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CJ JORDY
About

I DESIGN FOR
PLACES OTHERS
WON'T GO.

Regulated industries. Complex stakeholders. High stakes. I'm the UX leader you bring in when the problem is hard, the compliance requirements are real, and getting it wrong isn't an option.

12+
Years in UX leadership
8+
Regulated industries
8yr
U.S. Army service
6
Countries mentored in
01 — The Story

NOT THE
TYPICAL PATH

I didn't come up through a design school or a tech company. Before I was a UX leader, I was a 19D Cavalry Scout in the U.S. Army — a reconnaissance specialist who led teams on critical missions, mentored soldiers above his grade level, and made high-stakes decisions with incomplete information.

That background isn't decorative. It's why I can manage 12 direct reports across 5 simultaneous projects without losing clarity. It's why I stay calm when a stakeholder meeting derails, when a compliance team pushes back on a core design decision, or when research reveals that everything needs to change one week before a sprint review.

After leaving the military in 2010, I transitioned into UX through a combination of curiosity, hustle, and the realization that design was just problem-solving with a human at the center — something I'd been doing my whole career, just without the title.

Over the next 12+ years I worked across nuclear power, insurance, fintech, cybersecurity, government contracting, military retail, and gamification — not because I couldn't pick a lane, but because breadth is a superpower when your clients operate in regulated, high-stakes spaces. I understand the constraints. I speak the compliance language. I know what patterns fail under scrutiny.

I also built proprietary methodologies — a 2-week sprint-aligned research cycle and the G/B/D/O feedback format — that outlasted my time on the teams that use them. That's the measure I care about: did I leave the team better than I found it?

Currently
Available for senior, lead, and director-level UX roles. Open to regulated industries, enterprise software, and high-stakes consumer products.
Based In
United States · Open to remote and hybrid engagements globally
Specializes In
Regulated UX · Gamification · Design Leadership · Sprint Research · Multi-team Management
Won't Do
Dark patterns. Cosmetic redesigns with no research. Design by committee. Projects where user welfare is deprioritized to hit a metric.
Contact
cjjordyii@gmail.com · 607-437-0372
02 — What I Believe

THE PRINCIPLES
I DESIGN BY

01
🔬

RESEARCH ISN'T A PHASE

Research that happens before design and never again isn't research — it's permission. Real insight requires continuous contact with users, even in the middle of a sprint. Especially in the middle of a sprint.

02
⚖️

COMPLIANCE AND UX CAN COEXIST

I've heard "we can't do that, compliance won't allow it" used to shut down good design more times than I can count. Usually the real problem is that no one tried hard enough to find the third option.

03
🎯

SIMPLICITY IS EARNED

Simple experiences are the hardest to make. They require deep understanding of the user, the business, and the constraints — and the discipline to cut everything that doesn't serve all three.

04
👥

DESIGN IS A TEAM SPORT

The best work I've ever done was never mine alone. It came from teams that were psychologically safe enough to challenge each other and confident enough in the research to argue the user's case.

05
📣

STAKEHOLDERS DESERVE HONESTY

Delivering hard findings with clarity — not softened to the point of uselessness — is a service to the business. My G/B/D/O format exists because stakeholders deserve to know what's actually broken.

06
🌱

LEAVE THINGS BETTER

Every team I lead, every methodology I introduce, every mentorship relationship I take seriously — the goal is that it outlasts my time there. The best thing I can do is make myself replaceable.

03 — What Makes Me Different

THE THINGS
YOU CAN'T
FAKE

Experience breadth isn't just a resume bullet. It's the ability to walk into a new regulated environment and immediately recognize the patterns — what works, what fails under compliance scrutiny, and where the real user pain usually hides.

01

Military Background as a Leadership Foundation

8 years of leading people under real pressure teaches you things that no management training can replicate — how to stay calm in ambiguity, how to prioritize ruthlessly, and how to develop people who outperform expectations.

Most UX leaders have managed people. Few have led teams in genuinely high-stakes environments before their first design job. That gap matters when things get hard.

02

Cross-Industry Regulatory Fluency

Banking, insurance, nuclear, government, cybersecurity — each has its own compliance language, its own failure modes, and its own way of blocking good design. I've navigated all of them.

A designer who's only worked in consumer tech doesn't know what they don't know. Regulated industry experience is additive — it makes you better in every environment.

03

Gamification as a Design Discipline

Four levels of Octalysis certification — applied to real products in banking, cybersecurity, and military retail. Not badges on top of bad UX, but behavioral design baked into the product structure.

Most designers treat gamification as a visual layer. Certified Octalysis practitioners treat it as a systems design challenge. There are very few of us at this certification level.

04

Proprietary Methodologies That Outlast the Engagement

The 2-week sprint research cycle and G/B/D/O readout format aren't LinkedIn content — they're operational tools that teams still use after I've moved on. That's the proof of concept.

Any designer can do research. Fewer can build a research system that a team adopts and maintains independently. That's the difference between a practitioner and a leader.

04 — Industries & Approach

WHERE I'VE
OPERATED

The breadth isn't accidental. Each industry added a new constraint set, a new compliance language, and a new category of user problems that I now carry into every engagement. Cross-industry pattern recognition is genuinely rare — and it shows up immediately in how I approach discovery.

I don't need six weeks of ramp time in a new regulated space. I arrive with a working hypothesis about where the friction will be, what the compliance team will push back on, and what the users have probably been workarounding for years. I'm usually right enough to be useful on day one.

🏦
Fintech / Banking
GravyStack · USAA · Multiple banking clients
🛡️
Insurance
Property, Small Business, Claims UX
🔐
Cybersecurity
MITRE ATT&CK · Gov-adjacent platforms
⚛️
Nuclear Power
Safety-critical system design
🏛️
Government
Federal contracting · Compliance UX
🎮
Gamification
Octalysis-certified · Applied to 3+ products
🪖
Military / Tactical
Rogue Dynamics · Mil/LEO user research
🛒
Retail / eCommerce
Small business · Tactical gear · Apparel

NOW YOU KNOW
WHO I AM.
LET'S TALK.

I'm actively looking for senior, lead, and director-level UX roles where strong design and strong leadership both matter.

Get In Touch → See the Work View Resume