Senior Staff Software Engineer

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

Job summary

VSCO is hiring a Senior Staff Engineer to own Reflex, our production GPU image-processing engine, and guide its path into Studio Pro on iOS and macOS. This critical technical leader will deepen the stack, improve production quality, and mentor engineers across the organization, enabling faster, higher-quality shipping with tools, workflows, and AI-assisted development.

You will drive new imaging capabilities (RAW, tiled/gigapixel export), ensure memory budgets and color accuracy, and keep the

Qualifications

• Experience owning a production-grade graphics or imaging engine.
• Strong track record in delivering high-performance software.
• Ability to mentor engineers and raise code quality.

Responsibilities

• Own Reflex imaging engine: DAG execution, resource budgets, color management.
• Ship engine changes into Studio Pro on iOS/macOS; manage versioning and releases.
• Advance imaging capabilities (RAW, tiled export) from design to production.
• Diagnose production mobile graphics issues (OOM, cache, HEIC).
• Define render/pipeline contracts to keep mobile and desktop coherent.
• Mentor engineers toward Staff-level ownership and improve code reviews.

Skills

GPU programming

Graphics engine

Mentorship

CI/CD

WGSL

Tools

UniFFI

Nitro

Job description

For years, we've helped photographers create their work. Now we're building what comes next.

VSCO exists for photographers. Not as a side feature, not as an afterthought, but as the whole point. We build the connected system photographers rely on, and we've spent over a decade earning the trust of a global creative community that takes the craft seriously.

Photography is at an inflection point. AI is reshaping what's possible for creative work, and that's where our mission shines. VSCO is building the full photographer's workflow: from creating and editing your work, to delivering it to clients, to running your business. All of it built thoughtfully, with photographers leading the way. We believe the future of photography tools creates more space for creativity, handling the busy work so photographers can focus on the craft.

If you care about craft, community, and what technology can unlock for creative people, this is the work. We're a mission-driven and focused company where your work ships quickly, is meaningful, and reaches tens of millions of people worldwide. You'll have a real say in what we build and how we build it. We hire people who don't wait to be asked, naturally connect the dots, care about the quality of what they ship, and believe the best outcomes come from building together.

About The Role

VSCO is hiring a Senior Staff Engineer to own Reflex, our production GPU image-processing engine, and the path it takes into Studio Pro on iOS and macOS. This is a critical technical leader. You will deepen a stack that is already in customers’ hands: new capabilities (RAW, large-image export, desktop), production quality (color correctness, memory, performance), and the contracts that let product engineers ship on top of the engine without becoming graphics programmers. You will also lead company-wide engineering mentorship and force-multiplication — tools, workflows, and AI-assisted development that make the rest of the team more effective.

In This Role, You Will

• Own the Reflex imaging engine: DAG execution, WGSL operators, GPU resource/memory budgets, and color management (linear working space, LUTs, Display P3, bit-depth)
• Ship engine changes through the native bridge (UniFFI + Nitro) into Studio Pro on iOS and macOS, including versioning and release
• Take new imaging capabilities from design to production (current examples: RAW develop, tiled/gigapixel export, further parity with the existing VSCO imaging stack)
• Diagnose and fix production-class mobile graphics problems: OOM, cache eviction, HEIC encode, editor vs. batch vs. export paths
• Define and keep the render/pipeline contracts in the shared Studio Pro core so mobile and desktop stay coherent
• Mentor Senior engineers toward Staff-level ownership; raise the quality of design and code review across the org
• Lead force-multiplication: better native packaging and CI, shared review