From the listing
About the role
DuckDuckGo is the online protection company and remote-first team of 400+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, millions use its browser, search engine, and DuckDuckGo subscription.
Working on the C++ Functional Team, you'll build the high-performance code at the core of DuckDuckGo's browser using modern C++ and Chromium, and work on related projects.
DuckDuckGo's culture of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management gives each team member full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem.
What you'll do
- Implement tracker blocking that stops hidden trackers on every site without slowing page loads.
- Bring VPN and Personal Information Removal into the browser through the DuckDuckGo subscription.
- Catch startup and responsiveness regressions automatically, so the browser stays fast as it grows.
- Lead complex projects from proposal through post-mortem.
- Turn vague problems into clear plans, build them in a large modern C++ codebase, and use metrics to show they worked.
- Perform low-level systems work and make architecture decisions the whole team builds on.
- Collaborate with design and product, mostly asynchronously, to build features people use to protect their privacy.
What they're looking for
- Ability to lead and collaborate on high-impact, complex projects from proposal through post-mortem.
- Skills to wrangle vague problems, propose innovative solutions, and execute them with a strong focus on metrics.
- 7+ years of software engineering experience.
- Advanced modern C++ expertise (C++23 or newer), including memory management, concurrency, and performance profiling.
- Experience driving technical work end-to-end on large-scale C++ codebases.
- Comfort with large build systems, debuggers, and profilers.
- Experience shipping software to a large consumer audience.
- Solid computer science foundation (algorithms and data structures).
- Attend meetings on camera via video conferencing.
- Expect to travel at least two times a year for an all-hands meetup and a team retreat, each around 4–5 days. While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance, everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.
- Pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.
Nice to have
- Windows development experience.
- Experience with browsers (Chromium, WebKit, WebView), game engines, or large desktop applications.
From the company page
DuckDuckGo benefits
◉ Remote policy · in their words
“Remote First, Always: We've always been a fully distributed company with team members all over the world. We trust you to get your work done wherever, and whenever.”
Pulled from their careers page · verified by Atlas
The hot takeJeff's read on DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo has the only perfect score in our database, and is THE prototype for what we look for in a work-from-anywhere company. Well, not JUST a WFA company, but ANY company. Here's the core tenets we look for:
- Clear prioritization of working from anywhere as a business model.
- Clear expression of trust and empowerment for employees.
- Understanding that output > location or hours.
- Transparent perk package.
- Transparent salary offering per role.
- Emphasis of employees over mission statement.