My leadership playbook
20 years of designing & building for the internet
Digital Experience Lead at the AFL.
Six years in Silicon Valley (SoFi,
realtor.com)
and a decade at realstate.com.au
in Melbourne.
I bring energy, empathy, tenacity and teamwork to everything I do.
My work
A little about me
Hey there, I'm Sam 👋
I love working with diverse, mission-driven people. Extensive experience as a design team leader, UX designer and FE developer.
Long track record of conceptualising and leading innovative new digital products and experiences. He/him based in Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺
Download my resume (PDF)Design Leader & Mentor
- 4+ years leading designers in Silicon Valley
- Strategy & design direction
- Orchestrated major redesigns
- Managed design systems
User Experience & Visual Design
- 15+ years digital design
- Research, interviews, insights
- Wireframe, prototype, interactions
- Graphic & visual design
Culture, Invention & Delivery
- Conceptualise innovative new products
- Running hackathons & major events
- 10+ years of agile & Lean UX
- I literally get $hit done
Some of the organisations I'm proud to have been part of
realestate.com.au
SoFi.com
realtor.com
What I've been up to lately
In late June 2025 I joined the
AFL
as Digital Product Experience Lead, helping millions
of footy fans across Australia connect with their club, players and the game via our website,
native mobile apps and 18 club platforms. Based at AFL House at Marvel Stadium, Docklands.
In my spare time I created, designed and built
Eat Drink Cheap,
now the largest, most up-to-date resource in the country for happy hours,
food and drink specials. Helping small businesses attract new customers
with more than 1.4 million annual visitors and 30% YoY active-user growth.
From February 2023 to June 2025 I led product, design and delivery at Resolve.
Delivered a full end-to-end platform to buy, sell and broker small to medium sized businesses in Australia
featuring a Data Room, lead management platform and markeplace.
For almost two years from 2021-2023 I was part of the lending design team at
SoFi (Social Finance) in California,
managing a small but mighty team as we help people get their money right.
I've visited all 50 states
in the U.S.A.
Prior to that spent 3+ years leading design, processes and culture at
realtor.com in California.
Migrating across the Pacific
came after a decade of design, UI engineering at
realestate.com.au
where I was part of the team that made
Hack Day
a thing.
When I grow up I want to be
CXO.
About this site
When the internet started it was wild. Geocities. My Space. CSSZengarden.
The possibilities were endless.
Content sites are covered in
ads, GDPR and cookies links, email sign ups and popups
.
I've used Wordpress and templated
sites extensively, but wanted to try something different.
Old school html and css, accessibility and performance & web standards markup.
Static pages. Have also tried to keep Javascript to a minimum.
I'm also tracking activity with Google Analytics, part of the minimal javascript through the site.
Working on a way you can turn that off.
In late June 2025 I joined the AFL as Digital Product Experience Lead, helping millions of footy fans across Australia connect with their club, players and the game via our website, native mobile apps and 18 club platforms. Based at AFL House at Marvel Stadium, Docklands.
In my spare time I created, designed and built Eat Drink Cheap, now the largest, most up-to-date resource in the country for happy hours, food and drink specials. Helping small businesses attract new customers with more than 1.4 million annual visitors and 30% YoY active-user growth.
From February 2023 to June 2025 I led product, design and delivery at Resolve. Delivered a full end-to-end platform to buy, sell and broker small to medium sized businesses in Australia featuring a Data Room, lead management platform and markeplace.
For almost two years from 2021-2023 I was part of the lending design team at SoFi (Social Finance) in California, managing a small but mighty team as we help people get their money right.
I've visited all 50 states in the U.S.A.
Prior to that spent 3+ years leading design, processes and culture at realtor.com in California. Migrating across the Pacific came after a decade of design, UI engineering at realestate.com.au where I was part of the team that made Hack Day a thing.
When I grow up I want to be CXO.
When the internet started it was wild. Geocities. My Space. CSSZengarden. The possibilities were endless. Content sites are covered in ads, GDPR and cookies links, email sign ups and popups .
I've used Wordpress and templated sites extensively, but wanted to try something different. Old school html and css, accessibility and performance & web standards markup. Static pages. Have also tried to keep Javascript to a minimum.
I'm also tracking activity with Google Analytics, part of the minimal javascript through the site. Working on a way you can turn that off.