Building Code & Culture
UX Leadership means translating complex business strategy into high-value digital ecosystems by building and empowering high-performing teams that drive enterprise-wide digital transformation and deliver measurable business outcomes.
My Leadership Philosophy
Strategic Vision
Aligning UX with C-level goals to ensure design is a core driver of business growth, not just a feature.
Team Empowerment
Fostering a culture of excellence by mentoring talent, establishing scalable design systems, and removing obstacles.
Strategic Technology Adoption
Leveraging generative AI to accelerate research, ideation, and prototyping, enabling teams to focus on high-impact strategic work.
Business Impact
Defining and tracking key metrics to demonstrate the tangible ROI of user experience investments.
Portfolio Highlights
Golden 1 Credit Union
UX Manager (Mar 2023 - Jul 2025)
As the strategic lead for user experience, I directed the UX function through an enterprise-wide digital transformation. My mandate was to establish the central vision and orchestrate a complex ecosystem of cross-functional teams and over eight strategic vendors. By aligning high-level business objectives with deep member insights, I ensured our investments in the Sitecore CMS and other platforms translated into world-class digital experiences that drove both member satisfaction and business growth.
Strategic Initiatives Directed
These are the high-impact projects I led, from conception to delivery. Each initiative represents a significant step in Golden 1's digital transformation. Click any project to see the business challenge, my strategic solution, and the measurable results.
Accelerating Development with Actionable Prototypes
My 'player-coach' philosophy means I remain hands-on to de-risk development and ensure strategic alignment. After validating concepts in Figma, I personally build live-code HTML/CSS prototypes. These artifacts serve as an unambiguous 'source of truth' for engineering teams, eliminating costly rework, accelerating development cycles, and guaranteeing the final product perfectly matches the strategic vision.
Security Service Federal Credit Union
UI Designer to Sr. UX Designer (Jul 2016 - Mar 2023)
My tenure at SSFCU was a multi-year strategic initiative to establish and scale a high-performing UX discipline from the ground up. I progressed from a foundational, hands-on practitioner to a strategic leader who built the team, established the operational frameworks, and embedded a member-centric culture across the organization, directly contributing to increased member loyalty and operational maturity.
Phase 1: Foundation
As the sole UX/UI designer, led the full website replatforming to a responsive Sitecore CMS build using the first-ever web design styleguide, earning a 'Star Performer' award for innovation and impact.
Phase 2: Systemization
Architected and built the component library in Figma, establishing consistency and efficiency, which reduced development time and strengthened brand equity across all digital properties.
Component library samplePhase 3: Expansion
Designed the core UX for the flagship mobile app and led the Conversational Experience Design for the credit union's digital interfaces, focusing on empathetic user flows to reduce call center volume and improve member self-service.
Mobile design samplePhase 4: Leadership
Pioneered the formal UX discipline by advocating for team expansion, then leading the hiring, onboarding, and UX Mentorship to establish a scalable, high-performing design culture.
Teaching material sampleCore Toolkit & Competencies
UX & AI Strategy
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- AI-Augmented Research
- Data-Informed Strategy
- Digital Transformation
- UX Mentorship
AI Proficiency
- AI-Powered Development (Grok, Gemini)
- Prompt Engineering (Google AI Studio)
- Generative Imagery (Adobe Firefly)
- Productivity & Analysis (MS Copilot)
Design & Execution
- UI/UX Architecture
- High-Fidelity Design (Figma)
- Conversational Design (IVR, Chatbot)
- Live-Code Prototyping
- Front-End Development
- Sitecore CMS
Collaboration & Workflow
- Agile/Scrum (CSPO)
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Project Management (JIRA)
- Documentation (Confluence)
- Vendor Management
Driving the Future of Digital Finance
The initiatives showcased here are tangible solutions, not just concepts. They represent a deep commitment to solving complex problems within the FinTech and credit union space through strategic design and robust engineering.
This is not all of it. There's more in my UX Ninja dojo.