👥 About the Engineering Team

At ZOE, we use advanced science and technology to transform health—and our Engineering team sits at the heart of that mission. We are a distributed team of around 40 engineers across the UK and EU who thrive on solving complex challenges together.

We are a highly cross-functional group, bringing together front-end, back-end, mobile, machine learning, and data expertise. We partner closely with Product, Design, and Science to build truly impactful member experiences.

We value curiosity, openness, and empowerment. We encourage continuous learning, sharing ideas, and shaping how we work—whether through experimenting with new technology or improving team efficiency.

We're proud of our team's diversity (40% female, 60% male) and believe that varied backgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences make us stronger, more creative, and better equipped to serve our global community.

🚀 About the role & impact

We’re looking for a Product-First Engineer who has mastered the backend but is hungry to own the entire user journey:

• Full-Stack Agency: While your core strength might be in Kotlin or Python, you’re a "problem solver first." You’ll move across the stack into our React Native codebase whenever it’s the shortest path to delivering user value.

• Ship Fast, Learn Faster: You’ll join a team that prizes high technical velocity. We ship small changes often (several times a day) and use short feedback loops to keep us on track.

• Scale with Purpose: From architecting robust microservices on GCP to leveraging AI-augmented tools, your work directly impacts the health of millions. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a rising senior, you’ll find an environment that rewards initiative and prioritises the perfect user experience over perfect code.

💻 Our cutting-edge stack - A taste of what you'll use!

• Backend: Kotlin / Spring Boot, Python / FastAPI & Django

• Frontend: React Native

• Data & Infrastructure: GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, dbt, BigQuery, Airflow

• Tools: Google Pub/Sub, Grafana, Firebase Auth

• CI/CD: ArgoCD, GitHub Actions

🎯 What you will do

• Own the Outcome: Take initiative to lead features end-to-end and improve the user experience by transcending code boundaries. You move with purpose across the stack to ensure the right problem is solved, regardless of who "owns" the repository.

• Put the User Experience First: Relentlessly optimise for user experience to reduce their friction, focusing on the bottlenecks they actually feel over perfect code and championing the non-functional requirements. Attention to detail in perceived performance, protecting user privacy, and reliable data accuracy compound into an exceptional user experience.

• Champion KISS: Fight complexity by favouring concrete, simple implementations today (YAGNI). Aggressively delete deprecated code and resist bespoke builds when off-the-shelf solutions suffice.

• Ship Small & Often: Maintain momentum by releasing several times a day. Use short feedback loops and feature flags to surface integration issues early and avoid the risk of long-lived branches.

• Partner on the "Why": Collaborate with Product and Science to break down complex problems. Question specifications that don't serve the outcome and participate in PRDs to ensure our systems stay easy to change.

🌟 Who you are

• A Product-Minded Engineer: You have deep empathy for the user and the curiosity to ask "should we build this?" before "how?" You prioritise user value over technical perfection.

• A Boundary-Crosser: You are a backend expert (Kotlin, Python, or Java) who isn't afraid to dive into React Native or data pipelines to get a feature over the line. "Not my domain" isn't in your vocabulary.

• Pragmatic & Simple: You have an allergic reaction to over-engineering. You favour simple, maintainable solutions and treat code deletion as a badge of honour.

• An Autonomous Builder: You thrive in ambiguity and move with purpose. You don't wait for a paved path; you build it, favouring concrete implementation over presumed requirements (YAGNI).

• A High-Craft Collaborator: You lead through RFCs and mentorship, elevating the team’s technical bar while obsessively automating the "busywork" to stay focused on high-value problems.

• Technically Grounded: You have experience scaling microservices and are excited to use AI-augmented tools to accelerate your delivery.

📢 Our hiring process

We know that "hiring processes" can sometimes feel like a black box. At ZOE, we aim for a process that is efficient, insightful, and enjoyable. It’s a two-way street: we want to get to know the real you, and we want you to get a true feel for life at ZOE.

The "Meet & Greet" with Talent (45 min) First up, a deep-dive chat with one of our Talent partners. Think of this as a "look under the hood"—we’ll explore your journey so far, what gets you excited about our mission, and make sure we’re aligned on the essentials like compensation, logistics, and right-to-work.

The Hiring Manager "Jam Session" (45 min) Next, you’ll meet an Engineering Manager. This isn't just a tick-box exercise; it’s an intentional session where we talk shop. We’ll dive into your technical approach and behavioural experience to see how you’ll thrive in our team, while giving you a front-row seat to our engineering culture and vision.

The Remote Loop (The Final Stretch) We’ve grouped our final interviews into a "loop" (usually over Google Meet) to give us a 360-degree view of your brilliance. It consists of three distinct sessions:

• Live Coding (60 min): Let’s build something! We’ll collaborate on a problem to see how you think, code, and iterate in real-time.

• System Design (60 min): The "big picture" talk. We’ll chat about how you architect scalable systems and navigate those tricky technical trade-offs.

• Leadership & Values (60 min): Beyond the code. We want to hear about your collaborative style, how you lift others up, and what ZOE’s mission means to you.

The "Becoming a ZOEntist" Moment If we’re a match, we won’t leave you hanging. We’ll reach out quickly to discuss an offer and start planning how we can welcome you to the team.

🚀 Ready to thrive? We want to hear from you

The experience, skills, and attributes we’ve outlined are what we believe will help someone truly thrive in this role.

However, we understand that talent comes in many forms. If you are genuinely excited about ZOE's mission and this opportunity, please don't hesitate to apply—even if you don't meet every single requirement listed.

We fundamentally value potential and commitment above all else. We are dedicated to fostering growth and providing opportunities for you to learn and develop alongside us.