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Dropbox’s Design team is looking for a Principal Designer to help define the future of content activation for Dropbox customers. In this role you will help lead the design vision and execution for Dropbox’s portfolio of products and services.
As a Principal Designer you will shape how AI helps customers get their jobs done faster better and with greater confidence. Dropbox holds the content context and collaboration that power our customers’ most important work. This role is about designing AI experiences that activate that content in useful intuitive and trustworthy ways helping customers find clarity make progress and take action without adding complexity or friction.
We believe AI should sharpen our customers not replace their judgment. You will be responsible for creating experiences where AI acts as a thoughtful partner: surfacing what matters reducing busywork connecting ideas and helping people move from information to action while keeping customers in control. The best experiences will feel elegant precise and almost invisible; AI should make Dropbox more powerful without making it feel more complicated.
This role requires a designer with exceptional craft strong product judgment and the ability to operate across strategy systems and execution. You will translate emerging AI capabilities into high-trust “it just works” product experiences while raising the quality bar for the broader design organization. You will also help transform the team into AI-enabled designers setting new standards for how we use AI in our own design process how we prototype how we explore and how we deliver customer value.
You will partner closely with Product Engineering Research Marketing and Design leadership to shape not only what we build but how we build it. This is a critical role for Dropbox’s AI-first multi-product future and for defining the next generation of product experiences that help customers do their best work.
Responsibilities- Define and drive the design vision for Dropbox’s broader multi-product ecosystem that helps customers find understand activate and act on the content already living in Dropbox.
- Design AI-powered experiences that make customers sharper and more effective without replacing their judgment. Ensure AI feels like a trusted partner: reducing friction surfacing what matters accelerating decisions and keeping customers in control.
- Lead ambiguous high-impact product areas from strategic framing through execution translating emerging AI capabilities into simple elegant high-trust experiences that feel powerful without becoming clunky noisy or difficult to use.
- Set an exceptionally high craft bar across interaction design information architecture systems thinking prototyping content visual quality and implementation. Make the product feel precise coherent and unmistakably Dropbox.
- Partner deeply with Product Engineering Research Marketing and Design leadership to shape strategy prioritize the highest-impact opportunities align teams and drive outcomes with urgency and quality.
- Raise the bar for the design organization by mentoring designers improving critique modeling excellent AI product design and helping the team become more AI-enabled in how they explore prototype evaluate and ship work.
- 12+ years of product design experience with a strong track record leading complex ambiguous high-impact product initiatives from vision through launch at scale.
- A portfolio that demonstrates Principal-level craft product judgment systems thinking customer empathy and the ability to ship experiences that customers understand trust and love.
- Exceptional executional range with the ability to move fluidly from long-term strategy and narrative to detailed flows interaction models prototypes edge cases content and implementation quality.
- Proven ability to influence senior cross-functional partners create alignment through clear storytelling and drive product direction in fast-moving ambiguous environments.
- Strong ability to translate emerging capabilities into simple useful intuitive product experiences that reduce friction preserve customer agency and help people get meaningful work done.
- A collaborative low-ego leadership style with a track record of mentoring designers raising standards improving critique and helping teams produce better work than they could have produced on their own.
- Experience designing end-to-end experiences across multiple products surfaces or platforms with a strong ability to create coherence across complex user journeys.
- A portfolio that shows a deeply opinionated design sensibility where the candidate’s taste principles and product philosophy are visible in the work itself.
- A demonstrated ability to simplify complex systems workflows or mental models into experiences that feel premium obvious and easy to use.
- Deep experience designing customer-facing products in emerging or complex domains such as AI search knowledge work productivity collaboration enterprise software or multi-product ecosystems.
- Experience designing or simplifying agentic experiences agent management automation orchestration permissions delegation or similarly complex product metaphors where users need clarity control and trust.
- A strong point of view on how AI can augment human judgment activate customer content reduce busywork and make customers sharper without making the experience feel clunky opaque or over-automated.
- A strong point of view on design craft in the AI era including how designers should use AI to increase creativity speed quality and customer understanding.
AI fluency means using these tools to amplify human judgment not replace it. We believe people with these skills will thrive as work and technology continue to evolve:
- Awareness: Understand yourself and others.
- Judgment: Evaluate information and make decisions in complex situations.
- Adaptability: Learn adjust and stay effective through change.
- Connection: Communicate collaborate and build trust.
To learn more about why these skills matter and what the data shows about thriving through change read this blog post from our Chief People Officer Melanie Rosenwasser.
CompensationUS Zone 1
This role is not available in Zone 1
Skills Required
- 12+ years of product design experience leading complex ambiguous high-impact initiatives from vision through launch at scale.
- Portfolio demonstrating Principal-level craft product judgment systems thinking customer empathy and shipped experiences.
- Exceptional executional range across strategy detailed flows interaction models prototypes edge cases content and implementation quality.
- Proven ability to influence senior cross-functional partners and create alignment through clear storytelling.
- Ability to translate emerging capabilities (especially AI) into simple useful intuitive product experiences preserving customer agency.
- Collaborative low-ego leadership with experience mentoring designers and improving critique processes.
- Experience designing end-to-end experiences across multiple products surfaces or platforms to create coherence across complex journeys.
- Demonstrated ability to simplify complex systems workflows or mental models into premium obvious easy-to-use experiences.
- Deep opinionated design sensibility visible in portfolio work.
- Strong product judgment and systems thinking to set high craft standards.
- Preferred: Deep experience designing customer-facing products in AI search productivity collaboration enterprise software or multi-product ecosystems.
- Preferred: Experience designing or simplifying agentic experiences automation orchestration delegation permissions or agent management.
- Preferred: Strong point of view on how AI can augment human judgment and activate customer content without over-automation.
- Preferred: Strong point of view on design craft in the AI era and how designers should use AI in their process.
- Durable skills: awareness judgment adaptability connection (AI fluency and human-centered decision-making).
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Employees describe pay and bonuses as competitive and performance-driven.
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What We Do
We're a global community of bold visionaries and resourceful doers who are shaping the future of Dropbox—and with it the future of work. Our Virtual First model combines the flexibility of a distributed workplace with the power of human connection making space for both meaningful work and meaningful relationships. With our start-up mindset and enterprise-level opportunities you can be who you are and grow into who you’re meant to be. Here you can own your impact to make work more intuitive joyful and human—for you as a Dropboxer and for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If you're ready to push boundaries—and yourself—Dropbox is ready for you.
Why Work With Us
We believe people do their best work when empowered with autonomy and harmony and we understand there’s no substitute for human connection. Our Virtual First model combines the flexibility of remote work with the power of in-person collaboration to create the best of both worlds: a distributed workplace anchored in community.
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