Available for the right opportunity

Sujilesh
KK

Senior Design Manager & UI/UX Lead with 16 years crafting digital products across UAE, Saudi Arabia & India. Blending design craft with front-end engineering to ship products that work.

16
Years Experience
5+
Products Shipped
2K+
Corporate Clients
2
Co-Founded Startups
View My Work Get In Touch ↓ Download CV
About Me

Design leader.
Engineer at heart.

I'm a design and product leader with 16 years of experience spanning UI/UX, front-end engineering, and end-to-end product delivery across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and India.

I've built design teams from zero, shipped high-traffic consumer platforms, and co-founded two hospitality tech ventures Stayhopper and Daycation. I bring rare depth across design craft, React and Next.js engineering, and product strategy.

Known for building design systems, mentoring teams, and translating user insights into measurable business outcomes. Selected as a Top 10 Finalist at the Dubai Tourism Futurism Programme 2019 from 155 global startups.

Education: Diploma in Animation, ARENA Animation.

Design Leadership

  • Design Systems
  • UI/UX Strategy
  • Figma & Prototyping
  • User Research / A/B
  • Design Tokens
  • Accessibility (WCAG)
  • AI-Assisted Design

Front-End Engineering

  • React & Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Chakra UI / ShadCN
  • Motion / Animation
  • REST APIs / GraphQL
  • Web Performance

Product & Delivery

  • Agile / Scrum
  • Sprint Planning
  • Cross-functional Teams
  • Stakeholder Comms
  • OKRs

Tools & Platforms

  • Figma / FigJam
  • Storybook / GitHub
  • JIRA / Confluence
  • Hotjar / Analytics
  • Cursor / Claude / Figma AI
Selected Work

Products I've
helped ship.

Musafir Business
↗
B2B Travel Platform · UAE / Qatar / India

Musafir Business

Designed and built a corporate travel platform scaling to 2,000+ companies across UAE, Qatar and India, processing 600,000+ transactions in 2022 with 20% average savings on travel spend.

UI/UX Design System React
Tameeni
↗
InsurTech · Saudi Arabia

Tameeni

Led UX strategy and product design for one of Saudi Arabia's leading insurance comparison platforms, improving user flows and conversion across web and mobile.

UX Strategy InsurTech Mobile
AwalMazad
↗
Online Auction · Saudi Arabia

AwalMazad

Designed the end-to-end experience for a real-time online auction platform, crafting intuitive bidding flows, live status indicators, and a scalable design system.

Product Design Real-time UI Design Tokens
Rasan
↗
B2B SaaS · Saudi Arabia

Rasan

Joined with no in-house designers. Built a team of 6+, created the design system from scratch, established review processes, and introduced AI tool enablement across the team.

Design Leadership Design System Team Building
Stayhopper
↗
Hospitality Tech · Co-Founded Startup · UAE

Stayhopper

Co-founded a hospitality tech startup. Selected Top 10 Finalist from 155 global startups at Dubai Tourism Futurism 2019. Pitched at GITEX and gained strategic engagement from Emirates Group.

Co-Founder Product Design GITEX Finalist
⚡
Performance · Hackathon Win

30% Mobile Performance Boost

Collaborated with Google engineers during a hackathon to reduce mobile site load time by 30%, directly improving user retention and engagement metrics across a high-traffic platform.

Performance Google Collab Front-End
Own Startup : Figma Design Access

Stayhopper UI

View Figma Design →

Daycation UI

View Figma Design →
Key Achievements

Numbers that
tell the story.

Top 10 Global Finalist

Dubai Tourism Futurism Programme 2019 — selected from 155 global startups. Pitched at GITEX Future Stars.

600K+

600K+ Transactions

Musafir Biz processed 600,000+ transactions in 2022, serving 2,000+ corporate clients across UAE, Qatar & India.

30% FASTER

30% Faster Load Time

Collaborated with Google engineers to reduce mobile site load time by 30%, boosting retention and engagement.

Design Team from Zero

At Rasan, built a design team of 6+ designers from scratch, created the design system and AI tool enablement process.

Experience

16 years.
Across 3 countries.

Aug 2019 — Apr 2026

Design & Front-End Lead

Rasan · Insurance & Fintech SaaS · Dubai, UAE

Built the design function from zero. Hired and led a team of 6+ designers, created the design system from scratch, established review processes, and introduced AI tool enablement across the team. Delivered end-to-end product experiences using React, Next.js, Figma, and AI-assisted workflows.

2025 — Present

Founder, Product & Technology Lead

Daycation Pass · Hospitality Tech · Dubai, UAE

Founded a hospitality tech platform focused on day-use hotel and leisure experiences. Leading product strategy, UI/UX design, and technology direction end-to-end.

2021 — Present

Co-Founder & UI/UX Lead

Stayhopper · Hospitality Tech · Dubai, UAE

Co-founded a hospitality tech startup focused on airline layover experiences. Top 10 Finalist at Dubai Tourism Futurism Programme 2019 from 155 global startups. Pitched at GITEX Future Stars, gaining strategic engagement from Emirates Group's Head of Innovation.

Sep 2013 — Apr 2019

Senior UI/UX Engineer & Product Designer

Musafir.com · UAE's first OTA · Sharjah, UAE

Designed and shipped Musafir Business, a B2B corporate travel platform scaling to 2,000+ companies across UAE, Qatar and India, processing 600,000+ transactions in 2022 with 20% average savings on travel spend.

Mar 2012 — Aug 2013

UI Engineer

RM plc (RMESI) · Technopark, Trivandrum, India

Built UI components and interfaces for education technology products serving international markets. Worked closely with cross-functional teams on front-end engineering and interface design.

Sep 2011 — Mar 2012

UI Engineer

Quadrant 4 Systems Corporation · Chennai, India

Developed web UI components and interfaces for enterprise software products, contributing to front-end engineering across multiple client projects.

Sep 2009 — Sep 2011

Web UI Developer

PIT Solutions · Technopark, Trivandrum, India

Developed web interfaces and UI components for client projects across e-commerce, media, and enterprise verticals. Gained foundational experience in front-end development and design systems.

May 2008 — Sep 2009

Web & Graphic Designer

RISCE Systems Pvt Ltd · Kochi, India

Started career designing websites and graphic assets for clients across various industries. Built a strong foundation in visual design, typography, and web UI across branding and digital projects.

Get In Touch

Let's build
something great.

Beyond client work, I think deeply about how design systems are built, maintained, and scaled, and how AI is changing that work underneath product teams. I've spent 16 years at the intersection of design craft and front-end engineering, building systems that serve both designers and developers.

If you're working through something in that space, scaling a design system, introducing AI tooling to your workflow, or building a design function from scratch, I'm happy to have that conversation.

hello@sujilesh.com in LinkedIn ↓ Download Resume