Joel Lopez.
Senior Design Engineer, at the seam between design and engineering. 15+ years shipping products, design systems, and production code.
Experience
- First role of its kind at Buildout, created to bridge the gap between design and engineering org-wide
- Founded Blueprint, Buildout's design system: 50+ React components and configurable SCSS theming; adopted across all 4 Buildout products
- Built Blueprint's documentation site from scratch using Fumadocs on React Router 7; architected a private npm registry for in-house versioning and distribution
- Led new product initiative post-acquisition; drove design and front-end from concept through launch
- Directed product strategy for 2 apps and 10+ features; produced prototypes and mockups for all major initiatives
- Led a 500+ student UX research survey; findings directly shaped the platform roadmap and feature prioritization
- Managed 5 direct reports (2 designers, 1 illustrator, 2 project managers); built the team from scratch and established cross-team communication processes achieving 98% satisfaction
- Rebuilt the platform in React + Redux, modernizing performance and codebase maintainability
- Overhauled UX strategy end-to-end; set up JIRA and led agile sprints for the full UI redesign initiative
- Advised on A/B testing, conversion design, and UX research best practices
- Hired and onboarded the company's inaugural designer and developer; built the foundational design and engineering team
- Managed 5 direct reports (2 designers, 3 developers); oversaw full team lifecycle: hiring, onboarding, and performance
- Led design and development of MesotheliomaGuide.com, sold for $3M+
- Drove a 30% conversion rate increase via A/B testing, generating $400K–$750K in additional annual revenue
- Shipped 20+ web products; established front-end coding standards for the engineering team
- Designed and built the Virtual Press Junket UI for 30+ unique clients; led UX research with 50+ participants
- Developed curriculum and taught "Introduction to Web Design & Development" to 20 students
Skills
Design
- Figma
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Design Systems
- UX Research
- Prototyping
- A/B Testing
Engineering
- React · Redux
- TypeScript
- HTML · CSS · JS
- Next.js
- React Router 7 · TanStack Start
- PHP · Laravel
Leadership
- Team Building
- Agile · JIRA
- Cross-team Collab
- KPI Setting