About Us and Why We’re Hiring
We build “You Need a Budget,” the best budgeting software and education resources around. (Those in the know call us YNAB, which is pronounced “why-nab.”) For more than a decade, people have been buying YNAB and then telling their friends what a difference it has made in their lives. Google us, or read some of our reviews on the app store, and you’ll see what we mean. We love building something that has a huge positive impact on people’s lives.
YNAB is growing, and so is our product team. We’re a software ecosystem that includes apps for web, Android, and iOS. We have some big plans for our Android app, and that’s where you come in!
We have one overarching requirement when it comes to joining our team: our Core Values Manifesto has to really click with you. If you’re nodding emphatically while reading this, you’ll probably like it here, and we can’t wait to connect with you!
Of course, we have some firm* requirements too, like five years of professional software development experience, and a minimum of four years spent writing Android apps.
*Well, firm-ish. If you know you’re a great fit for this role but fall a little short of the five-year requirement, we encourage you to go ahead and apply. We don’t need you to be the perfect candidate on paper.
On a similar note, we know imposter syndrome can be a powerful force, and may discourage fantastic people from applying. Please apply anyway. Many of us here have it too, so you’re in good company.
Okay, let’s talk about life at YNAB, and then we’ll go into detail about what we’re looking for.
Who You’d Be Working With
Our engineering team is about 50 people strong, seven of whom are Android developers. We frequently operate in cross-functional teams, so you’ll get to work with awesome people from all different roles in the company.
Regardless of their varied interests, all of our developers have one thing in common: they are a joy to work with. You won’t find heated arguments and raised voices here. We save our competitive spirit for YNAB’s external competitors (or the occasional lively board game session), but internally we build up our teammates and celebrate their successes. We all love to program and solve problems in creative ways, and we regularly take time to geek out and show each other something cool we built or found to make our lives easier.
And of course, as a developer, you’ll work closely with our amazing designers. They have the awards (including at least one actual Emmy®) to prove they’re good at designing stuff. More importantly, they welcome feedback and suggestions during the development process and are happy to tweak an interaction if you tell them it will save you significant development effort.
How You’ll Work at YNAB
We also work really hard, together, to make working at YNAB an amazing experience, and we were (humbly) proud to be named Fortune’s #1 Best Small Company to Work For the last two years. We have a team of truly exceptional people—the kind you’ll be excited to work with. Here’s how we operate:
Responsibility and Empowerment
YNAB appreciates, respects, and trusts the expertise and judgment of our developers. We empower them to do what they think is right.
We also work collaboratively. We continuously seek the right amount of structure and unity necessary to maximize productivity. Where it makes sense, we designate someone to make a call.
Even though our developers are right a lot, it’s okay to make mistakes here. Exploration and calculated risks are vital to velocity and growth. We freely admit when we’re wrong. If something doesn’t go as expected, we learn, bounce back, and make corrections.
You won’t be alone; others will be there to help, review, reassure, and back you up. We own our processes and collective outcomes as a team.
Live (Almost) Anywhere You Want
We’ve always been a fully remote team, and have people all over the world. For this role, you’ll need to be located somewhere between the Pacific Time Zone (UTC-8) and the Central European Time Zone (UTC+1). Wherever you are, just make sure you have a reliable internet connection.
A 4-Day Work Week with No Outrageous Hours
We’re currently trialing a four-day work week! For us, this means four regular days of work followed by a three-day weekend…every week. This is new to us, and we’re only in the middle of a six-month trial, but we’re excited about what it could mean both for the company and our team members.
We want everyone to have a full life outside of YNAB. We seldom work more than a normal workweek. There have been a few occasions where things got busy and people had to put some extra time in. But then they took some extra time off, so it all balances out. We work hard and smart but we’re in this for the long haul.
While we do our best to enable asynchronous work wherever we can, sometimes we simply need to talk in real time, for example, for company or team meetings. This means you may need to be flexible with your working hours, perhaps a day or two a week, especially if you live in our time zones’ western or eastern extremes.
Take Vacation (Seriously)
We want you to take vacation. In fact, we have a minimum vacation policy of three weeks per year. Five weeks feels about right (plus two extra weeks for Holiday break). It’s important to get plenty of downtime and get out and do something. We’ll look forward to seeing pictures of your adventures in our #office_wall Slack channel.
The YNAB Retreat
When the pandemic isn’t keeping us from traveling, we get the whole team together once a year. So far, we’ve done Costa Rica, a gigantic cabin in the mountains, a beach house in the Outer Banks, a ranch in Montana, and most recently, Laguna Beach. We do really fun things at these retreats, but the highlight is inevitably just being together and having a blast.
Up Your Game
We’re serious about helping you improve your craft. We budget for it (hey-o!). Think conferences, Lynda/Skillshare subscriptions, books, and dedicated time away from work to learn something new. We love to see our people grow.
International is Absolutely Okay
Our team is spread across the globe, including Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and all over the United States. We set up team members in the US and UK as employees, and those in other countries as independent contractors.
As mentioned above, we have some time zone restrictions for this role, but as long as you’re between UTC-8 and UTC+1, we’re good!
Benefits
For full-time W2 employees in the US, we offer fantastic health, dental, and vision insurance, where we cover 100% of the premium for you and your family. No need to check your vision, you read that right—100%. Although if you did need to check your vision, NBD, we’ve got you covered!
For full- and part-time W2 employees in the US, we also have a Traditional and Roth 401(k) option. YNAB matches your contributions up to six percent, and matches vest immediately. (Are you a personal finance junkie like our founder Jesse? He set up YNAB’s 401k to have the lowest fee structure possible, where all plan costs are paid by YNAB, not your retirement nest egg. The investment funds available are fantastic, passively-managed, ultra low-cost index funds. You’re not a PF junkie? Trust us, it’s awesome.) For UK employees, we also contribute six percent to your pension.
We also offer generous paid parental leave for all full-time team members.
Competitive Compensation
The starting salary range for this position is $131,000-$162,000 annually. We consider raises every year, and have a bi-annual profit-share bonus. YNAB wins, you win—that kind of thing.
Other Tidbits
- Once you start, we DEMAND (in a friendly, ALL CAPS IS YELLING way) that you fill out your “Bucket List” spreadsheet with 50 items. (That’s harder than it sounds!)
- The bucket list really helps in deciding what we should give you for your birthday and the holidays.
- We’re all adults. There’s no need to punch a clock, or ask for permission to take off early one afternoon to go see the doctor. We look at what you accomplish, not how long you’re in front of a computer.
- We want you firing on all cylinders, so we’ll set you up with a shiny new computer and replace it every three years, and as a mobile developer, a new phone every two years.
- Did we mention that YNAB makes a huge, positive difference in people’s lives? You may not think that matters much, but then a few months down the road you’ll realize it’s made your job really, really enjoyable. Don’t underestimate this one!
- And don’t forget about that 4-Day Work Week!
If this sounds like your ideal environment, read on because now we want to talk about you. You will play a big part in building something easy and joyful to use that helps millions of people discover budgeting as an essential financial and life-planning tool. You will change lives.
You, Our New Senior Android Developer
You’re a software developer with over five years of professional, full-time experience. You spent at least four of those years working with Android. You know how to write easy-to-maintain software while still keeping an eye on the roadmap.
You’ll help us write and maintain features in our Android app.
All of our Android code is in Kotlin. We believe in the power of native user interfaces and we’re going all in on Compose.
We have a strong preference for shared business logic across our platforms. We have a current code sharing solution based on TypeScript and the V8 engine, but we are actively investigating migrating to Kotlin Multiplatform.
Our minSdk is 26, we are moving towards a unidirectional data flow architecture, and we use Compose, Coroutines, Flow, Dagger, Robolectric, Bitrise CI, and GitHub.
You’re our ideal candidate if:
- You are an excellent, senior developer that can adapt to new languages quickly.
- You write code that is easy for other programmers and your future self to understand and use.
- You have extensive experience with Kotlin and Java.
- You have played an essential role in building, shipping, and supporting at least one significant Android app.
- You have excellent debugging skills. You know how to find problems and how to build apps so that problems are discoverable in the first place.
- You are self-motivated and thrive with directions like:
- “This part of the program is too slow. Can you find out why?”
- “This component needs to be re-architected to allow for new feature X. How do you think we should do it?”
- “Our code needs to call into a Javascript library, but that Javascript library is crashing because it can’t find the setTimeout function. Can you investigate?”
- You have an understanding of algorithms and data structures beyond arrays and “for loops.” That doesn’t mean you have to be a computer science PhD or even that you have to know “Big O” notation, but you should know when to use a Dictionary/Map, and why finding an element in a sorted array is faster than finding an element in an unsorted array.
- You feel right at home with Git/GitHub.
- You aren’t (necessarily) a security specialist, but you know enough to be protective of customer data and privacy.
- You already use and love YNAB. (Not a requirement, but we’ll give you bonus points for this one.)
Diversity
YNAB is an equal opportunity employer. We believe a diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, abilities, and experiences is critical to our success. We are passionate about creating a welcoming, supportive, and collaborative environment for all employees. All are encouraged to apply as we continue to grow a smart, experienced, and diverse team that loves working together to build something that matters.
How to Apply
- Apply by filling out this form. You’ll need to log in to your Google account to access it.
- The deadline is 11:59 pm PT on Sunday, September 25, 2022.
- Our goal is to make the hiring process as accessible as possible. If we can help you with an accessibility need, email us at [email protected] Be sure to indicate in the subject line that you’re applying for the Senior Android Developer position. (Please note that this inbox is only monitored for messages related to accommodations.)
P.S. We’ll send you a confirmation email once you apply. Please add that email to your safe sender list to ensure that future emails come through.
P.P.S. If you’re not interested in this position right now, but know someone who might be, we’d appreciate you passing this along!
