Staff Engineer, Desktop Platform

About this role

<div class="content-intro"><h2><strong>Who Are We?</strong></h2> <p>Postman is the world’s leading API platform, used by more than 45 million+ developers and 500,000 organizations, including 98% of the Fortune 500. Postman is helping developers and professionals across the globe build the API-first world by simplifying each step of the API lifecycle and streamlining collaboration—enabling users to create better APIs, faster.</p> <p>The company is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Boston, New York, Austin, Tokyo, London, and Bangalore - where Postman was founded. Postman is privately held, with funding from Battery Ventures, BOND, Coatue, CRV, Insight Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners. Learn more at postman.com or connect with Postman on X via @getpostman.</p> <p>P.S: We highly recommend reading <a href="https://api-first-world.com/">The "API-First World" graphic novel</a> to understand the bigger picture and our vision at Postman.</p></div><p><strong>The Opportunity</strong></p> <p>As Staff Engineer, Desktop Platform, you’ll join the Postman Client Platform team and lead the technical direction of our Electron-based desktop application, used by over 40 million developers worldwide. You will shape its architecture, performance, and security for years to come.</p> <p>This is an IC-first role. You’ll design and build every day while also serving as the technical anchor for our Desktop Platform. You will define its architecture, implement critical features, and mentor engineers, guiding how Postman evolves across desktop operating systems.</p> <p><strong>About the Team</strong></p> <p>The Client Platform organization provides the “paved path” for building, testing, and releasing Postman’s web and desktop applications. We own the frameworks, SDKs, build tooling, shared libraries, and infrastructure that product engineers rely on every day. Our platform is the foundation that hundreds of Postman engineers use to deliver features and improvements to over 40 million customers.</p> <p>Within this group, the <strong>Desktop Platform team</strong> is responsible for Postman’s Electron integration and OS-level infrastructure. The team ensures Postman is installable, updatable, performant, and secure across Windows, macOS, and Linux, working closely with the Client SDK and Build/Release teams to provide a consistent and reliable experience.</p> <p><strong>What You’ll Do</strong></p> <ul> <li>Own the architecture for Postman’s Electron-based desktop application.</li> <li>Design and implement core desktop features, including installers, auto-updates, and OS integrations.</li> <li>Improve performance across desktop platforms, from startup time to memory and CPU usage.</li> <li>Collaborate across engineering to ensure Postman delivers a consistent, performant, and secure desktop experience.<strong><br><br></strong></li> <li>Drive security best practices for Electron apps, including sandboxing and safe updates.</li> <li>Keep Postman current with Electron releases.</li> <li>Partner with Client SDK and Build/Release teams to align architecture and delivery.</li> <li>Shape technical direction across engineering by collaborating with other platform teams and aligning them on desktop needs.<br><br></li> </ul> <p><strong>Traits That Will Make You Successful</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Hands-on leadership:</strong> You lead by building and guide others through influence and mentorship.</li> <li><strong>Systems thinker:</strong> You understand how desktop platforms fit together, from OS APIs to Electron internals to shared client frameworks, and design solutions with the whole system in mind.</li> <li><strong>Influential partner:</strong> You work effectively across engineering teams, building alignment and trust to drive the right technical outcomes.<br><br></li> <li><strong>Bias for clarity:</strong> You make technical direction and trade-offs easy for others to understand.</li> <li><strong>Pragmatic problem solver:</strong> You balance performance, security, and user experience with delivery speed.</li> <li><strong>High standards:</strong> You care deeply about quality and take pride in raising the bar for others.<br><br></li> </ul> <p><strong>Your Experience</strong></p> <ul> <li>Proven track record as a Staff, Principal, or Lead engineer building cross-platform desktop applications.</li> <li>Deep expertise with Electron, Node.js, and modern web technologies (JavaScript, TypeScript, React).</li> <li>Strong understanding of cross-platform packaging, auto-update systems, and OS-level integration (Windows, macOS, Linux).</li> <li>Experience improving performance and security in large-scale desktop applications.</li> <li>Proficiency in <strong>C++</strong> for writing native modules or integrations.</li> <li>Familiarity with <strong>Win32 APIs and macOS APIs</strong> for native integration and platform-specific optimizations.</li> <li>Demonstrated ability to set technical direction, mentor engineers, and influence peers across teams.</li> <li>Comfortable acting as the technical anchor for a lean team, with the ability to shape its future growth.</li> </ul><div class="content-conclusion"><h2…