Software Engineer - Desktop

We’re looking for a Desktop Engineer to join our Desktop Team and continue making our desktop app the best way to experience Figma on macOS and Windows. Our Desktop Engineering team covers a wide technical scope, given the breadth of ownership and customer impact of the app. We work highly collaboratively to solve these problems together. We strive to foster a positive, inclusive culture — you can read more about our engineering values on our blog.

This is a full time role that can be held from one of our US hubs or remotely in the United States and Canada.

What you'll do at Figma: 

• Lead complex technical initiatives to improve performance, reliability, and user experience of our Electron.js-based desktop application

• Collaborate with product, design, and other engineering teams to define the desktop app roadmap

• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across the Desktop App team

• Drive technical decisions that balance innovation, quality, and delivery timelines

• Share responsibility for testing, releasing, and maintaining our desktop application and related developer tools and processes

• Communicate and document architectural designs, requirements, and best practices

We'd love to hear from you if you have: 

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership

• 3+ years experience developing cross-platform JavaScript applications using Node.js, working in large C/C++ codebases (e.g. browsers, compilers, or kernels), or implementing advanced React.js patterns such as complex state management architectures or performance optimization for rendering-intensive applications

• Solid expertise in shipping production apps with the Electron.js framework

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences

• Track record of mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction

While it’s not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

• Familiarity with the internals of Electron, Chromium, Node.js and V8, or JavaScript (e.g. memory management/garbage collection, event loop, microtasks)

• Familiarity with native operating system APIs (Win32, Cocoa/UIKit)

• Previous experience improving Continuous Integration systems for Electron-based projects and integration with their web counterpart systems around performance, costs, and developer experience

• Experience working with Figma & FigJam to have a strong sense of user empathy

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Pay Transparency Disclosure

If based in Figma’s San Francisco or New York hub offices, this role has the annual base salary range stated below.    

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information. 

Figma offers equity to employees, as well a competitive package of additional benefits, including health, dental & vision, retirement with company contribution, parental leave & reproductive or family planning support, mental health & wellness benefits, generous PTO, company recharge days, a learning & development stipend, a work from home stipend, and cell phone reimbursement.  Figma also offers sales incentive pay for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles. Figma’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future.

Annual Base Salary Range (SF/NY Hub):

$149,000—$350,000 USD