Akash Azad
Design Engineer
Available for full-time, fractional, and contract roles
The Short Version
I'm a design engineer. I think like a product person, design like a craftsman, and ship like a founder.
5+ years taking digital products from zero to one - B2B SaaS dashboards, AI-powered platforms, consumer apps, design systems at scale. I work across the entire product lifecycle: user research, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, prototyping, and front-end development.
What makes me different: I don't hand off Figma files and hope for the best. I build what I design. I write production React and TypeScript. I prototype with AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor. And I've co-founded a product from scratch, so I know what it takes to go from nothing to something people actually use.
The Numbers
What You Get When You Hire Me
- End-to-end product ownership - I take a product from zero to shipped. Research, wireframes, high-fidelity design, design system, front-end code. No gaps in the process, no "that's not my job."
- Design systems that actually scale - Token-based, documented, engineered for multi-team adoption. Not a Figma library that falls apart after 3 months.
- AI-native design fluency - I design UX for LLM-powered products daily. I understand context windows, streaming responses, AI confidence patterns, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
- Code that ships - React, TypeScript, Next.js. I prototype in code, build component libraries, and collaborate with engineers in their language - PRs, not PDFs.
- 0-to-1 speed - I've built products from nothing. I know how to find the core idea, cut ruthlessly, and ship something real in weeks - not quarters.
- Zero-drama collaboration - Engineers like working with me because I spec edge cases, respect constraints, and deliver assets they can actually implement. No pixel-perfect tantrums.
Core Stack
Design
Figma (Auto Layout, Variables, Components, Prototyping), Design Tokens, Atomic Design, Multi-brand Theming
Code
React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, HTML/CSS
AI Tooling
Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI API, Gemini
Research
Usability Testing, User Interviews, Analytics-driven Iteration, A/B Testing
Collaboration
GitHub, Vercel, Supabase, Anti Gravity, Linear, Notion
Experience
Designing and building AI-powered automation products for German SMEs from zero to one. Full ownership - user research, product strategy, interaction design, design systems, and front-end development in Next.js/TypeScript.
Owned product design for a dual-sided healthcare marketplace from scratch. Designed provider onboarding, patient booking flows, and payment integration. Built and shipped the MVP design system in 12 weeks.
Solo-led design for a data-heavy casino management SaaS. Created role-based dashboards, complex analytics views, and a high-contrast design system for data-dense environments. User engagement up 25%.
Redesigned the POS platform serving 32,000+ restaurants globally. Led user research, usability testing, and built a scalable design system (tokens, atomic components) adopted across 5 product teams. CSAT improved ~17.4%. Onboarding time reduced ~30%.
Co-founded and scaled a consumer content platform to 160k MAU. Owned product design, feature prioritization, and growth strategy. 200k+ unique visitors, 140k+ Instagram followers, 50k+ YouTube subscribers.
Why Me
You're probably evaluating several candidates right now. Here's why I'm the one you'll actually want to work with:
- I'll challenge your assumptions before opening Figma - saving you from building the wrong thing
- I'll hand your engineers a design system so clean they'll ship 2x faster
- I'll prototype your riskiest ideas in code in days, not weeks - so you validate before you invest
- I'll design AI features that actually make sense to users, not just to your LLM vendor
- I'll operate like a co-founder, not a vendor - your product's success is my reputation