Design Team Lead - 12 Months Contract - On-Site - UAE - Octopus by RTG

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. Requirements • 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.