Senior Native Desktop Engineer for AI & Performance

highlightai; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Generous equity

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Flexible PTO

Relocation package

Job summary

Highlight is seeking a Member of Technical Staff to own the native desktop runtime across macOS and Windows, delivering low-latency and lightweight execution. The role focuses on production-grade reliability and high-performance design in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years shipping native desktop software, strong systems fundamentals, and a track record of reducing latency and resource usage. This is an in-office role based in SF with a strong ownership ethos.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience shipping native desktop software.
• Experience building and debugging macOS and/or Windows native systems.
• Track record of improving latency, CPU/memory usage, and stability in production apps.
• Ability to own architecture, implementation, instrumentation, and release across platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and implementation of Highlight’s native desktop runtime across macOS and Windows.
• Drive improvements to performance, stability, and resource efficiency across native processes.
• Implement robust telemetry, diagnostics, and monitoring to detect regressions and accelerate debugging.
• Collaborate with backend engineering, ML engineering, and product to deliver end-to-end features across the desktop app and backend systems.
• Establish best practices for native development, testing, release processes, and cross-platform compatibility.

Skills

Native desktop software

macOS/Windows

Performance optimization

Telemetry & monitoring

End-to-end ownership

Job description

Highlight is seeking a Member of Technical Staff to own the native desktop runtime across macOS and Windows, delivering low-latency and lightweight execution. The role focuses on production-grade reliability and high-performance design in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Ideal candidates have 5+ years shipping native desktop software, strong systems fundamentals, and a track record of reducing latency and resource usage. This is an in-office role based in SF with a strong ownership ethos.