# Jesse James Arnold > Designer, researcher, systems lover, accessibility advocate, and avid woodworker Location: Oakland, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/jessejamesarnold I recently joined the design team at Nava, where I’ll have the chance to do service and systems design at the state and federal level. Previously as a Director of Design at Exygy I had the opportunity to focus on standardizing and scaling processes across the team. I had the privilege to facilitate the adoption of delivery standards between design, engineering and product teams; and provide communication channels for skill development and onboarding. My goals were to improve delivery efficiency by supporting a common set of tools and increase the accuracy of our estimations based on learned input from our functional teams. For five years, I was the creative drive and Co-founder of Mister Machine where, I built agile human centered prototypes for world leading organizations. I earned my MFA in Visual Art from the University of California San Diego. Before discovering tech, I worked as an art fabricator, industrial designer and traditional woodworker and have a garage full of tools to prove it. ## Work Experience ### Senior Designer @ Nava Jan 2025 – Present ### Design Director @ Exygy Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco, California As Director of Design at Exygy, I had the opportunity to focus on standardizing and scaling our process across the team through design operations. I had the privilege to facilitate the adoption of delivery standards between design, engineering, and product teams; and provide communication channels for skill development and onboarding. My goals were to improve delivery efficiency by supporting a common set of tools and increase the accuracy of our estimations based on learned input from our functional teams. - Lead design operations to standardize and scale delivery processes across three business lines through collaboration with other functional leaders - Grew the design team, focusing on shared principles and business goals, while also establishing team onboarding and skill development - Established the organization’s progressive standards of accessibility through partnerships, training, and documentation - Improved delivery efficiency through the implementation of common templates, communication standards, and documentation standards - Enhanced project estimation accuracy by integrating feedback from cross-functional teams and delivery team members - Managed design system governance and design operations for multiple enterprise-level civic technology projects - Partnered on a responsible approach to Generative AI, producing a team playbook, conducting workshops with clients, and piloting early prototypes for internal usage and client use cases. ### Design Lead @ Exygy Jan 2015 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco, California As a Design Lead, I got to work with some of my favorite people every day, balancing design integrity and technical complexity. In my time here, I have had the opportunity to create front-end design systems for clients such as the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Community Housing and Development, Google.org, and Tech London. - Created comprehensive front-end design systems for high-profile clients, including the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Community Housing and Development, Google.org, and the Judicial Council of California - Drove product design for Bloom, an affordable housing solution that has scaled to serve the entire Bay Area and into other states - Led discovery efforts for several high-impact products and accessible services through co-design, prototyping, user testing, and ideation, aided by community partnerships - Owned the design vision and strategy for the iterative development of a SaaS offering that allowed us to scale our impact and reach new markets - Developed partnerships with accessibility partners to audit and test new and existing products ### Principal Designer and Cofounder @ Mister Machine Jan 2005 – Jan 2015 - Co-founded a design consultancy specializing in developing front-end “pattern libraries” allowing clients to transition to responsive design and mobile-first strategies - Partnered with clients to create a global conference platform connecting 600+ live sessions worldwide with integrated real-time social media features - Worked with several large-scale institutions and universities to update and scale CMS solutions ### Freelance Designer @ Zignage Jan 2008 – Jan 2009 I worked closely with developers to create Content Management system for vendors to customize their signage from a remote location. ### Freelance @ Darling Design Jan 2005 – Jan 2008 I worked with founder Courtney Darling to create elegant front-end solutions to a variety client business models. ### Product Designer @ Brave Space Jan 2004 – Jan 2008 Together we developed an designed a brand and line of products that is very close to my heart. ## Education ### MFA in Fine Art UC San Diego ### BA in Fine Art University of Florida ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jesse-james-arnold-3473964 - Portfolio: https://jessejamesarnold.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/jessejamesarnold JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/jessejamesarnold/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13