Senior Software Engineer - Performance Systems

About us

In the last few years, remote and hybrid work has had an explosion in popularity, giving workers an unprecedented level of access to opportunity and an increase in quality of life. However, our existing tools were not set up to do remote work well. Work can be isolating, transactional, and void of the camaraderie that makes everyone feel like they’re in it together.

To solve this, Gather builds virtual offices that bring the best of in-person work to remote. We’ve already seen success with our approach, with over 10,000 remote-first companies using our spaces every day. 

And yet it’s still the early days for our broader vision of the Metaverse. We’re excited about how the Metaverse can break down physical constraints that exist today, not just in where you can work, but which friends/family you can see, or what educational opportunities you can have access to. 

Join us in this mission!

Role overview:

A fast, performant application is crucial to the foundations that power Gather. Our product is rich and complex, encompassing a full audio/video system powered by WebRTC, a real-time virtual world similar to an MMORPG, and a full React-based web application with chat, calendar integrations, and more. 

In this role, you’ll plan and build the systems that help us tackle performance issues at Gather. You’ll investigate and solve performance issues across our entire stack, including our desktop application, GPU-bound features, browser javascript engines, memory management, and more. You’ll be tasked with building a systematic approach to identifying performance bottlenecks, including standing up benchmarking suites to understand whether our application is meeting our high-quality bar.

Where you will make an impact:

• Build a framework to run reproducible performance tests on diverse hardware configurations
• Design and implement performance benchmarks that cover the full stack, including GPU, front-end, and server-side workloads
• Investigate performance issues and deep-dive into technical debugging across web applications, desktop applications, and our audio-video stack.
• Collaborate with engineers across teams to design, develop, test, and optimize software for better performance
• Leverage browser and operating system debugging tools to gather performance traces and identify areas for improvement
• Conduct performance experiments designed to validate improvements in key metrics (e.g., P95/P99 latency, query performance, CPU/memory utilization)
• Foster a culture of early-stage performance testing and awareness throughout the development life cycle
• Drive long-term front-end infrastructure vision and strategy, influencing product teams to deliver a best-in-class product when it comes to performance

What you bring:

• 2+ years of experience with performance profiling and analysis, debugging, and optimization across a range of systems (frontend, backend, desktop, or GPU-bound)
• 2+ years of experience designing and executing reproducible performance experiments, with a strong understanding of key performance metrics
• 4+ years of experience with TypeScript, with experience in C++ or Rust being a plus
• Excellent data analysis skills with the ability to interpret performance metrics and present them to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Ability to solve complex performance issues and decompose large problems into smaller, testable hypotheses
• Intrinsic motivation and the drive to own and solve complex problems without guidance
• A strong desire to build the best experience for customers
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with technical leadership abilities
• An open and growth mindset when giving and receiving feedback
• Resourcefulness, a bias toward action, and a love moving fast
• A healthy tolerance for the chaotic balance between Doing Things Right and iterating and shipping quickly

Gather is committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace for individuals of all backgrounds. We strive to build a workplace where employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, everyday. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Additionally, we're committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please notify the recruiter you are working with. We also ask that all applicants consider answering the voluntary demographic questions on our job application to help us track the inclusivity of our recruiting efforts and programs. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary and your answers will not be shared with the hiring team and will not impact the hiring decision.