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nahiyan khan 🖖🏽

about
aka the 9 to 5. and the 5 to 9.
am an engineer. am a designer. am both? am neither? definitions are arbitrary.
existential crisis
is real. but 9 to 5, I lead design engineering at block.

and 5 to 9. I rock climb, tinker, bake cheesecakes, go down rabbit holes, read science fiction, and as of august 2024 - play with my daughter.

education

Masters in Computer Science

Johns Hopkins University | 2019 - 2022

software engineering

Bachelor of Arts

Macalester College | 2009 - 2013

art, math, and computer science

mantras

  • trust by default. work in the open. meet where the work is.

  • sucking at something is the first step to being
    sorta good
    at something
experience
aka the things I am more than sorta good at.
current

Principal Design Engineer / Applied AI

Block | Jan 2025 - Current

brb. currently trying to make sense of non-deterministic outputs. 🤘🏽

Staff Design Engineer / Design Systems

Cash App | April 2022 - Jan 2025

stood up Cash App's design system function and drove adoption of the system - Arcade.

past

Senior Design Engineer / Design Systems

ADP | March 2018 - April 2022

evolved ADP's server-driven design system - Beacon.

Product Designer

Pearson | May 2013 - March 2018

functioned as a hybrid product designer and front-of-the-front-end engineer.

Graphic Designer

Macalester College | September 2010 - May 2013

designed marketing materials for print and web.

community

Speaker

Remote Design Week | October 2021

Topic: “Visualizing Design Tokens at Scale”

Talk details
projects
aka bite size samplings. (coming soon!)
contact
aka say hi. recommend a science fiction novel. let's jam.
say hi at