Sophia van Delden Saunders

At Absorb, I lead and mentor a talented product design team, fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and continuous growth. I define and drive the overarching design vision and strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals and user needs. Working cross-functionally with product, engineering, and executive leadership, I champion high-quality, user-centered design solutions that elevate the product experience. I also focus on evolving and scaling our design systems and processes to support innovation and efficiency as we grow.

Hit the $100m in revenue & grew to a team of over 400 people Helped grow and develop the 18 person design team comprising of Product Designers, Researchers, Content Strategists, Design Systems Engineers and Service Designers.

Acquired by H&R Block (NYSE:HRB) in June 2019 for $537M CAD 7th largest tech exit in Canadian history

Taught students through a blend of interactive training and hands-on practice: how to design in Figma, Heuristic Analysis, Information Architecture, Research Synthesis, Accessibility, Empathy Mapping, Personas and Mental Models, Prototyping, Emotional Design, Human-Centered Design and Usability Testing. I helped students leave with real-world projects for their portfolio, connections with like-minded professionals, and the confidence to apply their new skills at work.

Led the Digital Life Campaign out of the Telus Headquarters in Downtown Toronto. Our team worked cross-collaboratively to create reusable modules for Telus' digital seasonal ad campaigns.

We created Auvenir, a Deloitte venture, to make the audit process better for auditors and their clients. Our cutting edge technology allows us to constantly innovate the audit through research, products, and services because it's our mission to help everyone Audit, Smarter.

Organized and facilitated User testing for Ministry of Supply's new e-commerce website. Created interactive prototypes for users to test. Recorded outcomes of the test and reported back to Ministry of Supply.

Born in the epicentre of Canada's Financial Industry, Bay Street Labs is experimenting new ways to invent and re-invent innovative financial applications. One of the results of Bay Street Labs's efforts is the creation of Auvenir, a cutting edge technology company in the financial audit space.

One of a Kind Show Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition Toronto Indie Arts Market Queen West Art Crawl Hermann & Audrey Gallery Vendor Queens 401 Richmond Artist's Market The Delicious Food Show Hip2BSquare Show Rogers Daytime Television