Staff Software Engineer, Electron & Browser Infrastructure - Slack Desktop

Slack; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k)

Employee stock purchasing program

Job summary

Slack is hiring a Staff Software Engineer to enhance the desktop experience of its applications. This role involves leading cross-functional initiatives, defining technical standards, and fostering a culture of mentorship within the team.

The ideal candidate has over 10 years of experience in client-side coding, deep knowledge of Chromium, and a strategic mindset to navigate technical challenges. Join Slack and contribute to delivering exceptional user experiences in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience writing client-side code for modern web applications at scale.
• Deep experience with Chromium or large-scale open source projects.
• Ability to lead technical design for complex systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional initiatives to enhance developer productivity and stability.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and adapt infrastructure.
• Mentor engineers to develop leadership capabilities.

Skills

Client-side code (React + TypeScript)

Deep Chromium experience

Performance profiling and debugging tools

Strong communication skills

Empathy

Job description

Overview

Slack is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Desktop team within the Architecture & Systems organization. The team builds the Desktop Framework that underpins the Slack desktop client across all platforms, with a focus on the Electron ecosystem. The role involves deep expertise in Google's Chromium project, leading cross-functional efforts to uphold Slack security, performance, and stability in the web and desktop client. This position emphasizes collaboration across teams and external partners to align on a unified Electron vision.

What you will be doing

• Strategic Leadership: Lead cross-functional initiatives across Electron and Slack to increase developer productivity, OS-level stability, performance, or security alongside desktop and frontend stakeholders.
• Technical Standards: Contribute to architectural decisions to adapt frontend and desktop infrastructure to support new product features.
• Navigating Ambiguity: Identify and propose solutions to problems such as framework migrations or rendering bottlenecks that are not yet evident to leaders.
• System Health: Maintain and improve the core systems powering the Slack desktop client and Electron framework, including Slack and Electron-based infrastructure and tooling.
• Mentorship & Culture: Foster a learning culture and mentor engineers to develop leadership capabilities in addition to technical contributions.
• Cross-Functional Execution: Collaborate across engineering to define and solve strategically important initiatives, communicating to drive consensus and de-escalate conflicts.

What you should have

• 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 in large-scale, shared codebases with hundreds of contributors, establishing patterns that enable broad participation and maintainability.
• Strategic Architecture: Ability to lead technical design for complex systems and tooling.
• Business Alignment: Strong communication skills with the ability to connect infrastructure work to goals such as performance, reliability, and developer velocity; facilitates dialogue across levels.
• Technical Breadth: Experience with performance profiling and debugging tools for web-based desktop apps; understanding desktop development trade-offs and complexities.
• Self-Awareness: Willingness to give and receive constructive feedback to improve oneself and the team culture.
• Desire to learn and to teach others.
• Empathy: Understanding that the best solution is informed by the people who will build on your work.

Bonus Points

• 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.

Benefits and Other Information

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer. Compensation ranges are provided in the United States and may vary by location. Salesforce offers benefits including time off, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at Salesforce Benefits.

Accommodations and Privacy

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request via the Accommodations Request Form. Salesforce may use AI tools to assist recruiters in evaluating candidates. Humans will make final hiring decisions. Please review the Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about data use and opt-out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants. Employment decisions are based on merit, competence, and qualifications without regard to protected characteristics. This policy applies to recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, and other employment actions. The base salary range for this position in certain locations is listed in the job description and may vary by location, experience, and responsibilities.