I lead high-performing teams to deliver innovative digital products that blend design, data, and digital strategy—enhancing end-to-end experiences, strengthening brands, and driving measurable business results. My leadership spans tech, finance, marketing, creative, and consulting industries, grounded in collaboration, accountability, and an award-winning team culture.

Delivering Digital Experiences and Products That Inspire, Engage, and Drive Impact

  • Great design isn’t just about aesthetics. By aligning design with business strategy, product roadmaps, and customer experience, I lead the creation of solutions that drive engagement, innovation, and impact—contributing to a 27% increase in leads, 80% increase in account creation, and a 73% boost in design delivery speed.

  • Experience innovation happens at the intersection of design, strategy, and technology. By blending the three, you get smarter, more intuitive experiences that evolve with users' needs—resulting in a 30% lift in engagement and significantly faster time-to-market.

  • Design leadership is about clarity, not control. I build inclusive, high-performing teams that thrive in complexity—achieving 80–96% employee engagement, a 4.75/5.0 quality score, and 65+ NPS through culture, collaboration, and shared success.

What people are saying

Recent Published Work

Global Website & Client Account Renovation (end-to-end)

Led the global website experience design team and full redesign across 19 countries, driving a 14% increase in sessions, boosting lead generation by 27% and account creation by 80%.

Managed agency and internal partnerships across product design, UX, design ops, visual brand, and user research. Implemented a new Design Language System accelerating design delivery by 73%.

Agentic Candidate Search & Client Marketplace Product

Led UX, research, product roadmap, and delivery strategy for the AI-Matched & Recruiter-Assessed Candidate Search experience.

Shaped the full end-to-end customer journey from guest to the logged-in Client Marketplace. Improved search relevance and lead quality, driving an 80% increase in account creation, stronger recruiter engagement, and measurable gains in conversion.

Delivered Against All Key OKRs and KPIs

End-to-End Global Web & Consumer Products

  • Increased web sessions by 14%, leads by 27% and account creation by 80%

  • Boosted user satisfaction of AI experience by 80%

  • Cut content production and dev time by 40–70% with scalable design framework

  • Restructured IA and simplified navigation, reducing time to key content by 20%

  • Unified fragmented paths into 3-5 step flows

Design Language System DLS & Digital Brand Platform

  • Improved design and production speed by 73%

  • Achieved 100% brand standard adherence across channels

  • Reduced dev time by 35%, QA by 40%, and eliminating 90% of inconsistencies

  • Earned 8 global design awards for this system alone (50+ total in career)

  • Scaled across web, app, consumer products, email, internal ecosystem, omnichannel campaigns and paid media

Private Portfolio and Project Showcase

If you’re interested in discussing my expertise in experience design leadership, product strategy, or web strategy, or would like access to my confidential portfolio, feel free to reach out via phone at 209.456.0612 or email at nik.castro@gmail.com. I’d be happy to connect and share more.

The portfolio is password-protected, and I’ll provide access upon request.

Culture & Accolades

Led UX, product design, design operations and research teams, earning multiple honors including Webby, W3, Digital Workplace, and over a dozen GDUSA Graphic Design Awards.

Maintained a high-performing, inclusive team culture with 80–96% employee engagement, a 4.75/5.0 quality assurance score, and an NPS of 65+, reflecting sustained team satisfaction and leadership impact.