Senior Software Engineer - Desktop application

Job Description

We are looking for a Senior Desktop Application Developer to be part of the team designing, architecting, and implementing our AI-powered IT self-service chat agent — a native desktop application distributed to 20+ million endpoints worldwide. This client is the face of Nexthink's AI platform, giving employees a seamless, responsive experience directly on their Windows and macOS devices.

As a Desktop Engineer, you will go beyond implementation: you will set technical direction for the client layer, influence cross-team design decisions, and serve as a trusted advisor to both engineering leadership and product. You'll tackle problems of performance, reliability, and native OS integration while partnering with backend, infra, and security teams to ship a production-grade application at global scale.

This is a high-impact, high-ownership role where you'll make foundational architectural decisions about the client platform and help shape the desktop engineering practice at Nexthink.

Responsibilities:

• Define and drive technical vision and architectural strategy for the desktop client application.
• Lead design of a high-performance, native desktop application running on Windows and macOS at 20M+ endpoints.
• Partner with product, backend, and AI/ML teams to align the client experience with the broader AI platform.
• Provide technical leadership on client architecture, coding standards, and best practices for native desktop development.
• Architect and deliver a reliable, secure application covering the full distribution lifecycle: signing, packaging, installation, updates, and uninstallation.
• Champion observability, crash reporting, performance monitoring, and diagnostics across the client stack.
• Act as a mentor and multiplier, raising the technical bar and helping engineers grow.
• Lead technical deep dives, design reviews, and roadmap alignment discussions with leadership.
• Ensure security, compliance, and OS-level integration best practices are embedded in design from day one.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of desktop application engineering experience, shipping native applications on Windows and macOS.
• Proven success designing and shipping client applications to large user bases, with a deep understanding of platform-specific constraints and behaviours.
• Strong proficiency in C++, with solid experience building cross-platform desktop applications.
• Deep knowledge of Windows and macOS OS APIs.
• Hands-on experience with the full application distribution lifecycle: code signing, packaging, auto-update mechanisms, and deployment at scale.
• Strong understanding of desktop application performance profiling, memory management, and crash diagnostics.
• Exceptional communication skills — able to influence cross-functional teams and leadership with clear technical direction.
• Track record of mentoring and elevating engineering teams.

Nice to Have,

• Familiarity with Rust and the Tauri framework.
• Familiarity with React and TypeScript UI development.
• Experience integrating desktop clients with cloud backends via REST, WebSockets, or gRPC.
• Background in system-level programming: OS hooks, accessibility APIs, inter-process communication.
• Prior work on applications with silent background processes, system tray agents, or notification-driven UX.
• Experience with endpoint telemetry, observability SDKs, or APM integration on the client side.
• Experience with enterprise software distribution and managing application update strategies at scale.