Staff Frontend Software Engineer, Descript
$160-230k
More information about location
AI video & podcast editor
Job no longer available
AI video & podcast editor
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
$160-230k
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
To make it easy for anyone o record, edit, and share any video.
Role
Who you are
- 7+ years of professional software development experience
- Industry experience in a frontend software engineering role
- Proficiency in one or more programming languages and frontend frameworks, especially Typescript/Javascript/React
- Pride in delivering high-quality, maintainable, observable, debuggable features
- Desire to take ownership, and resourcefulness to find answers and simplify problems
- Self aware of strengths and seeking to constantly learn and improve
- Strong written and verbal communication
Desirable
- Experience building creative tools
- Experience building and optimizing single-page web applications (SPAs)
What the job involves
- We’re looking for a frontend software engineer to help us refine and expand our next-generation web-based, collaborative audio and video editing tool
- Frontend engineers at Descript work on wide-ranging projects, from the nitty-gritty details of editing interactions, to the critical features of a modern cloud product, to the systems that power real-time collaboration and media playback, to cutting-edge AI integrations
- As Descript is a unique product, engineers will often need to find creative solutions to problems in collaboration with product and design
- Descript is built with Typescript, React/Redux, and Node.js, and takes advantage of WebAssembly, WebCodecs, WebGL, and WebAudio for real-time rendering and compositing
- Collaborate closely with designers, product managers, and other engineers to deliver a high quality user experience
- Develop and refine front-end architecture and best practices to support a fast-moving product engineering team
- Work alongside AI researchers to build innovative user experiences around the state-of-the-art advancements in AI
- Iterate on our script-and-scene media editing paradigm to keep users in flow state during the editing process
- Push the web browser to its limit, writing high-performance code rivaling native applications
Our take
The rise of digital content has made video and audio creation more important than ever, but producing polished media can still be quite complex. Descript makes editing accessible to anyone, simplifying recording, editing, and publishing. And its platform empowers over 7M users to bring ideas to life without needing advanced technical skills.
Descript's standout feature is its AI co-editor, Underlord, which lets users create and edit videos just by describing what they want,. It can generate rough cuts, add visuals and B-roll, apply AI effects, and format content for social media. While many creators are still wary of AI in content creation, Descript has built its tools to augment human creativity, giving users control while handling the heavy lifting.
Serving millions of creators and businesses worldwide, Descript keeps innovating with AI features that learn from user input. By combining intuitive tools with responsible AI, the platform is helping content creators work faster and smarter, reshaping video and audio production while keeping the creative vision firmly in human hands.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
30% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Oct 2022
$50m
SERIES C
Jan 2021
$30m
SERIES B
Total funding: $100m
Company benefits
- Health: We’ve got you covered with medical, dental, and vision benefits for all employees and their dependents. These include HMO and PPO healthcare plans
- Time off: Paid holidays are a given, but you can also expect flexible time off. Feel comfortable to take the time you need, when you need it.
- Parental leave: New parents receive paid parental leave to spend quality time with their expanding families.
- Home-office stipend: Get your work-from-home setup ready with our home-office stipend.
- Retirement: We offer a variety of retirement plans, including employer matching.
- Free food & refreshments: Come say hey! Visit our office for free lunch, snacks, and drinks.
- Destination off-sites: No matter where you work, you’ll get to know your team. We host two annual gatherings: a company-wide off-site and a team-specific off-site.
Company HQ
Civic Center, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Laura Burkhauser
(CEO)Laura joined Descript in 2023 as a VP of Product and became CEO in 2025. Prior to this, she was a Director of Product Management at Twitter and Rent The Runway.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 20 more jobs at Descript