Levi Bahn

DESIGN LEADER — CRAFT, SYSTEMS & TRANSFORMATION

20 years of hands-on craft that scaled into enterprise impact. I build the infrastructure that makes great work repeatable: the team, the system, the standard. Most recently at Sallie Mae, leading the redesign of a flagship B2C app and borrower journey that contributed to $2B in student loan originations and reduced call center OPEX by $10M annually.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Transformation Leadership:
Omnichannel Orchestration, Digital Modernization, Change Management.
Strategy & Innovation:
Product/Business Strategy, AI Integration & Automated Workflows, UX Strategy.
Operational Excellence:
Scalable Design Systems, Resource Optimization, Vendor Management.
Specialized Insights:
Behavioral Economics (The Behavior Layer), Information Architecture, User Research.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Sallie MaeSenior Director Experience Design2023–2026

  • Revenue Growth & Conversion: Led the redesign of key student loan marketing and application journeys, improving clarity and conversion while contributing to a $2B increase in student loan originations.
  • Product Innovation & Roadmap: Led the ground-up redesign of the flagship native app and web ecosystem, unifying a fragmented multi-app journey into a single, high-conversion B2C experience built on a coherent design language and information architecture.
  • Scalable Design Systems: Directed the expansion of the enterprise design system from 30% to 100% adoption across the entire student lifecycle, ensuring brand parity and code-base efficiency.
  • AI-Enabled Workflows: Redesigned the design-to-development handoff using AI-enabled workflows, eliminating 40% of manual tasks and cutting time-to-market by 25% without reducing output quality or team ownership.
  • Operational Lift: Borrower-journey redesign work contributed to a $10M annual reduction in call center OPEX through improved self-service clarity and reduced borrower confusion.

AT&TAssociate Director CX Design2020–2023

  • Organizational Architecture: Built the CX Design function from zero — hired and developed a team of 4 to 17 practitioners, establishing craft standards, design critique culture, and career development infrastructure.
  • Human-Assist Integration: Architected the integration of Salesforce platforms for retail and call-center agents, connecting the human-assist experience with digital self-service so a customer’s context survived the handoff.
  • Product Roadmap Stewardship: Influenced multi-year roadmaps by balancing aggressive corporate KPIs with user-centric needs, ensuring consistent growth across Digital, Retail, and Care sectors.

AT&TAssociate Director UX Strategy2018–2020

  • The Behavior Layer: Originated a design framework embedding cognitive psychology into the product lifecycle. Measurably increased user trust and financial decision-making speed; now foundational to how the team approaches every major interaction surface.
  • International Scale: Led design strategy for high-stakes global initiatives, including AT&T One, International Travel platforms, and Credit Policy digitizations.

AT&TSenior Lead Product Designer2017–2018

  • Acquisition Growth: Optimized DTVNow acquisition funnels through Agile-led design system enhancements, significantly boosting retention across Wireless, Internet, and TV bundles.

EveryWearLead Product Designer2016–2017

  • AI/ML Stylist Tool: Led end-to-end design for a stylist tool built on the company’s proprietary CRM data and machine-learning algorithms.
  • Strategic Growth: Influenced new contract acquisitions by leading high-level design pitches to Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, and Nordstrom.

Sony MusicArt Director2010–2016

  • E-commerce & White-Label Platforms: Directed UX for 5 white-label platforms and managed high-profile IPs for AC/DC, Miles Davis, and the NFL.

Self-EmployedFreelance Web, Print, Environmental Graphics2005–2010

EDUCATION

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY — B.F.A. Communication Design, 2005