# maile M. > UX Design Leader | Bridging Complex Research & Enterprise Innovation | Scaling 0-1 UX Orgs | Expert in Navigating Ambiguity to Deliver Data-Driven Solutions for Fortune 500 Clients, Startups & PubSec Orgs Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/mailem Design Leader with 12+ years of expertise directing product transformations across startups, Fortune 500 Enterprise orgs, and the public sector. Proven track record in building and scaling high-performing UX teams and shaping product strategy by distilling complex research into simple, intuitive solutions. I excel at bringing clarity and alignment across organizations and teams, and effectively bridging the gap between client stakeholders and across internal team leadership. Recognized by colleagues as a "strategic powerhouse" and the "glue" that holds UX, business, and technical sides together, I specialize in navigating high-stakes ambiguity to transform fragmented requirements into high-value, strategic roadmaps. My design philosophy centers on delivering human-centered solutions that are so intuitive and seamless they feel invisible to the end-user. Described by peers as a "huge anchor" for client success, I courageously advocate for design rigor to ensure every experience is deeply rooted in serving human needs. ## Work Experience ### Experience Architect - UX Strategy Lead @ Salesforce Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States • Defined the 0-1 design vision for a Fortune 10 retailer’s healthcare platform and authored a strategic requirements framework that accelerated launch timelines and minimized technical debt. • Guided a Fortune 100 engagement to a perfect 5.0 CSAT score, enabling the organization to secure over $11M in follow-on project proposals. • Developed easy to use, data-driven prototypes that influenced system architecture and data models, delivering pixel-perfect designs commended by leadership for exceptional strategic and user-centered simplicity. • Innovated for a greenfield healthcare system by distilling fragmented requirements and research insights into user archetypes, JTBD, system maps, and Service Blueprints to support user needs, integrations, and automations. • Spearheaded the modernization of a federal agency’s legacy system by bridging the digital-to-physical service gap and replacing legacy systems with a holistic ecosystem ideated through service design and design thinking methodologies. • Led co-creation workshops that earned client executive praise for fostering deep user empathy and aligning leadership on vision, prioritization, and strategies. • Produced strategic research syntheses and product roadmaps that influenced decision-making and distilled ambiguous requirements into a unified vision for multiple Fortune 500 clients. • Secured 5 contract extensions by building organizational trust through principled, user-centric and intuitive solutions that demonstrated clear business value. • Orchestrated cross-functional alignment on vision between technical and executive stakeholders, leveraging SLDS and OOTB capabilities to guarantee a scalable and maintainable architecture. • Championed Agentic AI integration into UX workflows, adhering to ethical AI best practices to simplify projects and create Agentic AI solutions to solve for high-stakes client challenges. • Mentored 150+ hours for UX professionals to support a sustainable internal design culture. ### Senior Experience Consultant @ Salesforce Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States Strategic Design & Research Leadership • Defined and drove the end-to-end design vision for enterprise ecosystem transformations, drawing a direct line between research insights to key business objectives for Fortune 500 and federal agency clients across Health, Financial Services, Retail, and Consumer Goods industries. • Led end-to-end research to design execution, managing everything from stakeholder discovery and insight synthesis to usability testing and the delivery of high-fidelity interactive prototypes crucial to customer success. • Cultivated high-trust stakeholder partnerships, consistently achieving 5.0 CSAT scores and securing multiple contract extensions at the explicit request of client leadership. • Defined and clarified critical research insights in highly ambiguous customer engagements, driving human-centered solutions. • Optimized product velocity through collaboration with technical consultants to leverage out-of-the-box Salesforce capabilities, significantly reducing custom technical debt and rework. • Built strong partnerships with team leaders to ensure strategic alignment and cohesion across complex multi-platform initiatives. • Leveraged AI tools internally to accelerate productivity and team alignment and machine learning to simplify complex enterprise user workflows. Professional Advocacy & Growth • Evangelized UX methodologies across internal professional services teams, converting cross-departmental colleagues into advocates for user-centric design. • Completed elite leadership programs focused on professional acceleration within enterprise environments. • Committed 85+ hours to global mentorship, advising and coaching emerging UX professionals and future design leaders through ADPList. ### UX Manager @ Onfleet Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco, California, United States • Spearheaded a "State of UX" strategy report that secured executive buy-in to establish the organization's first research-led product roadmap, increased the company’s design maturity, and restructured engineering operations into cross-functional product squads. • Pioneered and hired a stellar UX team and culture, developing the recruitment frameworks and competency rubrics that achieved near-complete team retention over four years. • Instituted foundational research programs that aligned qualitative and quantitative research with business KPIs, ensuring early-stage discovery became a prerequisite for high-impact feature development and measurable ROI. • Cultivated strategic partnerships with Sales, Engineering, Support and Success to evangelize design value, resulting in improved user adoption and synchronized, research-led release strategies. • Standardized design-to-engineering handoffs and advised PMs and executive leadership on balancing user impact with technical effort to minimize rework and resolve critical product pain points. • Orchestrated cross-functional communication strategies for feature launches, aligning team leads to improve user training and adoption through data-driven insight synthesis. ### UX Research Consultant @ SquareTrade Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 Guided and conducted research and strategy initiatives for SquareTrade, leveraging design thinking to guide data-driven product decisions. ### Product Designer & UX Consultant @ WebCandy Interactive Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 Led end-to-end research to design strategies for Medtech mobile apps and B2B SaaS, leveraging design thinking to drive data-driven design solutions. ### Lead UX Research and Design Fellow @ Code for America Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Santa Monica, CA • Directed and led research, generating the actionable insights that led to the design solutions I then conceptualized, prototyped, tested, and built • Ideated, developed the “Section 8 Eligibility Checker” tool, empowering users to discover their eligibility for section 8 (previously impossible), learn about Santa Monica’s Section 8 requirements; as well as other programs they may be eligible for, if ineligible for Section 8 • Overhauled UX, IA, site map of the Housing Authority’s site; simplifying extremely complex content; making important information clearer and easier to find, so end-users may get the answers they desperately need • Products and recommendations met stakeholder’s goals to improve the application process; increasing eligible applicants; reducing ineligible applications by thousands, thus decreasing extra work for HA staff ### Senior Product Designer @ eharmony Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Greater Los Angeles Area • Influenced the 2020 Product Roadmap by proactively launching a comprehensive usability testing program; delivered strategic research reports that shifted organizational priorities and were cited by the Director of Product as the primary roadmap for mobile app improvements. • Spearheaded a usability audit of the mobile ecosystem, translating findings into high-fidelity interactive prototypes that resolved critical friction points and modernized the end-to-end user experience. • Orchestrated cross-functional alignment between Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Customer Success to synchronize UX updates across a multi-platform environment, ensuring technical feasibility and brand coherence. •  Drove measurable revenue growth by redesigning the subscription paywall; integrated behavioral economics, stakeholder requirements, and customer feedback to optimize conversion funnels and increase subscription rates. • Architected and implemented a scalable master email framework, leveraging modern UI patterns and clean code to drive customer engagement, strengthen brand consistency, and accelerate marketing conversion cycles. ### Interaction Designer @ Internet Brands Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | El Segundo, CA • Led the design overhaul of a complex internal content management system, proactively conducting UX research, prototyping, designing, testing, and collaborating with PMs and developers to ship the CMS by modules. • Shipped a substantially and measurably more intuitive and easier-to-use CMS, allowing employees to be more productive, efficient, and happier (less stressed!) and reducing operational costs and resources. • Principal Native App Designer across multiple verticals, focused on creating intuitive designs, utilizing iOS and Material guidelines ### UX, Branding, Visual & Graphic Designer @ Freelance Contractor Jan 2006 – Jan 2017 | Greater Los Angeles Area • Led end-to-end research, strategy, and design, leveraging design thinking to translate research insights into data-driven solutions for clients including SquareTrade, WebCandy Interactive Agency for mobile apps and B2B and B2C SaaS. • Designed websites, presentations, marketing assets, logos, branding, graphic art for print, created environmental and information design • Managed both internal teams and contractors, to successfully meet deadlines from development to production • Most clients acquired through recommendations from previous clients or colleagues ### Website, UX, & Visual Designer @ City of Santa Monica Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Santa Monica, CA • Proposed website UX and UI improvements informed by customer and employee feedback, observing issues, and listening to complaints • Improved website usability drastically, leading to less complaints and thus improving both customer experience and employee conditions • Initiated and accomplished a redesign of an email marketing campaign, which increased the click-through rate and doubled event attendance • Supervised guest assistants, creating schedules and managing duties ### Designer & Founder @ Punk Baby ® Clothing Jan 2008 – Jan 2013 | Greater Los Angeles Area • Conceptualized the brand • Grew the line within two years through online and print marketing and on site event promotion • Designed all of the original graphics for the apparel, website, social media and marketing collateral • Successfully researched and filed legal documents including trademarks, DBA, resale ​and business licenses and tax forms ## Education ### Bachelor’s Degree in Interaction Design Santa Monica College ### Bachelor’s Degree in Human Geography UC Santa Barbara ### Bachelor of Arts - BA in Geography UC Santa Barbara ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mailemalin --- Source: https://flows.cv/mailem JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/mailem/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-07