Lead Software Engineer – CoCounsel Legal Desktop App

Thomson Reuters Corp.; Schweiz; Remote; EUR 105,476 - 158,214; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid Work Model

Flex My Way

Grow My Way

Mental Health Days

Headspace app

Job summary

Refinitiv is seeking a Lead Software Engineer for the CoCounsel Legal Desktop App to set the technical bar and ship native-feeling desktop software on Windows and macOS. You will define architecture, tooling, and deployment patterns while mentoring a growing team.

You will own hands-on development, integrate with the backend for streaming and auth, and collaborate with product/design to deliver fast, reliable desktop experiences that lawyers rely on daily.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with strong desktop app focus

Responsibilities

• Establish technical foundation and architecture for CoCounsel Legal desktop app.
• Deliver hands-on production desktop code for core features and integrations.
• Integrate with CoCounsel backend, including streaming and authentication flows.
• Define desktop engineering standards, testing, and cross‑platform compatibility.

Skills

Desktop app development

Electron

Tauri

Windows/macOS

Cloud API integration

Job description

**Lead Software Engineer – CoCounsel Legal Desktop App**Do you want to be the founding engineer who sets the technical bar for CoCounsel Legal on desktop? Are you energized by the challenge of making an AI-powered product feel truly native on Windows and Mac — fast, integrated, and indispensable to the lawyers who use it every day? If so, this role is for you.As Lead Software Engineer for the CoCounsel Legal Desktop App, you will be the technical anchor of a new desktop engineering team — defining the architecture, setting engineering standards, and personally shipping code that brings CoCounsel Legal to lawyers’ machines. You will work closely with the Engineering Manager and Product to shape the product from its earliest decisions, and mentor the engineers who join you.**About the Role**In this opportunity as CoCounsel Legal Desktop App, you will:* **Establish the technical foundation of the CoCounsel Legal desktop app,** making early architecture decisions on framework choice (e.g., Electron, Tauri, native), project structure, IPC patterns, packaging, and auto-update infrastructure that will shape how the team builds for years.* **Deliver hands-on engineering contributions,** writing production-quality desktop code across core features — from the main agent experience and local file integrations to OS-level notifications, clipboard handling, and system tray presence.* **Integrate with the CoCounsel backend,** working closely with Agent Core and AI Platform teams to connect the desktop app to agent APIs, streaming responses, file and workspace infrastructure, and authentication flows.* **Define and uphold desktop engineering standards,** establishing code review practices, testing strategies (unit, integration, end-to-end), cross-platform compatibility requirements, and performance benchmarks.* **Mentor and support desktop engineers,** providing technical guidance, pairing on hard problems, and helping engineers develop expertise in a greenfield environment.* **Partner with Product and Design,** translating requirements and designs into technically sound, performant desktop experiences — and raising constructive concerns about feasibility or quality tradeoffs early.* **Contribute to the broader Application Experience engineering community,** sharing desktop-specific patterns and insights with peer teams building the web and mobile experiences.**About You**You’re a fit for the role of CoCounsel Legal Desktop App if your background includes:* 7+ years of software engineering experience, with significant depth in desktop application development for Windows and/or macOS.* Proven experience leading technical direction on a desktop product — framework choices, architecture patterns, packaging, and engineering standards — not just execution.* Track record shipping high-quality, production desktop applications in a professional or enterprise context.* Hands-on experience with one or more desktop frameworks: Electron, Tauri, native Win32/macOS APIs, or equivalent.* Experience integrating desktop applications with cloud APIs including streaming, authentication (OAuth/SSO), and local file system access.* Ability to mentor and elevate engineers through code review, design discussions, and technical pairing.* Clear technical communicator — able to articulate tradeoffs to both engineers and non-technical product partners.Additional preferred qualifications include:* Experience building greenfield desktop applications — ideally as the first or founding engineer.* Background in legal tech, productivity software, or professional-services SaaS.* Experience building AI-powered desktop features — streaming chat interfaces, local inference, context-aware actions.* Familiarity with enterprise desktop deployment patterns (MSI/PKG packaging, MDM, SSO, app configuration).#LI-IG1**What’s in it For You?*** **Hybrid Work Model:** We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment (2-3 days a week in the office depending on the role) for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.* **Flexibility & Work-Life Balance:** Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.* **Career Development and Growth:** By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.* **Industry Competitive Benefits:** We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.* **Culture:** Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.* **Social Impact:** Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.* **Making a Real-World Impact:** We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.*DISCLAIMER**The above information in this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.*