Aaron Merritt ~ Resume

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.

Cisco ThousandEyes

San Francisco, CA

June 2020 – Present         Lead Product Designer, Design Systems

• Designed a 3-tier token architecture (4,000+ tokens, 3 themes) that brought the ThousandEyes app into visual alignment with Cisco’s product ecosystem — resolving a cross-product consistency gap between incompatible tech stacks.
• Lead designer on AI Canvas — a Cisco AI product enabling customers to query their network in natural language, returning answers as data visualizations; defined the base template system and core interaction patterns shipped to production.
• Built an LLM-based audit tool to automate design system compliance review, eliminating manual audit cycles and enabling continuous compliance across product teams.
• Developed and led a process to automate design token generation via AI, reducing tokenization effort and improving consistency across themes and platforms.
• Drove WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across the component library with engineering, meeting regulatory requirements for enterprise customers.
• Defined Figma library governance, contribution model, and documentation standards, reducing designer-to-engineer handoff friction across product teams.

Wells Fargo Commercial

San Francisco, CA

May 2018 – June 2020         Lead Product Designer

• Led design system 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.
• 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.

MFA
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

BFA
Ohio University, Athens, OH

• 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