01 / People
Build the team.
Hire thoughtfully, develop leaders, and create the clarity and ownership that help people do their best work.
Benjamin Wilson · Director of Engineering
Great products.Better teams.Built with care.
Building 0-to-1 consumer products and the teams that ship them. Nineteen years of craft, technical direction, and making things happen.
Currently leading engineering at Inkitt GmbH
02 / Systems
Connect the whole stack.
Lead across frontend, backend, and machine learning, connecting technical decisions to the experience they make possible.
03 / Product
Make the right bets.
Balance craft with speed. Partner with founders and product leaders to find what matters, then build toward it.
Profile
My mission is to build world-class products and experiences—balancing craft and care with the speed and agility needed to find product-market fit and earn lasting trust. I started in frontend engineering with an eye for detail. Over nineteen years, that same care has grown into responsibility for the whole business: the experience, the systems behind it, and the teams that bring it to life, across founder-led startups and scaled organizations.
A career in building
2007 — 2026The work behind the words
A career in building.
From the first interface
to the whole business.
2022 — nowCurrent role
Inkitt GmbH
Director of Engineering · San Francisco / Berlin
- Lead product engineering across managers and individual contributors, with up to 15 direct reports, setting the conditions for clear ownership and fast execution.
- Rebuilt the engineering organization and core technology during rapid scale, balancing immediate customer needs against durable architecture and a higher quality bar.
- Partner with product, design, and business leaders on roadmap and trade-offs through growth from roughly $12M to $130M ARR.
- Stay hands-on in architecture, delivery planning, and technical review while owning hiring, performance, and coaching.
2021 — 2022
Meta
Engineering Manager · Instagram Threads
- Managed a cross-platform team of 10 across iOS, Android, and server to prototype and ship 0-to-1 consumer bets around close friends and communication.
- Turned open-ended opportunities into product-minded technical direction and cohesive experiences across Instagram and Threads.
2018 — 2021
InVision
Senior Engineering Manager
- Led and grew multiple teams on a design-led collaboration platform; hired 8 of the 13 engineers in the organization and built the structure to scale delivery.
- Owned commenting, copywriting, Inspect, and integrations — the interactive and developer-facing surface of the product.
- Introduced a monorepo that consolidated three products and cut the code footprint by 45%.
2018
ExecThread
Head of Engineering
- Owned engineering and QA at an early-stage, founder-led company, managing 8 engineers.
- Worked directly with the founder, investors, and board on roadmap, KPIs, burn rate, and company strategy.
2011 — 2018
Refinery29
Director of Engineering · Principal Engineer
Tech & Product Lead, Mobile · Senior Frontend
- Led product discovery and small teams for new native experiences, including #29Rooms.
- Created ThisAM, the company's first iOS app, which generated $4M in advertising revenue in its first year.
- Grew from senior frontend engineer to engineering leadership over seven years with the brand.
What I'm
known for
- Team building and hiring
- Full-stack technical direction
- 0-to-1 consumer products
- High-judgment trade-offs
- Founder partnership
- Product and frontend systems
- Interaction and UI quality
A different starting point
Before software, I made records.
I worked in audio production across music, film, and video games — including at Hit Factory Criteria in Miami and Paisley Park in Minneapolis — and toured as a drummer. I came into software through IK Multimedia, building SampleTank and other music-production tools.
It is where I learned what a finished thing feels like, and why the last ten percent is the whole job.
Earlier roles
- BigLive · 2010–2012Lead Frontend Developer, Product Vision & Experience
- Magnani Caruso Dutton · 2010Frontend Developer
- Benmidi Interactive · 2007–2010Owner
- Valtira · 2007–2010Frontend Developer
Education
Associate of Science, Audio Production
Full Sail University