# Vaiva Kalnikaitė PhD · FRSA | Head of UX [kalnikaite.com](https://kalnikaite.com) · [linkedin.com/in/vaivakalnikaite](https://linkedin.com/in/vaivakalnikaite) · vaiva@dovetailed.io --- ## Profile Transformation and innovation leader with 15+ years turning emerging technologies - most recently GenAI and agentic systems - into measurable business outcomes. I combine human-centered design, service design, and commercial strategy to map end-to-end processes, run experiments and pilots, and scale the ones that work. As founder and CEO of Dovetailed and Head of UX for SageMaker AI & Agentic Experiences at AWS, I've partnered with business units and technical teams to identify high-value GenAI opportunities, design new AI-enabled ways of working, and embed them from incubation through to scaled implementation - including agentic AI products delivering $800M+ in revenue. My background across HCI research, product strategy, and startup building gives me a distinct advantage in reimagining complex, highly technical environments so they become more usable, more adopted, and more commercially impactful. --- ## Core Expertise GenAI Strategy & Adoption · Business Transformation · Innovation Management · Service Design · Human-Centered Design · Commercial Strategy · Process Mapping · Mixed-Method User Research · Experimentation & Pilots · Pilot-to-Scale Implementation · Change Management · Stakeholder Alignment · Design Leadership · Human-AI Interaction · Agentic AI · LLMs · Prompt Engineering · Human-in-the-Loop Design · Cross-Functional Collaboration · UX & Product Vision · Applied Research · HCI · Designing for Autonomy, Uncertainty & Trust · Evaluation-Driven Design · Behavioral Modelling · Data Analysis · AI Product Design --- ## Experience ### Head of UX · SageMaker AI & Agentic Experiences **Amazon Web Services (AWS)** · Seattle, USA · 2023 - Present Directing UX design and innovation team to create new design patterns for designing with and for AI - I focus on human-in-the-loop agentic AI systems. I drive product strategy and run end-to-end usability programs, spearheading the UX operational reviews that ensure that all UX requirements of the product are ready for launches. I define design direction across global teams, mentor designers and influence roadmaps across orgs. At global conferences I present the latest Agentic AI UX findings. ### Principal UX Leader · AI Services **Amazon Web Services (AWS)** · Seattle, USA · 2022 - 2023 Led UX strategy across multiple AWS AI services - AI/ML Personalization, DeepRacer, AWS Panorama, and SageMaker Edge - setting cross-org vision and building the operating model that raised UX maturity across the organization. Innovating with new GenAI UX and incorporating it into existing products and the launch of new products. ### Principal UX Designer · Alexa Conversational AI **Amazon Web Services (AWS)** · Seattle, USA · 2019 - 2022 Leading the Design for AI Principles initiative at Alexa. ### CEO · Dovetailed **Dovetailed (UK & US)** · 2011 - 2023 Founded and scaled an award-winning innovation and service design consultancy. Led 12 years of client engagements in business transformation, innovation management, and human-centered design - mapping end-to-end processes, running mixed-method user research, facilitating experiments and pilots, and guiding solutions from incubation through to scaled implementation. Partnered with startups and enterprises including Amazon, Microsoft, Beko, Anglian Water, Secondmind, Factmata, Aqilla, Cambridge University Centre for Risk Studies, and Cambridge Cognition - across AI, health, food tech, water, and industrial systems. Combined commercial strategy with applied research to reimagine complex business challenges into new products, services, and ways of working. ### Visiting Senior Fellow · Human Experience Design **University College London (UK)** · 2013 - 2017 Taught and collaborated on design research, HCI, and interdisciplinary methods. Advised PhDs and partnered on future-focused design programmes. ### Head of UX · 3D Plant Design **AVEVA** · Cambridge, UK · 2011 - 2012 Pioneered human-centered design and service design for industrial software across energy, manufacturing, and marine. Directed a team of designers and researchers and drove leadership adoption of novel design approaches that reset industry standards. Tracked and measured the commercial impact of design within a $1.6B revenue business - a large share of which was attributed to work led by my team. ### UX Analyst · Geospatial System Design **General Electric** · Cambridge, UK · 2010 - 2011 Worked on enterprise UX, improving complex tooling through research and prototyping. Setup a UX design and research team to address challenges when designing GIS systems used by utility companies globally for managing physical network models. ### Fellowships & Early Design and Research Roles **Open University · King's College London · Microsoft Research · PARC** --- ## Education ### Exec Education, Executive Leadership Judge Business School, Cambridge · 2016 - 2018 ### PhD, Human-Computer Interaction University of Sheffield, UK · 2004 - 2007 ### BSc & MSc, Computer Science University of Sheffield, UK · 2000 - 2004 --- ## Certifications ### Designing AI Products MIT xPRO · November 2021 · Credential ID: 715151 --- ## Selected Publications - **[Designing user experience for agentic AI: A framework for human-AI coordination](https://www.amazon.science/blog/designing-ai-agents-that-know-when-to-step-back)** - *Amazon Science · March 2026* - **[User perceptions of 3D food printing technologies](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3170427.3188529)** - *ACM CHI 2018* - **[Don't Waste My Time: Use of Time Information Improves Focus](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2858036.2858193)** - *ACM CHI 2016* · Best Paper · Top 1% - **['Everyone Is Talking about It!': A Distributed Approach to Urban Voting Technology and Visualisations](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2702123.2702263)** - *ACM CHI 2015* · Honorable Mention · Top 4% - **[Software or Wetware?: Discovering When and Why People Use Digital Prosthetic Memory](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1240624.1240635)** - *ACM CHI 2007* · Best Paper · Top 1% *30+ peer-reviewed publications across ACM CHI, CSCW, DIS, and IUI (2007-2025)* --- ## Patents ### Droplet assemblies and methods for producing droplet assemblies US 10912327 · Issued February 9, 2021 --- ## Awards & Recognition - **SME Cambridgeshire Business Awards** · Positive Impact & Business Woman of the Year Finalist · 2021 - **Royal Society of Chemistry** · "Chemistry Means Business" Award · 2018 - **ACM CHI** · Best Paper (Top 1%) & Honorable Mention (Top 5%) · 2007 · 2012 · 2015 - **Smart Kitchen Summit** · Startup Showcase Winner · 2016 - **Cambridge News Business Excellence Finalist** · 2015 - **Multiple Innovation & Open Pitch Awards** · GE · IfM Cambridge --- ## Tools Claude Code · Claude Design · Kiro · Canva · GitHub · Visual Studio · OpenCode · Figma · Adobe CS · Python · Notion · Jira · Asana ## Languages English (Fluent) · Lithuanian (Native) · Russian (Conversational) · Spanish (Basic) · French (Basic)