Julia Barbosa · Principal UX Designer

jsidobarbosa@gmail.com · 617-922-2543

8+ years driving strategy, design systems, and cross-functional UX initiatives at scale. Shaped mobile-first experiences across iOS and Android, responsive web, and CMS experiences spanning consumer-facing and institutional platforms for a Fortune 500 financial company. Led roadmap, design vision, and execution for Fidelity Spire, featured in Apple's App Store "Apps We Love," navigating regulatory constraints and highly cross-functional environments while consistently advocating for the user and balancing business outcomes with user needs. Bridges design and technical execution working directly in Xcode, Android Studio, and Swift alongside engineers. Returning from maternity leave and an intentional career break with fresh perspective and renewed focus.

Experience

Principal Designer · Fidelity Investments · Dec 2020-June 2022
Led UX strategy and product vision for Spire, Fidelity's goals-based financial planning app featured in Apple's App Store "Apps We Love," driving end-to-end feature design across a highly regulated, cross-functional environment.

Designed Guest Membership, a first-of-its-kind prospect experience in financial services, creating a new conversion path where none previously existed; prospect-to-account conversion grew from 4% in early months to 15% by 2021, generating 6,377 new account openings and representing 23% of all in-app account openings that year
Led Student Debt Roundup from Fidelity Labs concept through full design and development. A spare change automation tool projected to save users $826 in interest and cut loan payoff time by 10 months, developed through 24 user interviews and close collaboration with developers, third-party vendors, and business partners
Championed Spire's first native A/B test, extending Adobe Target to native mobile for the first time at Fidelity and establishing the experimentation blueprint adopted across all Fidelity mobile apps; the winning variant increased account opens by 61%, confirmed at 99.9% statistical significance
Spearheaded dark mode design and implementation across all Spire features, producing contrast research that identified color corrections later adopted by the Fidelity flagship app
Built and governed Spire's component library end to end, establishing file structure, documentation, and QA standards, and mentoring designers on usage rules and platform guidelines
Worked directly in Xcode and Android Studio alongside engineers, occasionally writing Swift code to resolve styling challenges and ensure precise implementation

Senior UX Designer · Fidelity Investments · Dec 2017 - Dec 2020
Co-led design and launch of Spire for iOS and Android in August 2020, featured in Apple's App Store "Apps We Love Right Now"

Pioneered Spire's component library aligned with Material Design and HIG guidelines, establishing the first official native app component library and design standards at Fidelity
Designed the FPPA responsive web coaching experience as two distinct flows for prospective and enrolled customers
Participated in pre-release QA alongside engineers, scrutinizing fit and finish integrity across iOS and Android

UX Designer · Fidelity Investments · Oct 2014 - Dec 2017
Designed adaptive and responsive web experiences for Fidelity's institutional advisor-facing platforms.

Led the design of Basis, a reusable component library for WealthCentral and Streetscape (later Wealthscape), establishing a unified visual and interaction language across advisor applications and acting as an internal consultant to adopting teams
Led UI design for the National Financial mobile and tablet app for iOS and Android, the native advisor-facing experience that became part of the Wealthscape platform
Served as a Design Thinking facilitator, leading structured ideation sessions to explore new product concepts and kick off early-stage initiatives

Early Experience (Selected)

Mad*Pow, Design Intern: Assisted on digital UI projects and design collateral

MassArt, Typography TA: Supported design instruction and student critiques
Show Media, London: Assisted with identity development and visual research

Education

Massachusetts College of Art and Design: BFA Graphic Design, 2014; Micro MBA, 2015, Boston MA
Camberwell College of Arts: FdA Graphic Design, London, UK, 2010

Development & Training

Component libraries, design tokens, systematic QA processes, cross-platform design, accessibility standards (WCAG)

Design Leadership 

Designer mentorship and team development, stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, strategic planning

Tools & Technologies 

Figma, FigJam, Framer, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, UserTesting, UserZoom, Wevo, HotJar, Jira, Confluence, Sourcetree

Development Fluency

HTML/CSS, SwiftUI, Xcode, Android Studio

Development & Training 

Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate (In progress) 
GenAI for UX Designers
Influencing with Impact by ICEG
Hacking with Swifts