Lead Software Engineer – CoCounsel Legal Desktop App

Thomson Reuters•Frisco, TX

20d•$118,400 - $253,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Do you want to be the founding engineer who sets the technical bar for CoCounsel Legal on desktop? Are you energized by the challenge of making an AI-powered product feel truly native on Windows and Mac — fast, integrated, and indispensable to the lawyers who use it every day? If so, this role is for you. As Lead Software Engineer for the CoCounsel Legal Desktop App, you will be the technical anchor of a new desktop engineering team — defining the architecture, setting engineering standards, and personally shipping code that brings CoCounsel Legal to lawyers’ machines. You will work closely with the Engineering Manager and Product to shape the product from its earliest decisions, and mentor the engineers who join you.

Requirements

7+ years of software engineering experience, with significant depth in desktop application development for Windows and/or macOS.
Proven experience leading technical direction on a desktop product — framework choices, architecture patterns, packaging, and engineering standards — not just execution.
Track record shipping high-quality, production desktop applications in a professional or enterprise context.
Hands-on experience with one or more desktop frameworks: Electron, Tauri, native Win32/macOS APIs, or equivalent.
Experience integrating desktop applications with cloud APIs including streaming, authentication (OAuth/SSO), and local file system access.
Ability to mentor and elevate engineers through code review, design discussions, and technical pairing.
Clear technical communicator — able to articulate tradeoffs to both engineers and non-technical product partners.

Nice To Haves

Experience building greenfield desktop applications — ideally as the first or founding engineer.
Background in legal tech, productivity software, or professional-services SaaS.
Experience building AI-powered desktop features — streaming chat interfaces, local inference, context-aware actions.
Familiarity with enterprise desktop deployment patterns (MSI/PKG packaging, MDM, SSO, app configuration).

Responsibilities

Establish the technical foundation of the CoCounsel Legal desktop app, making early architecture decisions on framework choice (e.g., Electron, Tauri, native), project structure, IPC patterns, packaging, and auto-update infrastructure that will shape how the team builds for years.
Deliver hands-on engineering contributions, writing production-quality desktop code across core features — from the main agent experience and local file integrations to OS-level notifications, clipboard handling, and system tray presence.
Integrate with the CoCounsel backend, working closely with Agent Core and AI Platform teams to connect the desktop app to agent APIs, streaming responses, file and workspace infrastructure, and authentication flows.
Define and uphold desktop engineering standards, establishing code review practices, testing strategies (unit, integration, end-to-end), cross-platform compatibility requirements, and performance benchmarks.
Mentor and support desktop engineers, providing technical guidance, pairing on hard problems, and helping engineers develop expertise in a greenfield environment.
Partner with Product and Design, translating requirements and designs into technically sound, performant desktop experiences — and raising constructive concerns about feasibility or quality tradeoffs early.
Contribute to the broader Application Experience engineering community, sharing desktop-specific patterns and insights with peer teams building the web and mobile experiences.

Benefits

Hybrid Work Model
Flex My Way
work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year
Career Development and Growth
Grow My Way programming
flexible vacation
two company-wide Mental Health Days off
access to the Headspace app
retirement savings
tuition reimbursement
employee incentive programs
resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing
Social Impact Institute
two paid volunteer days off annually
pro-bono consulting projects
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives
market competitive health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance programs
competitive 401k plan with company match
competitive vacation, sick and safe paid time off
paid holidays
parental leave
sabbatical leave
optional hospital, accident and sickness insurance
optional life and AD&D insurance
Flexible Spending and Health Savings Accounts
fitness reimbursement
access to Employee Assistance Program
Group Legal Identity Theft Protection benefit
access to 529 Plan
commuter benefits
Adoption & Surrogacy Assistance
access to Employee Stock Purchase Plan