Senior Software Engineer, Windows/Desktop Applications - Bristol, United Kingdom
Role Summary
Join Speechify as a Senior Software Engineer to lead the development of innovative Windows desktop applications, contributing to accessible technology for learning.
About the Organisation
The mission of Speechify is to make sure that reading is never a barrier to learning.
Over 50 million people use Speechify's text-to-speech products to turn whatever they're reading – PDFs, books, Google Docs, news articles, websites – into audio, so they can read faster, read more, and remember more. Speechify's text-to-speech reading products include its iOS app, Android App, Mac App, Chrome Extension, and Web App. Google recently named Speechify the Chrome Extension of the Year and Apple named Speechify its 2025 Design Award winner for Inclusivity.
Today, nearly 200 people around the globe work on Speechify in a 100% distributed setting – Speechify has no office. These include frontend and backend engineers, AI research scientists, and others from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, leading PhD programs like Stanford, high growth startups like Stripe, Vercel, Bolt, and many founders of their own companies
Key Responsibilities
An ideal candidate should have
- 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.
Minimum Requirements
- 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.
Working Conditions
- A high-impact role: you will define architecture, shape the future of our Windows product, and directly influence what millions of users see and experience.
- A collaborative, flat-structure engineering culture — you are not just a coder, but a builder and a decision-maker.
- Opportunities to lead — mentor others, steer technical direction, and grow into broader technical leadership (e.g. Tech Lead, Architect).
- Flexibility, autonomy, and responsibility: you define how to solve problems, own features end-to-end, and contribute to long-term product vision.
- A purpose-driven mission: building software that's reliable, accessible, and user-centered — making a real difference for people.
Eligibility Criteria
Candidates with experience in Windows desktop application development are encouraged to apply. No explicit eligibility conditions are mentioned.
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