Desktop System Software Engineer II

Desktop System Software Engineer II

Chicago; New York, New York, United States

About AlphaSense:

The world's most sophisticated companies rely on AlphaSense to remove uncertainty from decision-making. With market intelligence and search built on proven AI, AlphaSense delivers insights that matter from content you can trust. Our universe of public and private content includes equity research, company filings, event transcripts, expert calls, news, trade journals, and clients' own research content.

The acquisition of Tegus by AlphaSense in 2024 advances our shared mission to empower professionals to make smarter decisions through AI-driven market intelligence. Together, AlphaSense and Tegus will accelerate growth, innovation, and content expansion, with complementary product and content capabilities that enable users to unearth even more comprehensive insights from thousands of content sets. Our platform is trusted by over 6,000 enterprise customers, including a majority of the S&P 500. Founded in 2011, AlphaSense is headquartered in New York City with more than 2,000 employees across the globe and offices in the U.S., U.K., Finland, India, Singapore, Canada, and Ireland. Come join us!

About The Role

AlphaSense is looking for a Desktop System Software Engineer II to join the Corporate Technology team. This is not a traditional IT support role — it sits at the intersection of enterprise endpoint engineering and desktop application diagnostics. You will own the health, behavior, and configuration of macOS and Windows endpoints at a systems level, while also serving as a technical bridge between Corporate IT and the AlphaSense product engineering organization — with a specific focus on the behavior of AlphaSense's desktop applications on managed devices.

You'll work alongside a team that manages MDM at scale using Kandji/Iru and Microsoft Intune, enforces Zero Trust security via CrowdStrike and Cloudflare, and operates in a high-velocity SaaS product environment. A core part of this role is the ability to reproduce, isolate, and help resolve issues that users encounter within AlphaSense's own desktop applications — requiring both deep desktop OS knowledge and genuine curiosity about how software behaves at the client layer.

About You

You're someone who gets energized by hard, ambiguous problems — whether that's a desktop app that crashes only on one macOS version, an MDM policy that breaks an auto-updater, or a CrowdStrike sensor policy that silently blocks a feature. You care about the quality and reliability of the experience AlphaSense employees have with the company's own products every day, and you take ownership of outcomes rather than waiting for someone else to define the path forward. You're equally comfortable reading a system crash log and writing a precise bug report for a product engineer.

What You'll Do

Endpoint Engineering & MDM

• Collaborate and contribute on the strategy and execution of macOS and Windows endpoint configuration, policy enforcement, and lifecycle management via Kandji/Iru and/or Microsoft Intune
• Build, maintain, and iterate on device enrollment workflows, configuration profiles, compliance policies, and custom scripts
• Design and enforce software deployment, patch management, and application allowlisting/blocklisting strategies
• Collaborate with Security on EDR (CrowdStrike Falcon), Zero Trust (Cloudflare WARP/Gateway), and identity (Okta) integrations at the endpoint layer
• Maintain scripting libraries (Bash, Python, PowerShell) to automate endpoint management tasks and reduce manual intervention

Desktop Application Diagnosis & Internal Support Engineering

• Serve as a primary technical escalation point for issues users experience within AlphaSense's desktop applications on managed endpoints
• Reproduce client-side issues across macOS and Windows versions, app build versions, and endpoint configurations to isolate root causes
• Investigate and diagnose desktop application behavior including crash analysis, rendering issues, performance degradation, update/upgrade failures, and OS-level permission or sandboxing conflicts
• Partner with product engineering teams to log detailed bug reports, provide environmental context, and validate fixes as they are released
• Capture crash logs, console output, network traces, and system-level diagnostics to accelerate resolution of complex application-layer problems
• Maintain a diagnostic runbook library covering common desktop application issues on Kandji/Iru- and Intune-managed devices
• Test new desktop application releases against the managed device baseline before broad rollout, flagging regressions early

Systems Reliability & Process Improvement

• Monitor endpoint fleet health, identify systemic issues, and drive proactive remediation before issues impact users
• Contribute to internal tooling and automation to improve IT operations and reduce ticket volume
• Document configurations, processes, and runbooks in the team's knowledge base
• Participate in incident response for endpoint-related security events alongside the Security team

What We're Looking For

Required

• 3–5 years of experience in a systems engineering, endpoint engineering, or desktop platform role (not generalist IT support)
• Deep hands-on experience with macOS (preferably) and/or Windows at a configuration and troubleshooting level beyond standard user support
• Demonstrated experience with one or more enterprise MDM platforms: Kandji/Iru, Jamf Pro, or Microsoft Intune
• Proficiency in at least one scripting language: Bash, Python, or PowerShell
• Hands-on experience diagnosing desktop application issues — including crash log analysis, OS permission models, app sandboxing, auto-update mechanisms, and the interaction between security tooling and application runtime behavior
• Familiarity with enterprise security tools (EDR, Zero Trust/CASB, identity platforms) and how they can affect desktop application behavior
• Ability to write clear, detailed bug reports and escalation summaries that product engineering teams can act on without requiring additional back-and-forth
• Strong written communication skills — able to produce runbooks, diagnostic guides, and engineering documentation

Preferred

• Experience with Kandji/Iru specifically, including Blueprint architecture, Liftoff enrollment, and custom enforcement scripts
• Familiarity with Electron-based desktop applications and their specific packaging, update, and permission behaviors on macOS and Windows
• Experience with CrowdStrike Falcon, including understanding how sensor policies and network containment affect application-layer behavior
• Experience with Cloudflare Zero Trust / WARP in a managed enterprise environment and its impact on desktop app traffic
• Exposure to Okta device trust or certificate-based authentication flows as they relate to desktop application SSO
• Background working in a SaaS product company where IT and Engineering teams collaborate closely on end-user issues
• Experience using Qualys VMDR or similar vulnerability management tooling
• Familiarity with Jira Service Management for ticket and change management workflows

Base Compensation Range

$80,000 - $110,000 USD

AlphaSense is an equal-opportunity employer. We are committed to a work environment that supports, inspires, and respects all individuals. All employees share in the responsibility for fulfilling AlphaSense's commitment to equal employment opportunity. AlphaSense does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, military or veteran status, disability, or any other non-merit factor. This policy applies to every aspect of employment at AlphaSense, including recruitment, hiring, training, advancement, and termination.

In addition, it is the policy of AlphaSense to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees who have protected disabilities to the extent required by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances where a particular employee works.

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