Lead Product Designer

Lead Product Designer - AI-Native HR Platform About Cercli

Cercli is an AI-native people platform built so HR teams spend their time on people instead of on records. Our Human Resources Information System (HRIS) consolidates employee data, organizational structure, onboarding and offboarding, contracts and documents, compensation, time off, expenses, and people reporting into a single, integrated system. Backed by Y Combinator and recognized as one of 2026's AI Startups to Watch, we are fundamentally rebuilding HR software around AI agents rather than traditional forms.

The Role

We are seeking a Lead Product Designer to spearhead the user experience of interacting with AI within the Cercli platform. You will guide an AI-native product from initial concept through to launch and iteration, encompassing research, interaction models, prototyping with real model outputs, UI design, and post-launch analysis. This is a player-coach position, with the majority of your time dedicated to hands-on design for our most critical AI products. As the team expands, you will be responsible for hiring and mentoring one to two designers, and establishing the design standard for the entire company.

What You'll Do

• Own AI-native products end-to-end, leading the design for Cercli Perform and the AI Sourcing agent from discovery through launch and iteration, subsequently taking on the next agentic module.
• Design the intricate collaboration between humans and AI agents, defining when agents act autonomously, when they seek input, and when they hand control back.
• Develop intuitive interfaces for approvals, undo functionality, confidence indicators, and explanations to foster trust in AI agents handling sensitive payroll and people data.
• Build prototypes using live Large Language Model (LLM) outputs, not placeholder text, to rigorously test real-world failures, latency, and edge cases before committing engineering resources.
• Design robust patterns for handling imperfect AI output, including streaming responses, partial results, hallucination recovery, citations, feedback mechanisms, and graceful fallbacks.
• Ensure seamless functionality in both English and Arabic, delivering right-to-left layouts and bilingual AI outputs that feel native to users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
• Define and track success metrics for each AI-driven flow in collaboration with product management, analyze funnel and session data, and iterate to optimize activation and retention.
• Elevate our design system to incorporate AI-specific patterns, conduct design critiques, and recruit and mentor future design talent.

What You Bring

• 7+ years of experience designing B2B or complex SaaS products, with demonstrated experience as the lead or most senior designer on a product.
• Proven track record of designing and shipping at least one AI-native product or significant AI feature from problem framing to live user deployment.
• A strong point of view on agent user experience, including autonomy levels, human-in-the-loop review, trust, transparency, and error recovery strategies.
• Hands-on experience prototyping with LLMs using tools such as Cursor, v0, Lovable, Claude, the OpenAI API, Figma Make, or custom code.
• Exceptional systems thinking capabilities, with the ability to design dense, data-heavy workflows (e.g., permissions, approvals, multi-step processes) that remain user-friendly.
• Proficiency with product metrics, having utilized analytics or experiments to drive design improvements post-launch.
• Excellent written and spoken English communication skills, with a strong aptitude for close collaboration with engineers.
• A compelling portfolio or case studies showcasing your design process, problem-solving approach, and tangible outcomes, beyond just final visual designs.

Nice to Have

• Experience in HR tech, payroll, fintech, or other regulated, high-trust product domains.
• Proficiency in Arabic, or substantial experience designing and shipping right-to-left and bilingual interfaces.
• Experience designing for both product-led self-serve signup flows and sales-led enterprise rollouts.
• Previous experience hiring or mentoring designers, or building a design system from the ground up.
• Front-end development skills (e.g., React, Tailwind) enabling direct deployment of polished UI elements.

Why You Should Join Us

• Gain ownership of the design for cutting-edge AI-native products at a company revolutionizing HR software for the region.
• Secure a pivotal role from day one, collaborating directly with the product lead and engineering team.
• Receive a competitive, tax-free salary in the UAE, along with valuable equity.
• Benefit from comprehensive support including UAE visa sponsorship, health insurance, and relocation assistance.

Logistics

• Location: Dubai, UAE (Hybrid - 3 days per week in office)
• Department: Product Design
• Reports to: Founding Product Manager
• Works with: Product, Engineering (Django, React, LLM and agent infrastructure), Customer Success, and client HR and Finance teams.

How We Hire

1. Intro Call: 30-minute introductory call with the product team.
2. Portfolio Deep-Dive: 60-minute session to walk through an AI product you shipped end-to-end.
3. Working Session: 90-minute live design session focused on a real Cercli problem (no take-home assignment).
4. Team Meet & Greet: Two 30-minute sessions to meet with engineering and a founder.
5. References & Offer: Final reference checks and offer extension.

To Apply

Please submit your portfolio along with a brief note detailing the AI product you are most proud of and what you would change about it today.