I design for the org chart and the model, not just the screen.
Vinoth Kumar Manickam, Lead / Staff Product Designer, 11+ years in enterprise software, fintech infrastructure and regulated AI products.
- Complex enterprise software
- AI-enabled, human-in-the-loop workflows
- Fintech and regulated systems
- Developer platforms
- Design systems
- Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA)
- Product strategy
- Cross-functional and executive influence
InMobi → Cropin → Atlassian → Esper → Vanguard → PayPal → Fannie Mae has been the same job under different skins: turn dense, governed systems into tools people can actually operate. I work end-to-end across framing, research, IA, interaction, systems, prototypes and shipping, usually as the senior-most designer in the room.
I am explicit about authority. At Fannie Mae I decided design direction and the functional definition of the platform; model-policy approval stayed with risk governance. That distinction holds in every case study on this site.
How I operate
01
Frame the system
Map the policy, the roles and what the model is actually accountable for.
02
Define accountability
Name who decides, who reviews and who can override — before any screen exists.
03
Design the human-AI decision
Confidence, lineage and override paths staged for the moment of judgment.
04
Measure the outcome
Instrument cycle time and error rate against a baseline agreed up front.
Experience
11+ years. Official employment titles only. Functional scope is described separately and never merged into a title.
Fannie Mae
Jul 2023 — Aug 2026
Lead UX Designer
MUSE — enterprise Model Risk Management platform
Workflow research, interaction architecture, IA, governance patterns, usability validation and design QA across the model lifecycle.
Read the Fannie Mae case studyPayPal
Oct 2021 — Jun 2023
Senior Product Designer
Developer portal & authorization tooling
Design lead for the portal and documentation experience, IA strategy, and the ML-assisted Authorization Report for U.K. and EU merchants.
Read the PayPal case studyVanguard
Oct 2019 — Sep 2021
Senior UX Designer
UHNW crypto-enabled giving portal
Cause discovery, multi-asset transfer flows, parallel signature orchestration and post-settlement tax delivery.
Read the Vanguard case studyEsper
Apr 2018 — Oct 2019
Senior Product Designer
Sole designer, device-management platform
IA, workflows, high-fidelity UI and the Figma design system for 0→1.
Atlassian
Jul 2017 — Mar 2018
UX Designer
Jira search and data-density patterns
JQL search experience, filters, shared dashboards, table pattern.
Cropin
May 2016 — Jun 2017
UX Designer
Field-operations mobile app
Research, IA, prototypes and in-field usability testing.
InMobi
Jan 2015 — Apr 2016
Sr. UX Designer
Mobile ad creative and commerce patterns
Ad creatives, checkout flows and wallet integrations.
Earlier — Project Engineer, Minimelt (2008 — 2014).
Leadership and collaboration
No direct reports. Influence came from design direction, evidence and facilitation across risk, product and engineering.
- Led
Design as the sole product designer
- Served as the sole product designer for MUSE, setting product design direction across the model lifecycle while partnering with product, engineering, validators and model-risk governance.
- Decided
Product architecture and interaction direction
- Decided the MUSE information architecture and stage model. Model-policy approval stayed with risk governance — I did not own that decision.
- Recommended
Strategy that changed a roadmap
- Recommended that PayPal treat integration delay as an information-architecture problem; product accepted it and redirected the portal roadmap.
- Facilitated
Alignment across risk, product and engineering
- Facilitated gate-ownership negotiation with model-risk governance and presented direction to Director, Senior Director and VP stakeholders.
Model risk officers, validators, product managers, engineering leads and compliance partners owned policy authority, instrumentation and implementation. Presented to Director, Senior Director and VP stakeholders.
Current availability
Available now · Austin, TX · Onsite, hybrid, or remote · Authorized to work in the U.S.. Open to Lead and Staff Product Designer roles.