Justin Guardiani

UI Design Manager & Project Manager, Contractor · Ascendum

Remote

Contract engagement embedded with Ascendum's client-facing UX/UI practice, running point on Norfolk Southern's design and development pipeline. Split time between day-to-day delivery management and an internal push to bring AI tooling into the team's design workflow.

• Used AI to ingest and refine Norfolk Southern's sprint backlog, removing redundant user stories and sharpening the rest for designer-specific needs; cut a 10-sprint scoped design initiative to 7 (30%), then reinvested the reclaimed sprints into de-risking mobile-device workflows rather than closing the engagement early.
• Applied AI tools to build workflow and code frameworks directly in Figma, replacing multiple rounds of developer review with real-time refinement in hand-off calls, and packaged the process into a reusable, client-facing capability deployable across future agency engagements.

Senior Project Manager, Contractor · Old Republic Title

Tampa, FL

Brought in as a contractor to bring order to a fragmented, compliance-heavy delivery environment spanning three product teams. Balanced hands-on portfolio management with building new AI-assisted processes from the ground up, then stepped into a company-wide rebrand as the connective tissue across ten teams.

• Directed 15-20 concurrent full-lifecycle initiatives across three product teams in a highly regulated financial services environment, ensuring compliance and on-time delivery.
• Combined AI tools (Claude, Gemini, Figma) with experience from comparable programs to redesign Old Republic Title's project workflows and shift to a more agile, hybrid delivery model, cutting overall project lifecycle by 25%, then reinvested the reclaimed time into the team rather than closing sprints early.
• Used Claude to help translate raw input into structured, sharper user stories and refined sprint workflows accordingly, lifting team velocity 15% by reducing rework and planning noise.
• Built a pilot AI chatbot for internal HR/benefits access (90% acceptance rate) and served as SPOC for a synchronized corporate rebrand across 10 cross-disciplinary teams over 24 weeks.

Project Manager · Curious Jane

Owned the PM function for the agency's largest global accounts, translating client growth goals into deliverable digital programs. Spent as much time building reusable infrastructure — templates, design systems, AI-assisted workflows — as running individual client engagements.

• Owned end-to-end product strategy and digital delivery for Fortune 500 clients (FedEx, Subway) with budgets in the $2M-$5M range, conducting customer and prospect research and journey mapping to define requirements, then directing resourcing, UAT, and launch for franchise-recruitment digital properties.
• Authored a standardized project lifecycle from scratch, tighter review-cycle durations, design and development running in parallel instead of sequentially, and Figma-based reviews on reusable templates, cutting site/landing-page lifecycles 30% and email campaign development from 8 weeks to 2.
• Delivered $100K+ in retained cost savings while reducing team overtime and weekend work, replacing an unsustainable pace with more balanced, consistent schedules across the team.
• Designed a tiered digital-footprint program for clients and local franchisees, a cost-effective, templatized base offering built to compete against cheaper, faster rival agencies, with a built-in growth path so accounts could expand digital capacity as their business scaled.

Project & Product Manager, UXUI & eCommerce · Universal Destinations & Experiences

Orlando, FL

Anchored a multi-year, multi-region redesign program serving over 100 million annual guests, working across web and native mobile in three countries. Combined large-scale program leadership with hands-on ownership of specific product areas like park maps and wayfinding.

• Led a $5M+ Global Design System redesign across web and native mobile in the US, Japan, and China, coordinating 50 stakeholders across regions using SAFe/Scaled Agile.
• Owned strategy and roadmap for interactive mobile park maps and geo-wayfinding, including new wayfinding for Universal Epic Universe.
• Facing a project timeline that had fallen behind while still needing to build 1,000+ new landing pages, mapped an existing three-round design review plus separate legal review process, then redesigned it so designers and writers prepped assets directly into the new landing-page template on staging, combining internal and legal review into one staged step instead of sequential handoffs.
• Cut the design lifecycle by up to 40% (roughly 4 months to 2-2.5, varying by legal-review complexity), saving $500K in designer/writer hours, governance meeting time, and vendor hours, then reinvested the savings into new features and projects that emerged over the course of the program.
• Managed a cross-functional Scrum team through backlog grooming and sprint planning, reconfiguring the roadmap and backlog to spread reclaimed capacity across the team, increasing overall program output while reducing individual weekly workload, and lifting velocity 15%.
• Optimized B2C and B2B2C funnels through A/B testing and UX research, starting testing ahead of the originally planned schedule thanks to reclaimed design-lifecycle time, and driving a 17% increase in conversion rates.

Senior Project Manager & PMO Leadership · Publix Super Markets

Lakeland, FL

Spent six years as the connective tissue for Publix's digital marketing organization, running a multimillion-dollar portfolio spanning nearly every consumer channel. Built new programs and infrastructure from scratch while growing the PMO's bench of talent underneath him.

• Managed a $6-8M omnichannel portfolio of 18-22 concurrent projects across web, mobile, social, email, print, and in-store.
• Built a B2B partner program from zero to 200+ partnerships and led the social media content team to a 35% MoM engagement increase.
• Directed a Global Design System on headless WordPress, cutting program lifecycle from 10 months to 3 and supporting 15+ websites; mentored 3 direct and 8-12 PMO project managers, 6 of whom were promoted.

Project Manager — Digital · Mediagistic

Tampa, FL

Ran a high-volume production shop building 5-10 site builds a month on 30-45 day cycles for national and regional HVAC clients — one-off engagements where the job was less about raw speed than making that pace repeatable without quietly eating the team's margin.

• Directed rapid 30-45 day development cycles, delivering 5-10 site builds and redesigns per month for national and regional HVAC clients, within budgets of $50K-$250K per site.
• Balanced workloads across Account Managers and Creative teams and proactively flagged unbilled SOW effort — protecting project margin instead of letting the compressed production cadence quietly erode profitability.
• Managed end-to-end project execution from strategic planning through QA and launch on every build.

Project Manager — Digital · FKQ Advertising & Marketing

Clearwater, FL

Managed a portfolio of national travel and consumer brand accounts, most notably consolidating fragmented legacy codebases into modern, unified sites. Worked comfortably across both Agile and Waterfall depending on client and project needs.

• Directed consolidation of disparate codebases into unified, responsive designs for Dollar.com and Thrifty.com, including custom reservation-portal API integrations.
• Managed digital projects for Hertz, Melitta Coffee, and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (Fly2Pie arrival/departure API) ranging from $250K to $1.5M.
• Led AWS/Azure cloud migrations, building custom front/back-end sites with custom CMS dashboards for client management.
• Led weekly Scrum meetings with internal teams and vendors, applying Agile and Waterfall methodologies as needed.

Product Manager, Digital Experiences · Hasbro

Pawtucket, RI

Owned digital product strategy for one of Hasbro's core consumer-facing platforms and its TV network tie-ins, sitting at the intersection of marketing, legal, and engineering. Managed both the day-to-day roadmap and a multimillion-dollar activation budget for major franchise moments.

• Developed and designed digital product strategy for Hasbro Games websites from concept through release, supported by SEO and paid media campaigns.
• Orchestrated the launch of the Hub World network, managing a $5M-$10M activation budget for major franchise premieres.
• Owned product roadmap and feature prioritization for browser-based casual games with third-party studios, driving a 17% lift in game-related revenue.
• Partnered with an external vendor on API development to integrate micro-games directly into Hasbro's core site, enabling games to be played via API across the broader Hasbro games portfolio.

Senior Project Manager · Connelly & Partners

Boston, MA

Brought in to tighten creative production for American Express, Barbados Tourism, and Best Western campaigns — the workflows in place were adding friction the agency's delivery timelines didn't need.

• Managed pre-production and vendor operations — vendor management, art buying, image acquisition, production coordination — for American Express, Barbados Tourism, and Best Western campaigns.
• Redesigned workflows for the Creative and Studio departments, removing handoff friction and streamlining agency delivery end-to-end.
• Facilitated departmental training and led strategy sessions for new-business presentations.

Project & Product Manager · Digitas

Boston, MA

Agency-side Project Manager on the General Motors account, managing a cross-brand digital program spanning nearly every GM nameplate. Anchored by a $1.5M flagship launch, the role blended big-budget delivery with hands-on campaign production across the broader portfolio.

• Directed the product management and launch of the GM Owner Center on Yahoo.com, overseeing a $1.5M budget.
• Developed and deployed dynamic microsites and direct mail materials for GM's cross-branded promotional campaigns.
• Led projects across General Motors' full brand portfolio — GMC, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saab, Buick, Hummer, Saturn — plus strategic partner XM Radio.

Project Manager · Ryan & Deslauriers

Orlando, FL

Brought in specifically to diagnose and fix chronic bottlenecks in the creative department for a fast-moving production shop — the fix had to hold up across every project type the team touched, from print to interior design.

• Owned vendor sourcing and budget-setting — RFPs, SOWs, contracts — for photography, OOH, catalogs, brochures, and interior-design production across residential and hospitality clients.
• Developed and rolled out new business processes that cut project lifecycle 20% and eliminated the bottlenecks that had been slowing the creative department.
• Managed production schedules and creative deliverables across all projects, partnering closely with Production on pre- and post-production QA.

Project & Product Manager · Acquirgy

Recruited to help stand up a brand-new division built around the Home Depot account, then ran its day-to-day account operations for two years. Split time between client-facing account management and building the technical infrastructure behind it.

• Recruited to build and solidify the core team for the new HomeDepot.com division.
• Managed daily operations for the HomeDepot.com interactive media account.
• Co-developed a BigCommerce-based content management system and third-party tracking system to strengthen content operations and performance monitoring.

Project Manager · Triad Digital Media

Short program-management role overseeing third-party online programs for Walmart.com, with a focus on operational throughput, performance reporting, and building out the team underneath it.

• Supervised the activation and execution of BigCommerce-powered third-party online programs on Walmart.com.
• Tracked program placements, click-through rates, and impressions, delivering daily performance reports to Account Managers.
• Oversaw onboarding and performance growth of junior associates.

Product Manager, eCommerce · HSN

St. Petersburg, FL

Multi-year run managing digital product strategy for a live TV-commerce business across Cooking, Home Goods, Beauty, and Affiliate Marketing lines of business, where success meant keeping the site in lockstep with broadcast programming. Led both the day-to-day roadmap and real-time production for major live shopping events.

• Owned and developed the long-term strategic roadmap and product plans for the eCommerce platform, driving 200-300% growth in conversion rates.
• Led a cross-functional team of 10 to support a 5-day live TV shopping event, achieving 90% sell-through across featured products.
• Developed 'Evergreen' digital products and cross-branding features that stabilized platform performance during high-traffic events and lifted brand awareness 15-30%.
• Led ground-up custom front- and back-end system integration, CMS integration, and custom API builds across Home Goods, Cooking, and the Lunch Time Specials program.

Project Manager · Arnold Worldwide

Boston, MA

Owned print production for JetBlue and Monster.com — high-profile brand campaigns where the real job was holding every execution to the same standard, concept through final delivery.

• Led creative production and brand consistency for JetBlue and Monster.com across print, OOH, and digital, owning concept through final delivery.
• Held the line on campaign mandates through proofing, image retouching, and vendor confirmations — the stage most likely to quietly drift off-brand if no one owns it.
• Oversaw print production for several new accounts, ensuring high-quality execution aligned with client objectives.