Senior Software Engineer, Windows​/Desktop - Munich, Germany

Senior Software Engineer, Windows/Desktop Applications - Munich, Germany

Mission

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 PDFs, books, Google Docs, news articles, and websites into audio, so they can read faster, read more, and remember more. Speechify's products include an iOS app, Android app, Mac app, Chrome extension, and Web app.

The company has been recognized as Chrome Extension of the Year and received Apple's 2025 Design Award for Inclusivity. Today, nearly 200 people work on Speechify in a fully distributed setting, including engineers from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and startups like Stripe, Vercel, and Bolt.

• Lead the design, architecture, and development of native Windows desktop applications using the 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 by integrating and validating support for accessibility APIs (e.g., Microsoft UI Automation), 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 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.

• 3+ years of Windows desktop application development using the Windows App SDK, WinUI (or similar), C#, XAML – and ideally additional experience with native Windows code (C++, Win
  32/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 emphasis on reliability, performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Strong experience with accessibility APIs on Windows (e.g., Microsoft UI Automation or similar) and dedication to building accessible and inclusive software.
• Excellent software engineering fundamentals: OOP, design patterns, data structures, algorithms, memory management, multi‑threading or asynchronous programming (where relevant).
• 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.
• User‑centric mindset: focus on building polished, intuitive, and accessible experiences for end‑users.

• Experience writing automated UI tests (unit tests, integration tests, UI automation tests) and familiarity with relevant testing frameworks.
• Experience optimizing performance 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, and accessibility for multiple regions.
• Familiarity with telemetry, analytics, crash reporting, logging, and error monitoring in desktop applications.
• Previous experience 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.

• A high‑impact role: 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…