On-site Full Time
--
Robusta Studio

Job Details

Role purpose:

Lead the enterprise Design Studio as a scalable design function, combining people leadership,

DesignOps, Figma and DLS governance, production-grade AI design, and strong executive stakeholder influence.

Key Responsibilities

1. Team Leadership

Lead and develop a large multidisciplinary team across UX, UI, Product Design, Design Systems and DesignOps.

Assess current team skills, seniority and capacity; maintain a skills matrix and close gaps through hiring and

upskilling.

Allocate designers by project need, complexity and capacity, and build the next layer of design leadership.

2. DesignOps & Scaled Design Process

Define a scalable design lifecycle from intake to UX, UI, Design QA, developer handover and release.

Set clear gates, Definition of Done and SLAs for projects, BAU requests, audits and change requests.

Manage demand, capacity and priorities, and track KPIs such as turnaround, rework, DLS adoption and stakeholder

satisfaction.

3. Figma Enterprise & DLS Governance

Own the structure and governance of a complex Figma Enterprise environment: teams, projects, libraries, access

and file lifecycle.

Ensure approved designs are clearly separated from working, experimental and archived files.

Own the Design Language System as a product: contribution, versioning, release and alignment with coded

components.

4. AI-Enabled Design

Move AI beyond POCs into governed, repeatable production workflows across research, UX, UI, DLS documentation,

Design QA and design-to-code.

Define approved tools, reusable workflows and human review points, compliant with enterprise security and the

DLS.

Measure AI impact on productivity, cycle time, quality and consistency.

5. Presentation, Storytelling & Stakeholder Management

Act as the voice of the Design Studio with senior leadership, business, technology teams and vendors.

Turn complex design and AI topics into clear business stories: problem, user need, rationale, impact and

recommendation.

Influence decisions, align competing priorities and challenge requirements constructively.

6. Cross-Team & External Design Governance

Establish a federated model so internal, project and vendor design teams follow common standards.

Run onboarding, design reviews and audits for work produced outside the Studio, and prevent parallel design

systems.

Desired Candidate Profile

MUST: Proven corporate / large-enterprise experience, working within complex organizational structures,

governance processes and senior stakeholder environments.

12+ years in UX/UI, Product or Experience Design, including 5+ years leading multidisciplinary design teams.

Experience leading a large or distributed design organization and establishing a DesignOps operating model.

Strong hands-on Figma Enterprise expertise (libraries, variables, permissions, Dev Mode, governance).

Proven experience building or governing an enterprise-scale design system / DLS.

Practical experience running AI-assisted design workflows in production, not only POCs.

Strong design-to-development collaboration with engineering teams.

Exceptional executive presentation, storytelling and stakeholder-management skills.

Leadership Profile

Design Leader: credible direction across UX, UI and product design.

People Leader: builds and grows a large multidisciplinary team.

DesignOps Leader: turns people, process, Figma and DLS into one operating model.

AI Design Leader: makes AI part of daily delivery, with measurable value.

Storyteller & Influencer: simplifies complex problems and wins senior alignment.

What Success Looks Like

Clear roles, processes and standards, with work allocated by capability and capacity.

A structured, governed and scalable Figma environment and a widely adopted DLS.

Internal and external design teams working to common standards.

AI embedded in day-to-day design delivery with measurable results.

The Design Studio recognized by senior stakeholders as a strategic capability.

Join our Telegram channel Get the latest jobs as soon as they are posted Join

Similar Jobs

Robusta Studio
Design Team Lead
About Robusta Studio
UAE, Dubai
Information Technology and Services