Desktop Engineering Manager Jobs in Naperville, IL

About the Role

AlphaSense is building a new Desktop Software Engineering function within Corporate Technology, and we are looking for the manager who will shape it from the ground up. This role sits at the intersection of enterprise endpoint engineering and internal product quality - primarily responsible for ensuring that AlphaSense's own desktop applications behave reliably on every managed endpoint across the company, while also contributing to the team responsible for macOS and Windows device management at scale.

This is not a traditional IT management role. You will lead a team of engineers (not generalist support technicians) who own MDM platforms, write automation, and serve as the technical bridge between Corporate IT and the product engineering organization. As the founding manager of this function, you will define how the team operates, how work gets prioritized, and how the team earns trust with both the internal IT organization and the engineering teams you partner with.

You'll report to the Senior Manager of Integrated IT and work closely with Security, Business Applications, and Information Engineering teams as part of AlphaSense's broader Secure IT initiative.

About You

You've been the most technical person in the room in IT settings, and you've also successfully made the shift to leading a team - without losing your instincts for what good engineering looks like. You're energized by building something new: defining how a function should work, earning trust with peers across the organization, and growing engineers who are proud of the quality of their work. You hold a high bar for documentation, automation, and root cause analysis, and you bring that standard to everything the team produces. You're not looking for a role where you just manage tickets - you want to build something.

Desktop Application Quality & Diagnostics

• Ensure the team is testing new desktop application releases against the managed device baseline before broad internal rollout
• Own the team's relationship with product engineering as it relates to how AlphaSense desktop applications behave on managed employee endpoints
• Define the standard for how the team captures and communicates diagnostic data (logs, traces, environmental context) to product engineering in a way that accelerates resolution
• Establish and maintain a process for reproducing, triaging, and escalating employee-reported desktop application issues - including crash analysis, update failures, OS permission conflicts, and performance degradation

Program Management & Stakeholder Alignment

• Maintain visibility into the health of the endpoint fleet and the desktop application experience, and report proactively on trends, risks, and improvements
• Coordinate with Integrated IT leadership on resourcing, prioritization, and roadmap planning
• Contribute to the Secure IT initiative by owning the endpoint engineering workstream within the broader Corporate Technology program

Team Leadership & Function Building

• Hire, onboard, and develop a team of 2-4 Desktop System Software Engineers, with a focus on building deep technical capability in endpoint engineering and desktop application diagnostics
• Define the operating model for the function: how issues are triaged, escalated, diagnosed, and resolved; how the team interfaces with product engineering; and how work is tracked and reported
• Build and maintain a culture of engineering rigor - runbooks, documentation, automation, and post-incident review - rather than reactive ticket-chasing
• Set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, and support career development for each team member
• Represent the Desktop Engineering function in cross-functional forums and planning cycles

Endpoint Engineering & MDM

• Collaborate and contribute on the strategy and execution of macOS and Windows endpoint management across the enterprise fleet via Kandji/Iru and Microsoft Intune
• Guide the team in designing and maintaining enrollment workflows, configuration profiles, compliance policies, and custom automation scripts
• Help ensure software deployment, patch management, and application control strategies are current, scalable, and aligned with the Security team's enforcement posture
• Partner with Security on EDR (CrowdStrike Falcon), Zero Trust (Cloudflare WARP/Gateway), and identity (Okta) integrations at the endpoint layer, representing the endpoint engineering perspective in policy decisions

Required

• 5+ years of experience in endpoint engineering, desktop platform engineering, or a related technical discipline - with at least 2 years in a people management or formal tech lead role
• Hands-on background with macOS and/or Windows at a systems/configuration level, beyond standard user support; able to credibly evaluate and guide the technical work of your team
• Demonstrated experience with one or more enterprise MDM platforms: Kandji/Iru, Jamf Pro, or Microsoft Intune
• Experience managing or closely partnering with product engineering teams on client-side issues; comfortable reading a bug report, asking the right diagnostic questions, and holding the line on quality
• Proven ability to build and run a technical function: defining process, establishing standards, and driving accountability without micromanaging
• Strong written and verbal communication skills - able to translate technical issues into business impact for senior stakeholders and translate business priorities into clear engineering work for your team
• Experience hiring and developing technical talent

Preferred

• Experience with Kandji/Iru specifically, including Blueprint architecture and enforcement scripting
• Familiarity with Electron-based desktop applications and their specific deployment, update, and permission behaviors on managed endpoints
• Experience with CrowdStrike Falcon, Cloudflare Zero Trust / WARP, or Okta in an enterprise endpoint context
• Background in a SaaS product company where Corporate IT and Engineering teams collaborate closely
• Familiarity with Qualys VMDR or similar vulnerability management tooling
• Experience operating within a formal security-focused IT program (Zero Trust, SOC 2, endpoint compliance)
• Familiarity with Jira Service Management for ticket and change management workflows