Joelson Leal

head of design at hello.cv • product designer & UX engineer

London, United Kingdom.

Portfolio

Overview

About

Education

Work

Awards

Languages

Certificates

Skills

About

I’m a Product Designer and UX engineer working on shaping a smarter, more intuitive job-search and professional identity experience in the AI era. With almost a decade of professional experience in tech and design, I’ve held leadership roles such as VP of Product Operations at...

Education

Sep 2024 → Sep 2025 ·

User Experience Engineering

Goldsmiths, University of London

Jun 2022 → Jul 2022 ·

Public Management

Arizona State University

Work

Oct 2025 ·

hello.cv, Inc.

Head of Design

Sep 2022 ·

Kriolish, Inc.

Senior Product Designer

Awards

Mandela Washington Fellow

Recognized as a Young African Leader, participating in a flagship program designed to empower young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking.

UX Awards (IDZ) Autumn 2025 Nominated for New Talent

Languages

English

Fluent

Portuguese

Native

Certificates

Jan 2023·

Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design

Google

Skills

Leadership & Strategy

Product Strategy, Design Operations, Cross-functional Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management

Product Design

Figma, Design Systems, Wireframing, UI Design, Interaction Design, UX Design, Claude Code, Lovable, Claude Design

Goldsmiths, University of London

London, England, UK

Sep 2024

→

Sep 2025

Arizona State University

Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America

Jun 2022

→

Jul 2022

University of Cabo Verde

Praia, Cabo Verde

Jan 2010

→

Dec 2014

hello.cv, Inc.

Head of Design

Austin, Texas, United Sates

Oct 2025

→

Present

Full-time (Remote)

Kriolish, Inc.

Senior Product Designer

Boston (Remote), MA, United States

Sep 2022

→

Present

Part-time

Led the redesign of a crowdsourced language learning platform, significantly enhancing usability and visual consistency across diverse devices.

Increased user engagement by 40% through iterative prototyping, comprehensive usability testing, and strategic design optimizations.

ola.cv, Inc

VP of Product Operations

Praia, Cabo Verde

Jan 2024

→

Sep 2024

Full-time (Remote)

Directed product operations to enhance service delivery for the .CV top-level domain through strategic design and implementation of support infrastructure.

Designed and implemented automated support channels and comprehensive multilingual knowledge bases for the .CV top-level domain.

Improved support response time by 70% and reduced user drop-off through the implementation of user-centered support workflows.

Cabo Verde Digital (Government Program)

Design and Innovation Manager

Praia, Cabo Verde

Jan 2021

→

Dec 2023

Full-time

Managed design and innovation strategies for digital transformation initiatives, driving growth across public and private sectors.

Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries

Advisor for Branding and Marketing

Praia, Cabo Verde

Jan 2019

→

Dec 2021

Full-time

Developed and executed impactful cultural campaigns that significantly boosted public engagement and promoted national identity through strategic branding.

Created and successfully launched cultural campaigns that boosted public engagement by 20% through targeted digital outreach and strategic branding initiatives.

Provided expert advisory on national initiatives, leveraging strategic design thinking and public messaging to effectively promote local identity.

Bonako

Lead Product Designer

Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde

Jan 2016

→

Dec 2019

Directed design and shipped four digital products (Muska, MyUnitel, RTC App, Passafree), focusing on UI consistency and UX coherence. Collaborated with engineers to ship cross-platform features on time. Translated product requirements into interfaces, resulting in over 100K user adoption across platforms.

Mandela Washington Fellow

Recognized as a Young African Leader, participating in a flagship program designed to empower young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking.

UX Awards (IDZ) Autumn 2025 Nominated for New Talent

#IDC2025 research and design challenge, Design Concepts

Chevening Scholarship

Jul 2024

Prestigious, fully funded merit-based award by the UK Government, recognizing outstanding leaders with vision and potential to drive positive global change.

Leadership & Strategy

Product Strategy, Design Operations, Cross-functional Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Digital Transformation, Innovation Management.

Product Design

Figma, Design Systems, Wireframing, UI Design, Interaction Design, UX Design, Claude Code, Lovable, Claude Design.

UX Research

Usability Testing (Moderated), Survey Design, User Personas, Journey Mapping, Co-Design Workshop, Interviews, Cognitive Walkthrough, Problem Framing.

Frontend Collaboration

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Storybook, Developer Handoff, Vibe Coding.

Joelson Leal

head of design at hello.cv • product designer & UX engineer

Goldsmiths, University of London

Arizona State University

University of Cabo Verde

hello.cv, Inc.

Kriolish, Inc.

ola.cv, Inc

Cabo Verde Digital (Government Program)

Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries

Bonako

Mandela Washington Fellow

UX Awards (IDZ) Autumn 2025 Nominated for New Talent

#IDC2025 research and design challenge, Design Concepts

Chevening Scholarship

English

Portuguese

Caboverdean Creole

French (Learning)

Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design

Leadership & Strategy

Product Design

UX Research

Frontend Collaboration