Our vision is to build the next generation platform to enable easy and fast creation of audio and video content powered by cutting-edge AI. Building a revolutionary way to record, transcribe, edit and mix spoken audio and video comes with a series of unique challenges and requires solving hard and complex problems. Learn more about how we're building Descript from one of our Engineers.
We are looking for frontend engineers who will help us refine and expand our next-generation web-based, collaborative audio and video editing tool. 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.
Though we might not be actively hiring for all teams at this time, you can take a sneak peek into what engineering teams exist today.
This role can be remote in the US or based in the SF Bay Area.
Tech Stack
- 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
What You’ll Do
- 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
What You Bring
- 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
Nice to Have
- Experience building creative tools
- Experience building and optimizing single-page web applications (SPAs)
At our current size and stage, we embrace a flat organizational structure and value the expertise and contributions of every team member. As such, we have a unified job title for our engineering roles where everyone, including those with Staff-level scope, is considered a Software Engineer. While titles may not change, we are actively seeking senior and above Software Engineers to join our team.
The base salary range for this role is $180,000-$230,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, location, and may vary from the amount above.
Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully-powered editing tool for video and audio — an editing tool built for the age of AI. We are a team of 150 — with a proven CEO and the backing of some of the world's greatest investors (OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital).
Descript is the special company that's in possession of both product market fit and the raw materials (passionate user community, great product, large market) for growth, but is still early enough that each new employee has a measurable influence on the direction of the company.
Benefits include a generous healthcare package, catered lunches, and flexible vacation time. Our headquarters are located in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. We're looking to hire people who are local and able to join us at the office when needed. We're flexible, and you're an adult—we don't expect or mandate that you're in the office every day. But we do believe there are valuable and serendipitous moments of discovery and collaboration that come from working together in person.
Descript is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We believe in actively building a team rich in diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to better allow our employees, products, and community to thrive.
Top Skills
What We Do
Descript builds simple and powerful collaborative tools for new media creators. We strive to eliminate the tedious work that often stands between an idea and its expression, so that creators can focus on developing their craft instead of their usage of tools.
Descript is a next generation digital media platform that offers a new "engine" that lets you edit audio by editing text (instead of waveforms).
That means it does transcription (both automated and human-powered, whichever you prefer), but more interestingly, it lets you move the audio around by simply editing the transcript.
If you're new to editing audio, you'll find it far easier - it's basically like using a word processor. If you're experienced, Descript is faster than waveform editing - and more fun.
If you work with voice audio (as opposed to music), Descript is what the future looks like...join us and change the world.
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