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Aaron Merritt ~ Resume

Design Lead · Design Systems · AI-Augmented Product Design

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OVERVIEW

Design systems lead with 10+ years building scalable design infrastructure for enterprise SaaS. Expert in token architecture, component systems, and AI-augmented workflows — including developing LLM-powered tooling that automates design system compliance at scale. Proven track record driving cross-functional design strategy across network intelligence and financial services platforms.

EXPERIENCE

Cisco ThousandEyes
San Francisco, CA
June 2021 – Present         Lead Product Designer, Design Systems
  • Defined design system governance, contribution model, and documentation standards, reducing designer-to-engineer handoff friction across product teams.
  • Designed a multi-tier, multi-theme token architecture that brought the ThousandEyes app into visual alignment with Cisco’s product ecosystem — and led an AI-automated adoption process that reduced tokenization effort and improved consistency across platforms.
  • Designed a data visualization widget for multiple AI surfaces — an interactive AI Canvas component and a static MCP image for AI IDEs — and authored a surfacing schema, derived from user research and product requirements, that let the AI model choose the right visualization type; shipped a working prototype to engineering.
  • Built an LLM-based audit tool to automate design system compliance review, eliminating manual audit cycles and enabling continuous compliance across product teams.
  • Engineered a design system optimized for AI agent consumption, enabling teams to vibe code and vibe design directly from user research and product requirements.
  • Drove WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across the component library with engineering, meeting regulatory requirements for enterprise customers.

 

Wells Fargo Commercial
San Francisco, CA
May 2018 – June 2021         Lead Visual Designer – Design Systems
  • Led design system visual evolution for Wells Fargo’s commercial banking platform, including CEO — an application processing over $11 trillion annually.
  • Defined component architecture, tokenization strategy, governance frameworks, and accessibility standards across multiple enterprise applications.
  • Managed contractors and coordinated cross-functional stakeholder reviews to align system growth with business, compliance, and engineering requirements.

 

Wells Fargo Innovation
San Francisco, CA
November 2015 – May 2018         UX Designer — Innovation & Commercial Banking
  • R&D product designer (Wells Fargo Innovation) owning end-to-end design — research, experience architecture, interaction and visual design — for new financial products through to engineering handoff for mobile products.
  • Designed features and component specs for commercial banking software (Wells Fargo Commercial), partnering with front-end engineering to deliver accessible, responsive experiences conforming to WCAG standards.

EDUCATION

MFA
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

BFA
Ohio University, Athens, OH

SKILLS

  • Design Systems
  • Design Token Architecture
  • AI-Augmented Workflows
  • LLM-Based Tooling
  • Agentic Prototyping
  • Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA)
  • Interaction Design
  • Figma
  • HTML5 / CSS3
  • Agile Methodology