This Principal Software Engineer role provides technical leadership for a new Electron and Chromium-based desktop platform for Autodesk web applications. It is a hands-on individual contributor position where you will define platform architecture, lead complex technical decisions, and guide engineers building the Electron runtime, Windows integrations, automated delivery systems, and shared platform capabilities. The role combines deep technical expertise with broad influence, helping the team deliver a secure, maintainable, and reusable desktop platform while remaining actively involved in design, implementation, debugging, and code review.
Responsibilities
Define and evolve the architecture of the Electron desktop platform, including process boundaries, native capabilities, application interfaces, security controls, runtime configuration, and product integration patterns
Design, prototype, implement, and review complex functionality across Electron, Chromium, Node.js, TypeScript, Windows APIs, and supporting native components
Guide engineers through design and implementation decisions, mentor team members, review complex changes, establish engineering standards, and help the team develop expertise in desktop platform engineering
Work with product teams and Autodesk platform teams responsible for security, identity, software distribution, telemetry, crash reporting, graphics, and other shared capabilities
Partner with quality and release engineering to define release gates, runtime upgrade policies, observability, supportability, and production-readiness requirements
Own the overall technical architecture of the shared desktop platform and ensure clear boundaries between reusable platform capabilities and product-specific functionality
Define secure communication patterns between hosted web applications and privileged desktop functionality, including process isolation, inter-process communication, native API exposure, navigation controls, and application trust boundaries
Establish the strategy for using and upgrading Electron and Chromium, including supported versions, configuration and build options, runtime feature enablement, compatibility assessment, and response to security updates
Keep the platform as close as practical to supported upstream Electron and Chromium capabilities, avoiding unnecessary customization and long-term maintenance burden
Lead the design of native Windows capabilities such as application lifecycle management, hardware and system-information access, GPU preference, protocol handling, operating-system integration, and enterprise deployment behavior
Define stable interfaces through which Autodesk web applications can consume desktop capabilities without creating product-specific implementations or forks
Work with the P3 Senior Software Engineer to break larger platform objectives into technical designs, implementation plans, dependencies, and incremental deliverables
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Provide technical guidance and mentorship to the P2 Software Engineer, helping them develop deeper expertise in Electron, Chromium, Node.js, Windows, debugging, and secure application design
Partner with the team's SDET and CI/CD/Release Engineer to ensure the platform is testable, buildable, reproducible, diagnosable, and capable of being released through automated delivery pipelines
Define technical requirements for build, packaging, signing, release promotion, rollback, and runtime qualification while leaving day-to-day pipeline implementation with the engineer responsible for CI/CD and release automation
Work closely with Autodesk application-security specialists to develop threat models, address security findings, apply Electron and Chromium security best practices, and ensure privileged desktop functionality is exposed safely
Collaborate with specialist graphics and rendering teams on interfaces and requirements related to memory, GPU selection, hardware visibility, and runtime capabilities while keeping graphics implementation within the owning teams
Lead evaluation of new Electron and Chromium releases, significant runtime capabilities, Windows platform changes, and other technologies that may affect the platform
Diagnose the most difficult technical issues spanning Electron, Chromium, Node.js, Windows, application lifecycle, memory, security, installation, and hosted web applications
Use profiling, crash diagnostics, runtime tracing, native debugging tools, and Chromium developer tooling to understand complex system behavior
Write and review architecture decision records, technical designs, platform interfaces, operational runbooks, and engineering standards
Proactively identify architectural risks, technical debt, reliability concerns, and opportunities to simplify the platform before they become delivery or support problems
Ensure technical decisions consider the needs of future Autodesk products as well as the immediate requirements of Forma
Help establish an onboarding model that allows additional Autodesk web applications to adopt the desktop platform through well-defined configuration and integration points
Participate in hiring and help establish the technical bar for engineers joining the team
Requirements
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
8+ years of professional software engineering experience
Strong software engineering experience with JavaScript or TypeScript and Node.js
Significant experience designing and delivering complex software systems or platform capabilities
Experience with Electron, Chromium-based applications, desktop application development, or comparable systems-level application platforms
Strong understanding of application architecture, process boundaries, asynchronous systems, security, and software lifecycle management
Experience leading technical design and implementation across multiple engineers
Ability to take ambiguous or open-ended technical problems from investigation through architecture, implementation, and production delivery
Strong debugging skills across multiple components, processes, or technology layers
Experience with automated testing, continuous integration, source control, code review, and modern software delivery practices
Experience communicating technical trade-offs and influencing decisions across engineering teams
Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and raise engineering quality through technical leadership
Nice to have:
Deep experience with Electron architecture, including main, renderer, and preload processes, context isolation, inter-process communication, and security configuration
Strong understanding of Chromium architecture, runtime configuration, feature flags, release lifecycle, and developer tooling
Experience with C++, native Node.js modules, or interoperability between JavaScript and native platform APIs
Experience developing software using Windows APIs or other systems-level Windows technologies
Experience diagnosing memory, process, performance, startup, or crash problems in Chromium-based or native desktop applications
Familiarity with Electron or Chromium build tooling such as GN and Ninja
Experience with Windows application packaging, installers, code signing, updating, and enterprise software deployment
Experience designing shared APIs, SDKs, runtimes, or platform components consumed by multiple products or engineering teams
Experience with desktop application threat modeling and secure application architecture
Experience with software supply-chain security, dependency management, vulnerability response, and release provenance
Experience defining operational standards for a customer-facing desktop application
Important Details
Work format: hybrid
About the Company
Autodesk helps innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made. They take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Forma is the first product adopting the new desktop platform, with the longer-term goal of creating reusable desktop capabilities for additional Autodesk products.
