Senior Software Engineer, Windows/Desktop Applications - Chicago, IL, USA

Speechify is a company dedicated to making reading accessible for everyone through its text-to-speech products. They are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead the development of native Windows desktop applications, focusing on best practices, accessibility, and collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, architecture, and development of native Windows desktop applications using Windows App SDK, WinUI (or related UI frameworks), C#, XAML, and — when needed — C++
• Define and enforce best-practices for Windows desktop development across the codebase: code architecture, performance, memory usage, responsive UI, cross-version compatibility (Windows 10/11+), and maintainability
• Drive accessibility efforts: integrate and validate support for accessibility APIs (e.g. Microsoft UI Automation or other relevant Windows accessibility frameworks), ensure UI controls, focus management, keyboard navigation, screen-reader support, and usability for users with disabilities
• Collaborate closely with product designers, UX researchers, QA, and other stakeholders to shape feature planning, UI/UX architecture, and long-term roadmap for the Windows platform
• Take ownership of full lifecycle of features: conception → design → implementation → testing → release → maintenance. Ensure quality, reliability, and consistency across releases
• Identify, diagnose, and resolve complex bugs, performance bottlenecks, memory leaks, rendering issues, or compatibility problems — and propose robust architectural or design solutions

Requirements:

• 3+ in Windows desktop application development using Windows App SDK, WinUI (or similar), C#, XAML — and ideally additional experience with native Windows code (C++, Win32/WinRT/COM)
• Deep understanding of Windows application architecture, including interop between managed code (.NET) and native code
• Proven track record of designing, building, and shipping production-quality desktop applications, with an emphasis on reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability
• Strong experience with accessibility APIs on Windows (e.g. Microsoft UI Automation or similar), and a dedication to building accessible and inclusive software
• Excellent software engineering fundamentals: OOP, design patterns, data structures, algorithms, memory management, multi-threading or asynchronous programming (where relevant)
• Experience leading technical design, mentoring other engineers, conducting code reviews, and making architecture-level decisions
• Strong communication skills; ability to articulate tradeoffs, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive consensus
• A user-centric mindset: focus on building polished, intuitive, and accessible experiences for end users
• Experience with writing automated tests for UI — unit tests, integration tests, UI automation tests; familiarity with relevant testing frameworks
• Experience with performance optimization for desktop apps (memory usage, startup time, rendering performance, high-DPI support, responsiveness under load)
• Experience with localization/globalization, right-to-left UI support, internationalization, accessibility for multiple regions
• Familiarity with telemetry, analytics, crash reporting, logging, and error monitoring in desktop applications
• Previous experience in shaping CI/CD workflows, release pipelines, and deployment strategies for desktop applications
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of feature areas or modules and drive them long-term, including maintenance, refactoring, and technical debt management