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Rahul B

Senior UX Designer @Amazon

I’m Rahul B, a Senior UX Designer with over 12 years of experience across Amazon, Microsoft, and eBay. My career didn’t follow a straight line — it started in graphic design, moved through research and product thinking, and grew into design leadership through the work itself, not the title.

At Amazon, where I’ve spent the last nine years, I’ve led design for seller-facing products that scaled from 10K to over 1 million users, launched over 100 products across multiple platforms, and built design frameworks now used by 100+ designers globally. I’ve mentored teams across vastly different backgrounds and career stages, driven cross-functional alignment across 18 countries, and spoken at Amazon Conflux in Seattle and APAC. I’m currently based in Luxembourg, leading EU compliance design teams — work that sits at the intersection of regulatory complexity and human-centred experience.

My education spans the National Institute of Design, an Executive General Management Programme at IIM Bangalore, and Universal Design Thinking at HTW Berlin — because I’ve always believed great design lives at the intersection of craft, systems, and business.

Speech: UX Leadership by Design: 
Influence Systems for Non-Linear Careers

Not everyone in UX follows a clean, linear path into leadership. Some of us start in graphic design, some in research, some in code — and many grow into influential roles long before we get the title. This talk explores how leadership in design is not about hierarchy; it’s about systems of influence. From owning decisions to shaping cross-functional outcomes, leadership is something you design intentionally through behaviour, clarity, and communication.

Drawing from more than a decade of navigating IC and leadership roles across Amazon, Microsoft, and global teams, I’ll break down the invisible skills that matter: how to communicate decisions, how to frame problems for teams, how to drive alignment without authority, and how to build trust across cultures and time zones. These are the practical influence patterns that helped me guide teams across 18 countries, lead compliance initiatives, and mentor designers with very different backgrounds and career paths.

This session is built for anyone who feels their career isn’t following the “standard” leadership ladder. You’ll walk away with clear, repeatable systems — decision frameworks, communication rituals, self-alignment tools, and influence techniques — that help you grow into leadership from wherever you currently stand.

Key Takeaways

  1. A practical influence framework for designers at any level — tools to drive outcomes, create clarity, and lead without formal authority.
  2. How to turn messy, non-linear career paths into strengths — using your unique background to shape your leadership identity.
  3. Communication and decision rituals that build trust — how to present work, manage ambiguity, and align teams across orgs and cultures.
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