Software Engineer, Desktop

Anthropic Anthropic · AI Frontier · San Francisco, CA · Engineering & Design - Product

Software Engineer to build native desktop applications for Anthropic's Claude AI, focusing on packaging AI capabilities into elegant user experiences for macOS and Windows. The role involves developing core infrastructure, using native code for advanced features, optimizing performance, and creating monitoring tools, with a strong emphasis on product-focused development and user experience.

What you'd actually do

  1. Develop and maintain the core infrastructure and features within [Claude.ai](http://Claude.ai) and in our Electron-based desktop app using a typical web stack (TypeScript, React)
  2. Use native code (Rust, Swift, C++) to bring advanced features to the desktop app, connecting Claude to macOS and Windows
  3. Optimize application performance, memory usage, and startup time across platforms
  4. Design and build robust update mechanisms and deployment pipelines
  5. Create monitoring tools to track application performance and user experience

Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of experience as a software engineer
  • strong emphasis on desktop application development
  • practical experience with Electron and deep understanding of its architecture
  • strong JavaScript/TypeScript skills and experience with modern frontend frameworks
  • product-focused approach
  • experience with native module development in C++
  • Understand macOS and/or Windows platform-specific technologies and development patterns
  • experience with cross-platform application packaging, code signing, and distribution
  • Thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment

Nice to have

  • Experience working on and building operating systems, browsers, or deeply OS-integrated software
  • Experience integrating and working with AI/ML models and understanding their capabilities
  • Demonstrated success implementing cross-platform development strategies
  • Vision for the future of AI-powered desktop applications
  • Have experience with IPC (Inter-Process Communication) and security in desktop applications

What the JD emphasized

  • strong engineers excited to learn new languages and technologies
  • strong engineers can learn whatever technology is best suited
  • strong engineers will have little experience with one of the operating systems and areas we’d like to invest in
  • strong engineers will have more experience with some platforms than others