Senior Software Engineer, Windows/Desktop Applications - Ottawa, Canada

Speechify • Ottawa, ON

2d • Remote

About The Position

Speechify's mission is to ensure that reading is never a barrier to learning. Over 50 million people use Speechify’s text-to-speech products to turn various forms of text into audio, enabling them to read faster, read more, and remember more. Speechify’s products include apps for iOS, Android, Mac, a Chrome Extension, and a Web App. The company is a 100% distributed organization with nearly 200 employees globally, including engineers and AI research scientists from top tech companies and academic institutions.

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience 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.
• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, architecture, and development of native Windows desktop applications using Windows App SDK, WinUI (or related UI frameworks), C#, XAML, and C++.
• Define and enforce best-practices for Windows desktop development across the codebase, including code architecture, performance, memory usage, responsive UI, cross-version compatibility, and maintainability.
• Drive accessibility efforts by integrating and validating support for accessibility APIs, ensuring 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 the long-term roadmap for the Windows platform.
• Take ownership of the full lifecycle of features: conception → design → implementation → testing → release → maintenance, ensuring 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.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed