Staff Software Engineer, Slack Desktop Client

About the role

Slack is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join its Desktop team within the Architecture & Systems organization. This role focuses on building the Desktop Framework, which underpins the Slack desktop client across all platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional initiatives associated with increasing developer productivity, OS level stability, performance, or security alongside desktop and frontend stakeholders.
• Contribute to key architectural decisions to adapt existing frontend and desktop infrastructure to support new product features.
• Maintain and improve core systems that power the Slack desktop client and Electron framework, including Slack and Electron-based infrastructure and tooling.
• Mentor and develop new leaders across the organization, fostering a safe space for learning and growth.
• Collaborate with teammates across engineering to identify, define, and solve strategically important initiatives, acting as a leader in communication to de-escalate conflicts and drive consensus.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience writing client-side code (React + TypeScript) for modern web applications at scale.
• Deep Chromium experience, or experience contributing to large scale open source projects.
• Experience working in a large-scale, shared codebase with hundreds of contributors, establishing patterns for effective contribution.
• Expertise in building complex systems and tooling, guiding the best decisions across the team.
• Exceptional communication skills to align technical infrastructure with company goals like performance, reliability, and developer velocity.
• Familiarity with performance profiling and debugging tools for web-based desktop applications.
• Understanding of desktop development and the ability to explain technical trade-offs and complexities.
• A commitment to proactively offering constructive feedback and receiving it to improve both self and team culture.
• Eagerness to learn and teach, recognizing that the perfect solution is informed by the people who will be building on your work.

Qualifications

• Experience contributing to the engineering reputation externally (e.g., blog posts, speaking at conferences, open source contributions).
• Experience developing on Windows and maintaining build infrastructure for Windows desktop applications.
• Experience in fast-paced and dynamic product development environments.

Skills

• Google's Chromium project expertise.
• Electron open source project involvement.
• Desktop development familiarity.

Benefits

Slack offers a range of benefits to support your well-being and career growth, including:

• Time off programs
• Medical, dental, vision, and mental health support
• Paid parental leave
• Life and disability insurance
• 401(k)
• Employee stock purchasing program

Pay

Compensation is determined by location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits.

Schedule

The schedule for this position is typically full-time.