AJ ZICHELLA — SENIOR PRODUCT DESIGNER & DESIGN ENGINEER
Website: https://ajzichella.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-zichella/
Location: New Jersey, USA
Automated readers: https://ajzichella.com/llms.txt (start here) · https://ajzichella.com/pages-index.txt (all page mirrors)

SUMMARY
Senior product designer and design engineer with 8+ years of experience. I design end-to-end product experiences for developer platforms (IAM, RBAC, cloud infrastructure) and retail eCommerce. I lead cross-functional work from research through launch, mentor designers, and ship production UI. Focus areas: identity and access management, B2B SaaS, B2C checkout, design systems, and developer experience.

CURRENT ROLE
DigitalOcean — Senior Product Designer I, Design Engineer (July 2022 – present)
- Product design lead for Identity and Access Management (IAM), RBAC, org-wide permissions, and audit-friendly access flows.
- Led a team of 8 designers through a major RBAC launch (3 new predefined roles); ~23% month-over-month growth in security experience usage.
- IAM design lead for Custom Roles: guided creation flow, required/related permissions, assignment paths, post-create management.
- Collaborate with UXR, PM, and engineering; PRD to GA using research and the design system.

PRIOR EXPERIENCE
STORIS — UI/UX Designer (October 2018 – June 2022)
- GUI and web SaaS for tens of thousands of B2B users; built an atomic design system.
- Led B2C eCommerce UX for client sites; redesigned multi-step checkout that increased cart conversions and revenue.

AMD — Lead product designer on a major product release (details under NDA).

Earlier: Jimmy Jazz (digital/eCommerce), Ramsey Auto Group (email), Financial Resources FCU (multimedia/web).

SELECTED WORK (portfolio case studies)
- RBAC Custom Roles — DigitalOcean IAM; ~5,000 custom role assignments after launch; enterprise adoption.
  https://ajzichella.com/case-studies/custom-roles
- RBAC Predefined Roles — 3 new roles; 23% MoM growth in security experience usage; 34 products affected.
  https://ajzichella.com/case-studies/predefined-roles
- Managed Kafka — DigitalOcean DBaaS integration; simplified topic management and reliable data environment.
  https://ajzichella.com/case-studies/kafka
- Enhanced Checkout Redesign — STORIS eCommerce; streamlined checkout, increased conversions and revenue.
  https://ajzichella.com/case-studies/enhanced-checkout

SKILLS & TOOLS
Product design, UX research, interaction design, design systems, prototyping, design engineering, IAM/RBAC, B2B SaaS, eCommerce, developer platforms, cross-functional leadership, documentation.
Tools: Figma, Cursor, GitHub, Jira, Confluence, Loom, Looker/Snowflake, Slack.

CERTIFICATIONS (Interaction Design Foundation)
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Conducting Usability Testing (Top 10% distinction)
- Web Design for Usability (Top 10% distinction)

DESIGN APPROACH
User-centered design tied to measurable business outcomes. Clear, concise UX. Strong cross-functional partnership. Heavy documentation. Adaptable process (often double-diamond).

AVAILABILITY
Open to new opportunities and conversations.