About

Design leader,
systems thinker,
LA NY.

Joel Fernandez

I work with founders and teams on products that are hard to get right: fintech, media, creator economy. Places where the stakes are real and the details matter.

I've spent my career in-house at startups and large organizations alike, working closely with engineering, product, and customers as things get built. That experience shapes how I approach design — from the system level down to the moment a flow finally clicks.

I bring clarity early, and stay involved as the product and team grow.

Disciplines Product Design · Design Systems · Design Leadership · Experience Modeling · Systems Thinking
Industries HR Tech · Fintech · Creator Economy · Media
Based New York City
Outside work Basketball court and tennis court regular.

Selected Experience

·

Senior Manager of Product Design · Justworks

I lead design across Payroll & Tax, Payments, and Time. I built alignment infrastructure for cross-functional unification initiatives spanning 20+ contributors and drove a 30% reduction in support ticket volume through experience redesign.

·

VP of Product Design · Jellysmack

I built and led a 15-person global product design organization across consumer, creator, and internal B2B tools during high-growth expansion. I led design for JellyX (creator revenue marketplace) and Sonar (design system), building the design system from token architecture through adoption strategy.

·

20+ Years in Product & Design

My career spans fintech, media, the creator economy, and enterprise HR tech. I have extensive experience leading cross-functional design across ambiguous, systems-level problems, and building the organizational infrastructure that makes good design possible at scale.

Let's work together.

Open to select leadership and advisory opportunities.

Get in touch