CV / Sam Marks

Sam Marks

Design Leader

I help businesses:

01
Drive growth
I find where users drop off and remove the friction, so more of them convert.
02
Ship faster with less rework
I align design, product and engineering early, so teams build the right thing first time.
03
Own design end to end
I build and run a strong team, so you can focus on the roadmap.

Experience

Director of User Experience

Apr 2023 to Jun 2026

Head of Product Design

Jun 2022 to Apr 2023

Staffing marketplace · 240,000+ workers · UK and US

01
Grew the marketplace. Cut worker onboarding from 27 steps to 7 and made it 80% faster, so more shifts were filled and more clients won.
02
Cut costly rework. A weekly show and tell and one shared process, later with AI tools, got designs right earlier with fewer edits and meetings.
03
Built a team of 17 the business trusted. Grew design from 10 to 17 across the UK and US, owning hiring, budget and goals.

Head of Product Design

Mar 2020 to Jun 2022

Cannes Lions and Ascential’s global digital products

01
Protected the festival’s revenue. Took Cannes Lions online in under two months when COVID cancelled it; Gold Award 2020.
02
Got every team behind one platform. Digital went from a sideline to the centre of the business.
03
Rebuilt the design team in 3 months. Hired 4 designers, fully remote, at the start of COVID.

Creative Director

Mar 2019 to Mar 2020

UX Lead

Sep 2016 to Mar 2019

Global technology company with no design offer

01
Created a new revenue stream. Built a design consultancy from scratch and won the UAL redesign from a technology only contract.
02
Cut wasted time and cost. Consolidated toolsets and matched each project to the right designer, so smaller jobs took less time.
03
Built and led a team of 8. Ran UK design consulting across London, Edinburgh and Poland.

Padel and fitness, travelling, photography and the history of Italian football stadia

Design Leader