Software Engineer, Figma
Rendering and Animation
$149-350k
Salary based on NY or SF candidates. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range. Plus Equity for all
Design platform for product teams
Be an early applicant
Design platform for product teams
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$149-350k
Salary based on NY or SF candidates. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range. Plus Equity for all
1001+ employees
Company mission
Figma's mission is to help teams create, share, test, and ship better designs from start to finish.
Role
Who you are
- The Rendering & Animation team is looking for engineers with domain expertise in rendering algorithms and APIs, as well as both high- and low-level performance optimization
- Experience relating to rendering of 2D vector graphics specifically is a plus, but not required
- We’re looking for someone who is excited to explore the latest graphics technologies like WebGPU, plus develop and implement new algorithmic techniques for things like high-performance antialiasing
- 8+ years of professional experience shipping software with a specialization on Rendering and Graphics (2D or 3D), ideally with experience in C++/WebAssembly
- Experience working on game engines, client-side technologies and platforms, and rendering APIs like OpenGL, WebGL, WebGPU, Vulkan, Metal, or DirectX
- Demonstrated fluency with one or more low-level programming languages, including but not limited to: C++, C, Objective-C, Go, or Rust
- Deep familiarity with the rendering pipeline and rendering concepts
- Proactive communication skills and a desire to work in a collaborative environment
What the job involves
- Our Creation Engine teams work on some of the core technologies that power our real time, browser-based Figma Design and FigJam products
- These teams work mostly (but not exclusively) on client-side code that runs in the browser
- Under the hood, Figma shares a lot of similarities to a game engine
- We develop this C++/WebAssembly engine to ensure internal and external developers can rapidly build new products and features that are fast and reliable by default, and own areas such as our in-memory data model (SceneGraph), renderer, and multiplayer client/server protocols
- Within Creation Engine, the Rendering & Animation team focuses on the lowest level of the stack, where we convert the SceneGraph into primitive rendering operations that are executed on the GPU using WebGL
- Our team houses the company’s expertise in rendering of 2D vector graphics, rendering algorithms, rendering APIs, and GPU profiling and optimization
- Our mission is to make rendering performant, feature-rich, reliable, maintainable, and extendable across all products and surfaces
- Rendering & Animation engineers use a combination of C++ and TypeScript for CPU-side code (to support our two renderers); our shaders are written in GLSL
- The team recently completed a large project to replace our legacy rendering backend with a new one - “TinyGPU” - that is more modern, much smaller, and easier to work with
- This project has laid the groundwork for a new era focused on feature expansion, performance optimization, advanced animation, and future product launches
- Each new product at Figma pushes beyond our previous rendering assumptions, requiring constant innovation and visionary foundations
- Figma is a highly collaborative organization and most projects are owned by small teams of 2-3 people
- You’ll form strong relationships with product managers and designers, and can expect to partner regularly with engineers and leaders beyond your immediate team
- We strive to foster an inclusive culture that promotes equity and belonging, and use the following values to guide how we work together: communicate early and often, lift your team, focus on craftsmanship, and prioritize impact
- You can learn more about our engineering values and how we developed them here
- Work closely with teammates and partners in Engineering, Product, Design, Marketing, User Research, and Data Science to build new features and achieve roadmap goals. We prioritize collaboration and cross-functional partnerships, so you won’t operate in silos. Some efforts you might impact include:
- Creating and optimizing shaders to render blurs of primitive shapes in a single pass
- Improving how we order and batch draws to reduce draw calls and render target switches
- Developing and implementing faster approaches to anti-aliasing (an open area of research in 2D vector graphics!)
- Implementing performant animations using multiple layer caches for fast compositing
- Drive guidance, quality, and standards for rendering at Figma, and explore opportunities that keep us on the bleeding edge of new capability and advancements
- Be a mentor and provide thoughtful feedback to your peers, and benefit from strong personal and professional mentorship opportunities yourself
- Contribute to org-wide initiatives like new hire onboarding, interview process development, and Belonging/Equity/Inclusion efforts
- Continue ramping and learning. The technical challenges you'll tackle on the Rendering & Animation team are unique, fun, ambitious, and ever-evolving
Our take
Figma is a web-based design platform that helps cross-functional teams of designers, project managers, and developers easily collaborate on product design projects. Its standout feature, Multiplayer mode, is like Google Docs for design, letting team members collaborate in real-time on project files that are hosted in the cloud.
Founded in 2012, Figma quickly established itself among its competitors in the sector and achieved a valuation exceeding $10 billion in 2021, boosted by a trend towards remote work. Its acquistion by Adobe for twice that amount just a year later raised eyebrows, but is a testament to the huge potential of this company and its product.
Thousands of industry-leading companies such as AirBnB, Dropbox, GitHub and Microsoft use Figma to scale their design efforts easily across distributed teams. Adobe has committed to leaving Figma autonomous going forward, and Figma will benefit from Adobe's digital imaging and AI tech in its product development.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
97% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 8 rounds)
May 2024
$415.7m
SERIES F
Jan 2022
$0.5m
SERIES E
Total funding: $749.1m
Company benefits
- Equity
- Health, Dental, & Vision
- Retirement with company contribution
- Parental leave & fertility support
- Mental health and wellness benefits
- Generous PTO
- Company recharge days
- Learning & development stipend
- Work from home stipend
- Cell phone reimbursement
Company values
- Build community
- Run with it
- Love your craft
- Grow as you go
Company HQ
Union Square, San Francisco, CA
Articles
Leadership
Dylan Field
(CEO)Previous Research Assistant at Microsoft for 1 year. Spent 2.5 years at Brown University pursuing a CS/Math degree, dropping out with the support of the Thiel Fellowship, when he earnt a grant of $100,000 to pursue entrepreneurial projects.
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