Design Director, Platform

Standard Title - Director, Platform Design

Role - Design Director, Platform

Location - Bangalore

About Us

Founded in 2014, Circles is a global technology company reimagining the telco industry with its innovative SaaS platform, empowering telco operators worldwide to effortlessly launch innovative digital brands or refresh existing ones, accelerating their transformation into techcos.

Today, Circles partners with leading telco operators across multiple countries and continents, including KDDI Corporation, Etisalat Group (e&), AT&T, and Telkomsel, creating blueprints for future telco and digital experiences enjoyed by millions of consumers globally.

Besides its SaaS business, Circles operates three other distinct businesses:

• Circles.Life: A wholly-owned digital lifestyle telco brand based in Singapore, Circles.Life is powered by Circles' SaaS platform and pioneering go-to-market strategies. It is the digital market leader in Singapore and has won numerous awards for marketing, customer service, and innovative product offerings beyond connectivity.
• Circles Aspire: A global provider of Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) solutions. Its cloud-based Experience Cloud platform enables enterprises, service providers and developers to deliver and scale mobile, messaging, IoT, and connectivity services worldwide.
• Jetpac: Specializing in travel tech solutions, Jetpac provides seamless eSIM roaming for over 200 destinations and innovative travel lifestyle products, redefining connectivity for digital travelers. Jetpac was awarded Travel eSIM of the Year.

Circles is backed by renowned global investors, including Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia), Warburg Pincus, Founders Fund, and EDBI (the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board), with a track record of backing industry challengers.

About the Role

We are looking for a
Design Director
to lead our platform design team at Circles. This leader will oversee a team of ~10 talented product designers across two key charters:

• Operator-facing
  B2B platform UI/UX
  , enabling telco operators to run their digital brands.
• Customer-facing
  B2C app and web UI/UX
  , delivering rich digital experiences to millions of users globally.

This role is pivotal in shaping Circles.X's design culture, strategic direction, and delivery excellence as we scale our SaaS product globally. You will work cross-functionally with product, engineering, research, and marketing stakeholders to build world-class, user-centric products that are both delightful and performant.

Key Responsibilities
1. Design Leadership & Strategy

• Define and execute a design strategy that aligns with our Circles.X platform vision and growth objectives.
• Champion human-centered design principles and elevate design as a critical lever in product development and differentiation.
• Establish, grow, and maintain a
  global design system
  that promotes reusability and consistency across markets.

2. Team Management & Development

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of designers, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, and coach team members through career development.
• Shape the team structure and workflows to scale with business growth.

3. Design Execution & Product Collaboration

• Translate complex business requirements into elegant and scalable experiences for both B2B and B2C audiences.
• Oversee the end-to-end user journey across multiple product areas—from initial concept to final delivery.
• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Engineers, Researchers, and Data teams to shape problem statements, explore solutions, and measure success.

4. Design Operations

• Establish operational frameworks, rituals, and tools to improve design efficiency, quality, and alignment across teams.
• Partner with product ops and engineering leaders to embed design seamlessly into product planning and delivery cadences.
• Lead design QA processes and reviews to ensure consistently high standards.

Minimum Qualifications

• 14+ years of product design experience, including at least 4 years in a 
  people management
  or leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience in
  both B2B and B2C product design
  across web and mobile platforms.
• Strong portfolio showcasing strategic design leadership and ability to simplify complex systems into intuitive experiences.
• Experience in building and scaling design systems, and driving cross-functional collaboration across large organizations.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, able to influence at all levels.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a
  SaaS platform or enterprise technology
  context.
• Passion for design operations and improving team velocity, feedback loops, and documentation.
• Experience leading design in a
  fast-paced, high-growth
  environment with distributed teams.
• A track record of shaping design culture and contributing to broader organizational growth beyond product scope.

Circles is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, disability or age.

To all recruitment agencies: Circles will only acknowledge resumes shared by recruitment agencies if selected in our preferred supplier partnership program.

Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Circles, employees or any other company location. Circles will not be held accountable for any fees related to unsolicited resumes not uploaded via our ATS.