Desktop Engineer – AI

A1 is a self-funded AI group, operating in full stealth. We’re building a new global consumer AI application where backend systems are not glue - they are the control plane that connects models, data, users, and product experiences.

This is a founding desktop engineering role. You will design and build a high-performance desktop application with deep AI features, tight OS integration, and real-time collaboration - operating under real-world constraints like memory pressure, startup time, large local state, and continuous updates.

Why This Role Matters

• You define how users experience AI-powered collaboration on desktop
• Your work directly impacts speed, reliability, and trust at scale
• You solve hard problems at the intersection of OS, frontend, real-time systems, and AI
• You build production systems used daily — not prototypes
• You help set desktop engineering standards from day one
  
  

What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain cross-platform desktop apps using Electron
• Design responsive, scalable UI for real-time collaboration
• Implement desktop-specific capabilities:
• File system access
• Native notifications
• Auto-updates
• Deep linking
• Integrate AI-powered features (chat, agents, AI assistance) via backend APIs
• Optimize memory usage, startup time, and runtime performance
• Profile and reduce Electron overhead
• Handle large local state and message history efficiently
• Ensure smooth real-time updates (messages, typing indicators, presence)
• Maintain stability across macOS and Windows environments
  
  

Requirements

• 4+ years of software engineering experience
• Hands-on experience building production Electron applications
• Strong knowledge of:
• JavaScript / TypeScript
• React or similar UI frameworks
• Desktop application lifecycle
• Experience with:
• IPC communication
• Local storage (SQLite, IndexedDB, filesystem)
• WebSockets or other real-time transport
• Strong debugging and performance profiling skills
  
  

Nice to Have

• Experience integrating AI features in production:
• LLM-based chat
• AI agents
• Streaming AI responses
• Understanding of AI constraints:
• Latency vs UX tradeoffs
• Cost considerations
• Non-deterministic outputs
• Experience handling large local datasets or long-lived app sessions
• Familiarity with native OS behaviors on macOS or Windows
  
  

Our Team & Culture

We operate as a dense, senior, high-performance team. We value clarity, speed, craftsmanship, and relentless ownership. We behave like founders — we build, ship, iterate, and hold ourselves to a high technical bar.

If you value excellence, enjoy building real systems, and want to be part of a small team creating something globally impactful, you’ll thrive here.

About A1

A1 is a self-funded, independent AI group, focused on building a new consumer AI product with global impact. We’re assembling a small, elite team of ML and engineering builders who want to work on meaningful, high-impact problems.