Desktop Systems Engineer Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
AlphaSense is a leading company in AI-driven market intelligence, helping professionals make informed decisions. The Desktop Software Engineering Manager will build and lead a new function within Corporate Technology, focusing on ensuring the reliability of desktop applications and managing endpoint engineering at scale.
Responsibilities:
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
Qualifications:
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
Company:
AlphaSense is a platform harnessing AI to deliver insights, helping professionals make informed, impactful decisions. It is a sub-organization of AlphaSense. Founded in 2008, the company is headquartered in New York, USA, with a team of 1001-5000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.