Resume

ben.oderwald@gmail.com

Director of Design

Strategic design leader with proven expertise in scaling UX/UI teams, establishing enterprise design systems, and delivering measurable business impact through research-driven design strategies. Demonstrated success transforming organizations and leading cross-functional teams to produce award-winning solutions for Fortune 500 companies and nationally ranked healthcare systems, with deep experience in technical leadership, stakeholder management, and operational excellence.

Areas of Expertise

Strategic Leadership & Team Scaling: Demonstrated success building and managing design teams, mentoring talent, and leading cross-functional collaboration with product, engineering, and executive stakeholders.
Quantified Design Impact: Driving measurable business results through design system implementation: increased user engagement, improved conversion rates, increased revenue, and shorter time to delivery.
Advanced Design Systems & Operations: Expertise in creating enterprise-scale design systems, establishing design operations processes, implementing Agile/Sprint methodologies, and AI in design.
Research-Driven Strategy: Advanced user research capabilities, and the ability to integrate research findings into strategic product decisions and organizational design vision.
Executive Communication & Business Acumen: Proven ability to present design strategies to executive and senior leadership, translate business requirements into design solutions, and demonstrate ROI impact of design decisions.

Technical Skills

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Modea, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2020-2025

Director UX/UI Design

Transformed boutique agency into a design powerhouse by scaling UX/UI team from 2 to 9 designers and establishing enterprise-level design operations. Delivered award-winning healthcare solutions for top-ranked hospital systems while improving client satisfaction and reducing design delivery time.

Strategic Team Leadership: Built and managed design team, establishing design operations and mentoring programs that improved productivity, relationships, and client satisfaction.
Data-Driven Design Strategy: Integrated quantitative insights with data analysts, creating metrics dashboard that enhanced operational efficiency and enabled evidence-based design improvements.
Research & Product Innovation: Created comprehensive UX research and product strategy practices and frameworks for healthcare digital transformation initiatives.
Design Systems & Technical Leadership: Collaborated with development teams to establish scalable design systems, reducing design-to-development handoff time by 50%.
Executive Stakeholder Management: Provided strategic direction to senior executives at top hospital systems, tying user needs to operational objectives through compelling narratives.

Sotheby’s Auction House, New York, New York, 2018 – 2019

Senior UX Designer

Helped lead digital transformation initiative for 250-year-old auction house, designing comprehensive taxonomy and online auction platform that enabled competitive positioning in the digital marketplace. Product design of video platform showcasing cultural leadership while establishing scalable design systems and technical workflows.

Information Architecture & Strategy: Created comprehensive taxonomy encompassing fine art to rare collectibles, enabling intuitive navigation and search functionality.
Product Design Leadership: Designed video platform experience for premium digital content, enhancing brand storytelling and cultural authority in the luxury market.
Design Systems & Technical Innovation: Led organization-wide migration from Sketch to Figma, establishing design system standards and serving as administrator to enhance team collaboration and design consistency.

RumbleFox, New York, New York, 2015 – 2018

Design Strategy Director

Spearheaded enterprise design strategy and UX initiatives for national e-commerce brands, developing innovative assessment tools and digital competency frameworks that drove organizational transformation and operational excellence across client portfolios.

Strategic Product Leadership: Led end-to-end product strategy and design for enterprise clients, aligning business objectives with user-centered design solutions.
Research-Driven Innovation: Developed proprietary strategy tools including data-informed journey mapping and audience persona methodologies that delivered actionable insights and cross-functional alignment.
Organizational Development & Training: Assessed enterprise digital maturity and created comprehensive training programs to build internal design competency and operational capabilities.

R/GA, New York, New York, 2006 – 2015

Experience Design Director

Led user experience strategies for cross functional teams, delivering enterprise solutions for Fortune 500 clients including Verizon and Nike. Established industry-leading interaction patterns and systematic design approaches while specializing in e-commerce, transactional tools, B2B and B2C SaaS, and business transformation initiatives.

Strategic UX Leadership: Directed user experience strategies across cross-functional creative teams, setting industry-leading interaction patterns and design standards for major brand engagements.
Research & Systems Innovation: Pioneered research-driven and systematic approaches in digital design, establishing methodologies that became organizational best practices.
Technical Design Expertise: Developed comprehensive wireframes, prototypes, and information architecture for complex e-commerce platforms and data-heavy transactional digital tools.
Enterprise Solutions & Documentation: Led B2B and B2C sales and CRM tool design while tracking industry trends and documenting best practices to drive systematic design excellence and business transformation outcomes.

EDUCATION

Master of Arts in Art, LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY, CW POST, Hicksville, New York

Bachelor of Science in Architecture, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Charlottesville, Virginia

SELECTED CLIENTS

[Name Withheld Children’s Hospital], 2024-2025

Digging beyond the obvious for innovative product strategy for a nationally ranked children’s hospital

Personas and journeys
Information architecture
Product strategy document and presentation
Coordinated content strategy and technical strategy creation
Art direction

Nemours Children’s Hospital 2020-2024

UX research, UX design, art direction for a highly ranked children’s hospital

Competitive and heuristic review, stakeholder interviews, personas, journeys, audience interviews, user testing
Information architecture and wireframes
Component design and definition
Art direction
Applied component system to sites for Nemours Foundation and KidsHealth health library

E&J Gallo Winery, 2016-2017

Product strategy and design for a direct to consumer wine subscription program

Identified audience and business opportunities
Documented legacy technology and operations practices
Planned new technology and operations ecosystem
Led workshops to establish requirements and goals
Developed and documented recommendation engine and subscription service
Designed and oversaw creation of e-commerce website

NIKE GLOBAL SALES, 2012 – 2015

Created a new ecosystem of applications, touching every aspect of Nike’s relationship with retailers

Launched eleven applications across multiple devices, platforms, and geographies
Planned and executed workshops to gather business requirements and gain client buy-in of approach
Created experience strategy documents tying business requirements to user needs
Created wireframes and prototypes demonstrating function of applications

VERIZON WIRELESS, 2011 – 2012

Planned omni-channel strategy and roadmap and redesigned e-commerce flow for new and existing customers

Redesigned online bill
Created designs for customer account
Created user personas and experience flows
Helped create and execute “Quick Hits” strategy, aiming to respond to a business problem with a live testable solution within one week

Resume

Design Strategy Director

Experience Design Director

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