Engineering Manager, Desktop

About Anthropic

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced engineering leader to lead our Desktop Engineering team. This key leadership role requires deep expertise in desktop application development and a strong product focus to deliver innovative AI-powered experiences to our users. You'll be responsible for building a high-performing engineering team focused on creating elegant, cross-platform desktop applications that put the power of our AI capabilities at users' fingertips.

You'll lead engineers working with a mix of native and web technologies to create the best possible version of Claude for macOS and Windows, bridging our AI technology with intuitive user interfaces that transform how people engage with advanced language models.

Today, our app is mostly web-based, but we're heavily investing in native code and deeper integrations into the operating systems. This means your team will work across multiple programming languages and platforms—from Chromium and Electron to C++ and native macOS and Windows APIs. You'll work closely with engineers, researchers, and product specialists to shape both the technical direction and the team culture from the ground up. This role requires deep expertise in desktop application development, strong product instincts, and a track record of building teams that deliver innovative, cross-platform experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Lead a high-performing team of desktop application engineers
• Define and execute the technical strategy for our desktop product initiatives, including architecture decisions and development frameworks
• Create clarity and direction for the team in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
• Guide and navigate a web-first organization, educating and collaborating with design and product partners to build novel and delightful experiences on top of the entire operating system
• Take an inclusive, equitable approach to hiring and coaching technical talent, guiding both highly independent senior engineers as well as junior engineers learning how to be productive in ambiguity

You may be a good fit if you have:

• 5+ years of experience as a product-minded engineering manager, with experience leading desktop application development teams
• Strong technical background in software development with proven success building and shipping desktop applications
• Experience with Electron and native desktop technologies
• Track record of recruiting, scaling, and retaining engineering talent in a high-growth environment
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with ability to work effectively across functions
• Demonstrated success in building a culture of belonging and engineering excellence

We're more interested in strong engineering leaders who can build teams excited to learn new technologies than we are looking for someone with hands-on experience in every technology in our stack. We understand that even the best engineering leaders will have more experience with some platforms than others.

Strong candidates may also have experience with:

• Experience integrating and working with AI/ML models and understanding their capabilities
• Demonstrated success implementing cross-platform development strategies
• Startup experience, particularly in scaling products from zero to one
• Experience working on and building operating systems, browsers, or deeply OS-integrated software
• Vision for the future of AI-powered desktop applications and a drive to make that vision a reality

Deadline to apply: None. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. 

The expected base compensation for this position is below. Our total compensation package for full-time employees includes equity, benefits, and may include incentive compensation.

Annual Salary:$405,000—$485,000 USD

Logistics

Education requirements: We require at least a Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.

Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candi