Lead Product Designer

HDB Housing & Development Board; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Housing & Development Board (HDB) is building digital products and services that improve the lives of Singaporeans. We are looking for a Lead Product Designer to lead design for a product area, manage a team of product designers, and work alongside product and engineering leads to deliver outcomes for residents and staff.

You will guide design from discovery to launch, set quality standards, contribute to the central design system for consistency and accessibility, and plan work to align

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in product design, UX design, service design or a related discipline, with 2+ years leading or managing designers.
• A portfolio showing shipped work, the process behind it, and your influence on product decisions.
• Experience leading design on complex, multi-stakeholder products, ideally in government, enterprise or regulated environments.
• A track record of planning and running design work across a product area: scoping, estimation, sequencing and tracking.
• Strong stakeholder management: you build alignment, present clearly, and hold your ground on design decisions with evidence.
• Competent in using AI tools in day-to-day design work, such as research synthesis, content drafting, exploration and prototyping.
• Strong grasp of design systems, accessibility and interaction design.
• Experience managing and developing designers.
• Proficiency with design tools such as Figma.

Responsibilities

• Design leadership: lead design for a product area end to end, set quality bars, run design critique, ensure design intent in ships.
• Design planning and delivery: own the design plan, scope, sequence, estimate effort, allocate designers, surface risks, track progress.
• Stakeholder engagement: be the design voice for the product area, present recommendations with clear rationale, secure buy-in.
• People management: line-manage a team of product designers, set goals, conduct reviews, build development plans, coach on craft.

Skills

Product design

UX design

Service design

Leadership

Stakeholder management

AI in design

Design systems

Tools

Figma

Job description

What the role is

The Housing & Development Board (HDB) is building digital products and services that improve the lives of Singaporeans. We believe great products start with a deep understanding of people, and we are committed to building experiences that are intuitive, accessible and useful.

We are looking for a Lead Product Designer to lead design for a product area, manage a team of product designers, and work alongside product and engineering leads to deliver outcomes for residents and staff. This role is for someone who is equally at home solving complex user problems, planning design work, and bringing stakeholders with them.

What you will be working on

Design leadership

You will lead design for a product area end to end, from discovery and research through interaction design, delivery and iteration after launch. You will set the quality bar for your team, run design critique, and ensure design intent carries through to the shipped product. You will apply and contribute to the central design system so experiences stay consistent and meet the Whole-of-Government Digital Service Standards, including accessibility requirements.

Design planning and delivery

You will own the design plan for your product area. This means scoping the design work, sequencing it against product and engineering milestones, estimating effort, allocating designers, surfacing risks early, and tracking progress. You will make sure design starts ahead of build and that work meets agreed readiness and completion criteria before it moves on.

Stakeholder engagement

You will be the design voice for your product area with business owners, product managers, engineering leads and senior management. You will build alignment early, present recommendations with clear rationale, and explain design decisions in terms stakeholders understand: user outcomes, risk, effort and trade-offs. You will facilitate workshops, resolve competing priorities, and secure buy-in for the design direction. Expect to present to stakeholders at all levels regularly.

People management

You will line-manage a team of product designers. This includes setting goals, running performance reviews, building development plans, coaching on craft and influence, and contributing to hiring. You will grow designers who are confident in their work and in the room.

What we are looking for

• 6+ years of experience in product design, UX design, service design or a related discipline, with 2+ years leading or managing designers.
  
• A portfolio showing shipped work, the process behind it, and your influence on product decisions.

• Experience leading design on complex, multi-stakeholder products, ideally in government, enterprise or regulated environments.

• A track record of planning and running design work across a product area: scoping, estimation, sequencing and tracking.

• Strong stakeholder management: you build alignment, present clearly, and hold your ground on design decisions with evidence.

• Competent in using AI tools in day-to-day design work, such as research synthesis, content drafting, exploration and prototyping.

• Strong grasp of design systems, accessibility and interaction design.

• Experience managing and developing designers.

• Proficiency with design tools such as Figma.

What Will Make You Stand Out

• You have helped a team adopt AI tools or evaluated tools for design use.

• You are comfortable influencing decisions and working through ambiguity.

• You have worked in cross-functional product teams with product and engineering leads as peers.

• You are collaborative, humble and generous with your knowledge.

• You believe the best products are built through partnership, not silos.