# Benjamin Kowalski > Design Director, Figma Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/benjaminkowalski I’m a design leader with deep experience across product, brand, and systems. I’m currently leading the Foundation pillar at Figma, focused on building world-class infrastructure and primitives that power our core products. Previously, I led the Core Product Design team at Dropbox, helping shape cross-surface experiences and elevate the quality of our multi-product platform. I thrive at the intersection of design, product, and engineering—uncovering real user problems, scaling design teams, and shipping polished, thoughtful solutions. I’m passionate about growing designers, building high-performing teams, and fostering a culture of craft and curiosity. Earlier in my career, I worked across a wide range of iconic brands including DoorDash, Disqus, GE, Harley-Davidson, McDonald’s, Nintendo, P&G, Samsung, and Thomson Reuters. Cheers ## Work Experience ### Director of Product Design @ Figma Jan 2025 – Present Leading surfaces across the Figma product ecosystem to create a more cohesive, thoughtful platform of tools for all Figma customers. Reach out with feedback on the File browser (home), Community, Admin console, Sharing, or our Native apps! ### Head of Core Product Design @ Dropbox Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | California, United States Leading Core Design at Dropbox — a team of 30+ talented designers across Experience, Growth, Team & Collaboration, and Admin. I partner with another senior design leader who covers the other half of Core Design horizontal teams. Grateful to lead with a strong bench of managers and ICs as we push the quality of our core product forward. Focused on making Dropbox feel great to use while driving signups, activation, engagement, monetization, and retention. Also supporting core-wide strategy with cross-functional partners — balancing short-term execution with long-term bets. ### Director, Product Design - Growth & Teams @ Dropbox Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area - Design lead for 250+ person growth org and 60+ person Teams org. - Managing multiple managers, a team of 40 designers - Share responsibility to set and drive direction for continued growth of revenue, activation, and engagement. - Key author and DRI of several impactful strategies - Growing craft and impact oriented design org, elevating product quality for our customers. ### Director, Product Design - Attach & Activation @ Dropbox Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | United States • Company Objective DRI (interim) responsible for the success of the Dropbox Multi-product strategy within our core product. Establishing strategy, metrics, and action plans across multiple groups to achieve aggressive goals. • Manage two groups (100+ members) with 3 design management reports and support from 2 Principal designers. • Leading large scale redesign and rethinking of core product experiences to modernize Dropbox and establish multi-product value more clearly. • Build long term strategic direction with Product and engineering partners • Primary driver for multi-workstream efforts improving UX, visual design, and partner to Design Systems and Brand. • Constant advocate of the customer at the heart of all strategies and solutions we deliver. ### Director, Product Design - Essentials @ Dropbox Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco Bay Area • Own the design direction and long term improvement of core files across desktop, web, and mobile, performance, sync, and activation paths at Dropbox • Manage 4 managers + 1 staff designer (21 total designers) • Consult and build methods to increase overall quality of all Dropbox products • Build long term strategic direction with Product and engineering partners • Drive the strategic vision for the long term direction of core Dropbox experiences and quality • DRI for improving Craft & Quality across Dropbox Design, Product, and Engineering ### Senior Manager, Product Design — Mobile @ Dropbox Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area • Own the design direction and long term improvement of Mobile Products at Dropbox (80+ person org) • Hire & lead a diverse, multi-level team of 7 product designers • Own the core experience across the core Dropbox app downloaded by over a million users weekly. • Consult and build methods to increase overall quality of all mobile products • Build long term strategic direction with Product and engineering partners • Drive the strategic vision for the long term direction of Mobile and mobile-first products with my PM partner ### Manager, Product Design — Mobile @ Dropbox Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area • Leading team of 4 designers owning the core mobile functionality and evolution across devices. • Drive mobile strategic direction with product and engineering partners. • Grow mobile user-base and retention. • Work to build and maintain a healthy/active design process • Grow the individual designers on my team to flourish, reach their goals, and ship the best work possible. ### Manager, Product Design — Growth @ Dropbox Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area • Work to build and maintain a healthy/active design process • Collaborating with GM & Engineering on strategy, both long and short term. • Act as Lead Design IC collaborating GM & Engineering on objectives and deliverables. • Hire and onboard designers capable of meeting the needs of the team • Grow the individual designers on my team to flourish, reach their goals, and ship the best work possible. ### Manager, Product Design — Machine Intelligence (ML) @ Dropbox Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco, California Focused on applied machine intelligence products for key Dropbox experiences. ### Manager, Product Design — Search & Browse @ Dropbox Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Seattle, Washington Helped grow a small design team for our Seattle office and led product design for a team focused on search and browse within Dropbox. Made the decision to relocate back to California for our family. ### Lead Product Designer @ DoorDash Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco, CA I helped guide product direction, overall user experience, interaction design, and UI design/Brand cohesion within our products. Offering feedback to the team on the overall direction across nearly all aspects of DoorDash's business including our Consumer, Driver, Merchant, and Support products. • Design strategy • End-to-end product design • User experience design • Visual interface design • Service design refinement ### Lead Product Designer @ Popular Pays Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | Chicago, IL App, web, and brand design, as well as project strategy for venture-backed mobile app start-up. http://popularpays.com/ ### Product Designer @ Disqus Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 - Holistic product thinking - Feature establishment - UX design - Visual Interface design ### Digital Designer @ VSA Partners Jan 2011 – Jan 2014 Complex responsive websites, tablet/mobile apps, and traditional print design. Clients include Harley-Davidson, Avery Dennison, Thomson Reuters, P&G and GE. ### Designer @ Useful Inc. Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Perth, Australia App, web, and brand design, as well as project strategy for venture-backed nonprofit volunteer organization. ### Design Intern @ Leo Burnett Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | Greater Chicago Area Television and print advertising conception and design. Clients include McDonalds, P&G, Samsung, Nintendo, and Silk. ### Designer @ Design Center, Ringling College of Art & Design Jan 2010 – Jan 2011 Presentation, website, video, and print design for international environmental nonprofit, The Seawater Foundation. ### Design Intern @ SPARK brand Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 Web, print, and packaging design. Clients include VisitFlorida.com, Lifestyle Fitness, and Relaj Water Bottles. ### Design Intern @ SPARK brand Jan 2009 – Jan 2009 Web, print, and packaging design. Clients include VisitFlorida.com, Lifestyle Fitness, and Relaj Water Bottles. ## Education ### Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic and Interactive Communication Ringling College of Art and Design ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/benjamin-kowalski-33620524 - Portfolio: https://www.benkowalski.design/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/benjaminkowalski JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/benjaminkowalski/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13