Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Websites
Timeline
Awards
Additional Experience
Generic

Nat Sims

Portland

Summary

Dynamic UX Designer, Product Leader, and Creative Director with deep expertise in design, development, and leading cross-functional teams. Creator of award-winning interactive media and enterprise-scale UX projects for high-profile organizations, including Amazon, Showtime, and Sesame Street. Architect of the bestselling Peekaboo Barn and its successful licensing program, demonstrating a strong ability to align creative vision with organizational objectives while managing multi-million-dollar budgets. Recognized with numerous industry fellowships, patents, and innovation awards, reflecting a commitment to excellence and forward-thinking in the design field.

Overview

19
19
years of professional experience

Work History

Freelance UX Designer

Various Clients
01.2024 - 01.2025
  • Developed proprietary corporate websites that improved lead conversion by 18%.

Senior UX Designer

Centene
01.2023 - 01.2023
  • Crafted and built the prototype for a Fortune 50 company’s internal accounts management tool with HIPAA safeguards, reducing processing time by 30%.
  • Leveraged AI-driven design tools to accelerate prototyping, cutting concept-to-asset time by 5 days.

Principal UX Designer

StepLadder UX
01.2022 - 01.2023
  • Directed design teams delivering commercial websites that increased client site traffic by 25% within 6 months.
  • Engineered scalable branding and design systems, reducing design/production time by 30%.

Senior UX Designer

Amazon
01.2022 - 01.2022
  • Designed interactive features for Kindle and Amazon Books Studio, driving a 45% increase in user engagement.
  • Coordinated cross-team collaboration across 50+ stakeholders to deliver user-centric features on schedule.
  • Led advanced Figma workshops, training 20 designers and reducing design cycle time by 65%.

Founder & Studio Director

Lightseed
01.2018 - 01.2022
  • Built and led a cross-disciplinary team of 15, creating VR games used in 50 schools/programs.
  • Drove product management from concept to launch, achieving a 92% user satisfaction rate in testing.
  • Mentored 3 junior designers, resulting in a 40% increase in team output.

Founding Designer & CEO

Night & Day Studios
01.2006 - 01.2018
  • Founded and scaled an educational game company, releasing 100+ apps played over 150M times, achieving 22% market share in the kids’ five-and-under app category.
  • Managed multi-million-dollar budgets and teams of up to 80, consistently delivering projects on time and within budget.
  • Negotiated licensing deals with partners like Sesame Street, DreamWorks, and HarperCollins, increasing revenue streams by 65%.

Education

M.A. - Communication

University of California, San Diego

B.A. - UX Design

Hampshire College

Skills

  • Leadership & Team Management Strategic Planning & Execution Agile & Scrum Methodologies
  • UX Design & User Research Customer-Centered Design & Service Design EdTech & Learning Experience Design
  • Prompt Engineering Wireframing & Prototyping Design Thinking Accessibility & Visual Design
  • Product & Project Management Stakeholder Engagement Brand & Content Strategy
  • Tools: Figma, Framer, Midjourney, Adobe CS, Unity, Jira, Azure DevOps, Git, Ableton Live

Websites

Timeline

Freelance UX Designer

Various Clients
01.2024 - 01.2025

Senior UX Designer

Centene
01.2023 - 01.2023

Principal UX Designer

StepLadder UX
01.2022 - 01.2023

Senior UX Designer

Amazon
01.2022 - 01.2022

Founder & Studio Director

Lightseed
01.2018 - 01.2022

Founding Designer & CEO

Night & Day Studios
01.2006 - 01.2018

B.A. - UX Design

Hampshire College

M.A. - Communication

University of California, San Diego

Awards

Meta Quest (Oculus) Launch Pad Fellowship (twice), Magic Leap Creators Grant Winner; Best Kids App: Peekaboo Barn, Parents Magazine; Digital Ragazzi Winner, Bologna Children’s Book Fair; Instructor of the Year, UCSD Department of Communication

Additional Experience

Front-line customer service as Lyft driver and gourmet grocery lead cashier — a refresher course in applying empathy and real-world service design insights.

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Nat Sims