allan ziolkowski

leading design with empathy

Allan is an award winning product design leader based in Canada. He pioneered AI First product design at Beyond Identity, designed ai/ml training tooling at  and is a champion of uplevelling high performing, creative design teams.

Resume

Leadership Case Study

head of product design @ Beyond Identity
designing the next generation of identity security in cybersecurity

previously design @ 

mentor @ Latina’s in Tech

previously ux educator @ Algonquin College

2025 winner of best mobile security ux @ UXcellence awards

2 awarded patents

"Allan is a dream manager and mentor, and I feel lucky to have crossed paths with him. Not only is he an incredibly talented designer, but he's also been a proactive teacher and a determined advocate of my growth and wellbeing. Allan has instituted process and guidelines where there were none before, and has regularly celebrated my achievements one-on-one and across public company channels.

He proposes long-term redesigns to push a product forward, but also swoops in with a quick and effective solution when time is of the essence. He leads by example — always offering support and creatively solving problems that arise even in the most constrained circumstances. Thanks to his varied design and technical experience, I have learned how to become a more well-rounded designer and teammate. With this wide range of capabilities and ubiquitous likability, he sets an example about the type of designer and teammate I want to be."
"Allan is a fantastic designer and an even more fantastic collaborator. He's been described as the "cross-functional king" because of how he makes design and product accessible to folks across the organization in all disciplines. He's able to bridge the gap between the users, the product, and the design and communicate this story effectively to key stakeholders.

Allan is an advocate for the user who is always trying to design an experience that is easy to use and solves a real problem. He's an empathetic leader and develops strong trust within his team and is always willing to provide support and answer questions."
"He not only gives great feedback, but is willing to get in the weeds with you whether it's brainstorming solutions or sitting on a call and jamming on a project together. He always takes the time to make sure you have what you need to feel set up for success, but also makes it known that he cares about you as a person beyond your work. He is a great leader because he approaches his work with low ego and is very receptive to feedback, often taking action on it right away. I will always admire the way he leads with empathy and advocates for his team and I am grateful for the time spent learning and growing under his guidance."

`Speaking & Written`

Design:Unfiltered Podcast (2026) Design Unfiltered w/ Allan Ziolkowski - Ai Tooling Adoption

IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine (2026) How Human-Centered Security Takes Root in Organizations

Designing Security Products Podcast (2025) Allan shares how he balances security with good ux BuiltIn NYC (2022) Better Together: How 7 NYC Companies Unified Their Engineers and Designers