Jillian Milja

Jillian Milja

Product Designer in San Francisco, she/her

About

My M.O. is to leave things better than I found them. Never one to be confined by ladders, I intentionally craft my career to inspire new perspectives and add richness to the experiences I get to co-create.

I’m currently focused on growth at Apartment List. Before that? I was the founding designer for a startup that was named in Forbes’ Next Billion Dollar Startups. I also have a background in finance and, in college, studied the intersection of human behavior and social systems. Growing up, I “worked” at my family’s resort (from housekeeping to running a kid's recreation program and flippin’ burgers). To say I’m people and service-obsessed would be an understatement.

At my core, I’m a human-centered yet business-minded product designer with an entrepreneurial drive to make beautiful things simply work better.

Work Experience

2023 — Now
Product Designer, Growth at Apartment List
San Francisco, California
2018 — 2023
Product Designer at Self
San Francisco, California

Evolved my craft through mentorship and apprenticeship programs (trained by experts from Airbnb, Apple, Dropbox, and Meta) and worked on select web projects.

2021 — 2022
Founding Product Designer at Firstbase
San Francisco, California

Established a revamped UI and design system library, informed a strategic vision for our 2022 product roadmap that delivered a more cohesive and intuitive customer experience, and helped build the product design team.

Founded the design team rhythms and documentation practice, planned and co-led collaborative workshops, mentored new designers, and conducted routine customer and industry research efforts.

Executed on envisioning, delivering, and iterating on our admin and end-user customer in-app experiences.

2021 — 2022
Product Designer at Upperstudy
San Francisco, California

Partnered with Upperstudy to help establish design practices at startups.

2016 — 2019
Corporate Governance and Development at Square
San Francisco, California

I helped mature the Corporate Governance and Development practice for Square as it grew as a business and brand post-IPO.

Facilitated strategic direction and collaboration among content creators for our annual policy reviews, delivered strategic insights and content for Board meeting presentation materials, and managed due diligence for capital markets and M&A transactions.

Built efficient processes that bolstered the team's foundation and promoted greater productivity and cross-functional collaboration, including a strategic roadmap that improved excellence in delivery and accountability.

2013 — 2016
Global Capital Markets at Citigroup
New York, New York

Drove documentation, negotiation, and transaction execution across global capital market deals.

Oversaw and negotiated 30+ work streams at once while influencing cross-functional alignment amongst internal partners, external advisors, and clients.

Spearheaded redesign of transaction documentation to achieve consistency and alignment with industry best practices.

Took the lead in the design, development, and implementation of a global training program; mentored three team members and co-led internal training for 60+ associates for M&A negotiations.

2012 — 2013
Researcher at SMGately Consulting

Education

2018 — 2019
Visual Design and UX Design at General Assembly
San Francisco, California
2010 — 2012
Bachelors in Sociology and Justice Studies at University of New Hampshire

Contact

Twitter