# Claudio Baptista > Principal Design Director @ Microsoft AI | AI Monetization Location: Mountain View, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/claudiobaptista I am a seasoned design leader with over 20 years of experience shaping human-centered design, UX strategy, and creative direction for both consumer and enterprise products. I've had the privilege of partnering with iconic global brands—from fashion and consumer electronics to advertising agencies and entertainment powerhouses—helping them craft innovative, user-driven solutions. My expertise lies in building and scaling high-performing design teams that deliver impactful results, addressing complex user needs while driving business growth. I lead with empathy, agility, and collaboration, inspiring teams to create world-class products and transformative user experiences. **Core Competencies:** - Elevating UX design as a strategic function that drives measurable business impact. - Crafting exceptional, user-centric experiences through a holistic, multi-dimensional approach. - Building strong cross-functional alignment and influence with executives and stakeholders. - Mentoring and nurturing high-performing design teams, fostering continuous growth and development. - Implementing scalable, best-in-class design systems and processes that enhance efficiency and consistency. - Leading with clarity and vision, navigating ambiguity to deliver innovative solutions. **Skils** - Strategic UX vision and roadmap development - Business acumen to align design with organizational goals and KPIs - Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills - Design thinking and innovation facilitation in complex environments - Cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, and executive teams - Expertise in user research, usability testing, and data-driven design decisions - Building and scaling high-performing design teams - Implementing and managing scalable design systems - Mentorship and career development for design professionals - Information architecture and interaction design proficiency - Agile and Lean UX processes for rapid iteration **Affiliations:** - Design Mentor at ADPList.org - Founding Member of the Design Leadership Forum - Associate Member of UXPA (User Experience Professionals Association) - Associate Member of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) ## Work Experience ### Principal Design Director @ Microsoft Jan 2026 – Present | Mountain View, CA As part of the Microsoft AI Monetization (MAIM) Product org, overseeing Product Design across the Publisher portfolio. I lead a team reimagining how publishers and merchants thrive and monetize across human and agent‑driven ecosystems, shaping the next generation of behavioral analytics and monetization experiences across Clarity, Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), Monetize, and Curate. ### Senior Director, User Experience Design @ The Trade Desk Jan 2024 – Jan 2026 | Los Angeles, CA Elevated to Senior Director to lead Product Design across The Trade Desk’s global product ecosystem, expanding AI and agentic experiences. I lead a distributed design organization across the U.S., EMEA, and APAC, shaping the future of digital advertising through intelligent platforms and scalable, end-to-end workflows. My team spans key areas including Buying & Campaign Management, Data & Insights, Inventory & Publisher Solutions, Ad Serving, Identity & Partnerships, End-to-End Experiences, and the Harbor Design System. Key Responsibilities & Impact: AI-Driven Product Evolution: Lead the advancement of Kokai’s AI feature layer, partnering with User Research, Data Science, Engineering, and Product to embed purposeful, ethical AI across the platform. Focus areas include agentic workflows, smart insights, contextual recommendations, and improved decision-support for traders. Strategic Experience Vision: Define and drive the long-term experience vision that aligns product strategy, user needs, and measurable business outcomes. Global Design Leadership: Build, coach, and empower a high-performing global UX team, fostering clarity, consistency, and world-class craft across all surfaces of the product. Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with product and engineering leaders to shape roadmap priorities, improve execution quality, and ensure design excellence at scale. Systematized Quality: Oversee the evolution of Harbor (design system), strengthening component libraries, interaction patterns, and governance models to ensure consistency and velocity across teams. ### Director, User Experience Design @ The Trade Desk Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | Los Angeles, California, United States As the Head of Product Design at The Trade Desk, I lead, coach, and inspire a talented team of seasoned UX managers and designers, responsible for crafting the UX vision and delivering the product design for the leading global independent media buying platform for the open internet. Together, we drive transformative change in the advertising landscape, how brands engage with audiences and how people consume digital advertising. I focus on forging strong strategic partnerships with the executive team, product managers, researchers, engineers, content strategists, and cross-functional stakeholders to define the future of ad tech. I direct and oversee design for key areas such as Data & Measurement, Inventory and Publishers Solutions, Media Buying Process, Reporting, Partner Experiences, End-to-End Experiences for our global market. ### Founding Member @ InsideOut Design Leader Community Jan 2019 – Jan 2026 Leading in-house design, experience, and creative teams today is more challenging than ever. That’s why we created InsideOut, a community custom-built for senior leaders at high profile brands. Our facilitated small format roundtables provide space to connect, collaborate and generate new ways to move business forward, faster. All topics are selected by community members to ensure timely, real-world issues are addressed in a safe, fun environment. In addition to intimate peer roundtables, we host leadership workshops, mini-talks and a women's leadership forum–and with the help of our members, we're evolving all the time. ### Director Of User Experience @ GoPro Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 Spearheaded the user experience and product design vision, leading the digital transformation of GoPro’s Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) strategy. Established UX Design (UXD) as a core pillar within the organization, embedding design thinking into GoPro’s business strategy to enhance customer engagement, optimize e-commerce performance, and drive revenue growth. Built, evolved, and scaled UX processes, standards, and tools to ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience across GoPro’s digital ecosystem. Developed a high-performing design team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence to execute on the company’s mission. Partnered closely with executive leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to align UX initiatives with strategic business goals and product roadmaps. Advocated for user-centered design principles to deliver best-in-class experiences that strengthened customer loyalty, improved conversion rates, and maximized the impact of GoPro’s digital presence. ### Senior Manager, User Experience @ The Walt Disney Studios Jan 2017 – Jan 2020 | Burbank, CA Led the Experience Design Team in shaping and executing a unified UX vision across Walt Disney Studios’ digital ecosystem. Provided strategic leadership, direction, and mentorship to in-house designers and external agency partners, ensuring world-class user experiences that aligned with Disney’s brand and business objectives. Oversaw a $1.5MM annual budget, driving innovation and design excellence across a diverse portfolio, including internal applications, consumer-facing products, and enterprise branding and communications. Collaborated cross-functionally with technology, marketing, and business leaders to enhance engagement, streamline workflows, and elevate storytelling through design. Key accomplishments available upon request. ### Principal UX Architect @ The Walt Disney Studios Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Burbank, CA Principal lead in creating efficient, effective architecture specifications for complex interaction models (user experience and user interface) for the Walt Disney Studios enterprise and consumer-facing products. Responsible for defining UX strategy, interaction design and validation methods applied to new and existing products, working closely with user experience leads, designers, engineering, product and business. ### Senior User Experience Designer @ The Walt Disney Studios Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | Burbank, CA Delivering intuitive, engaging and user-friendly solutions throughout Disney's enterprise applications. Translating complex business requirements into successful experiences. Designing desktop, web and mobile applications, solving tough interaction challenges. Applying an iterative process (conducting user research, defining strategy and KPIs, creating wireframes and interactive prototypes and performing extensive user testing) to constantly push for innovation and rethinking enterprise UX. ### Senior UX Designer @ J.Hilburn Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | Santa Monica Leveraging solid knowledge of web and mobile UX combined with a passion for consumer engagement to optimize J.Hilburn's digital footprint - consumer facing websites, business line applications, mobile applications. Tackling the challenges of increase user conversion (customer acquisition & revenue) through research & strategy, information architecture & interactive design, driving e-commerce & digital initiatives to meet user and business goals. Responsible for usability considerations & insights, user testing, A/B testing, design of wireframes and interactive prototypes, data & analytics. ### Creative Director @ Media Horizons Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 Led creative pitches which resulted in new business wins and increased revenue; Conceived, designed, developed and directed multi-media advertising for global brands, maximizing organic growth and creating new channel opportunities; Significantly expanded creative capabilities (strategy, digital, mobile); Implemented company-wide project management system and redesigned MHI’s visual identity. Clients - Nestle Waters North America, Unicef, Shoedazzle, Avalara, Denon, New Vitality, Relay Foods, Great Call, Lawn Doctor, Lifestyle Lift, Oreck ### Digital Art Director @ Omnicom Media Group Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 Responsible for translate and interpret client's communications strategy and develop innovative digital and print material. Managing projects from conception to execution. Responsible for interface with client, supervision of a team of freelance designers, Lead creative pitches and increment creative revenue. ACHIEVEMENTS Successfully exceeded creative revenue goals for two consecutive years (30% incremental and 12% year over year). Led several creative pitches which resulted in new business wins and increased revenue. Developed digital and print material for well-know clients, managing multiple projects from conception to execution. Managed client relationships, over exceeded expectations and met tight deadlines. Supervised and managed creative freelancer's work. Implemented creative tools, direct response best practices, processes and procedures. ### UX / UI Designer @ Moss Motors, Ltd Jan 2008 – Jan 2010 | Goleta, California Area Defined the overall user experience of e-commerce web platform. Defined User flow, and Graphic User Interface for the company websites (from sketching to interactive prototypes). Responsible for re-design and management of email program - boost in 24% response rate. Help restructure and analysis of new B2C platform. ### Founder @ Level C Design Jan 2008 – Jan 2010 Level C Design is a digital creative agency specialized in innovative design ideas and solutions. It is the creative outlet of Claudio Baptista – User Experience Designer and Creative Director. A collection of engaging user-centered experiences that are intuitive, efficient and memorable from start to finish. ### Digital Marketing Supervisor @ TeleListas Jan 2000 – Jan 2005 Developed company’s website which turned into the most used online Yellow Pages in Brazil. Supervised a team of computer programmers and designers in developing digital content. Responsible for sales presentations and workshops. NATIONAL AWARDS ACHIEVED: 1st Top Cadê 2001 – Reference Category / Top 10 IBest 2004/2005 – Services Category ## Education ### Certificate in Organizational Leadership Harvard Business School Online ### Certificate in Disruptive Strategy Harvard Business School Online ### Certificate in Design Thinking and Innovation Harvard Business School Online ### Certificate in User Experience Design UXD New York University ### marketing in marketing, media, design Santa Barbara City College ### Bachelors in Communications FACHA ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/claudiobaptista - Portfolio: http://www.claudiobaptista.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/claudiobaptista JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/claudiobaptista/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13