for context.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in industry-standard design tools like Figma is expected. The explicit mention of AI-powered tools for design work is a key differentiator for this role. Experience with design systems is crucial for a role focused on scalable product experiences.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Speed & Ownership: A culture that values initiative, rapid execution, and accountability for outcomes.

• Clarity: Emphasis on clear communication, well-defined goals, and straightforward problem-solving.

• Craft & Quality: A high bar for design execution, visual sophistication, and overall product refinement.

• Customer Outcomes: A deep focus on how the product impacts the success of their users (agencies, SMBs).

• Innovation: Encouragement of new ideas and the use of advanced technologies like AI to improve products.

• Inclusion & Accessibility: Advocating for ethical design, accessibility standards, and inclusive user experiences.

Collaboration Style:

• Distributed & Asynchronous: Strong reliance on clear written communication, documentation, and asynchronous collaboration tools to bridge time zones and geographical distances.

• Cross-functional Partnership: Deep collaboration with product, engineering, and data teams, fostering a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for product success.

• Critique & Feedback: A culture that embraces constructive critique and feedback as a means to elevate design quality and team performance.

• Mentorship & Growth: A supportive environment where experienced designers actively mentor and help grow the skills of their peers.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values emphasize a results-oriented, collaborative, and quality-driven environment. The "remote-first" nature dictates a communication style that is clear, concise, and often asynchronous.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Navigating Complexity: Designing for a large, complex, AI-powered platform with a vast user base requires sophisticated systems thinking and a deep understanding of interconnected workflows.

• Global Remote Collaboration: Effectively collaborating with a distributed team across multiple time zones and cultural contexts demands excellent communication and asynchronous work skills.

• Raising Design Standards: Elevating the design bar across multiple teams and influencing product direction requires strong advocacy, strategic vision, and persuasive communication.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Maintaining a high pace of development while ensuring exceptional design craft and scalability can be a significant challenge.

• Integrating AI into Design: Effectively leveraging and designing for AI-powered features requires staying ahead of evolving technologies and user expectations.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Strategic Design Leadership: Grow into a more influential role by shaping product strategy and design vision for key platform areas.

• Mentorship: Develop leadership skills by mentoring a team of talented designers and contributing to their professional growth.

• Advanced AI Design: Deepen expertise in designing for AI-driven products and interfaces.

• Industry Exposure: Potential to engage with industry conferences and best practices in SaaS and product design.

• Scalability Expertise: Gain extensive experience in designing for large-scale, high-performance platforms.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are inherent to a leading role in a fast-growing, complex tech company. The growth opportunities are directly tied to the strategic and leadership aspects of the role.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you led the design strategy for a complex product area. What was your process, how did you influence stakeholders, and what was the outcome?" (Prepare a case study focusing on strategic impact and stakeholder management.)

• "How do you approach setting and maintaining design standards across multiple product teams, especially in a remote environment?" (Discuss your experience with design systems, critique processes, and mentorship.)

• "Given HighLevel's platform and AI focus, how would you approach designing a new intelligent feature that needs to integrate seamlessly into existing workflows?" (Think about discovery, user needs, AI capabilities, and integration points.)

• "Tell us about your experience using AI-powered tools in your design process. Provide specific examples of how they accelerated your work or improved outcomes." (Be ready to discuss specific tools and methodologies.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about HighLevel's mission and its impact on businesses worldwide?" (Research their "About Us" and "Impact" sections thoroughly.)

• "How do you contribute to a positive and productive remote work culture, especially when collaborating across different time zones?" (Emphasize communication, empathy, and proactive engagement.)

• "How do you balance the need for speed with maintaining a high bar for design craft and quality?" (Discuss your approach to iteration, prioritization, and quality control.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, clearly define the problem, your specific role and contributions, the design process (research, ideation, iteration, testing), key decisions and rationale, and quantifiable results or impact.

• Focus on Systems Thinking: Highlight how your designs integrate into a larger system, contribute to a design system, and ensure scalability and consistency.

• Demonstrate Leadership: Point out instances where you mentored designers, influenced product strategy, or improved team processes.

• Showcase Craft: Ensure visual fidelity and attention to detail in your presentation. Discuss your rationale for visual and interaction design choices.

• AI Integration: Clearly articulate where and how you used AI tools in your presented projects.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Prepare to answer detailed questions about your decision-making, trade-offs, and the technical feasibility of your designs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will heavily scrutinize your portfolio and your ability to articulate strategic thinking, leadership, and craft. Be prepared to discuss your experience with AI tools in a practical, applied manner.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Lever.co link. Ensure your resume is tailored to highlight your 7+ years of product design experience, with specific emphasis on leadership, mentorship, and complex SaaS/B2B environments.

• Curate and Prepare Your Portfolio: Select 2-4 of your strongest projects that showcase systematic thinking, exceptional craft, measurable impact, and leadership. Ensure AI tool usage is clearly demonstrated. Be ready to present these projects in detail, articulating your process, rationale, and outcomes.

• Research HighLevel: Thoroughly understand HighLevel's product, target audience (agencies, SMBs), company mission, and recent news. Pay attention to their emphasis on AI, scalability, and global operations.

• Prepare for Design Challenges: If a design challenge is part of the process, practice working under timed constraints and focus on clearly articulating your thought process and strategic decision-making.

• Articulate Your Collaboration Style: Be ready to discuss how you effectively collaborate with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders in a remote, global, and fast-paced environment.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.