Zigzag
Senior Software Engineer
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Where Growth has no Leash
ZigZag is the #1 app for dog training & life skills, helping pups and their pawrents build a lifelong bond. Too many dogs miss out on the right training, leading to behavioural issues or even abandonment. Our mission is to prevent that by making puppy training accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
We’ve been featured as Apple’s App of the Day, highlighted in New Apps We Love, and shortlisted for multiple industry awards. Backed by a major global petcare organisation, we’re a growing product-led company with big ambitions and a close-knit team.
More Than Just a Job
About the Role
Our engineers build and maintain the ZigZag Puppy Training mobile app (iOS and Android), working across the full stack with a focus on raising the bar for backend systems, APIs, and data-driven product development. The app leverages Nest.js and TypeScript on the backend, Angular (v20) for the UI, and Ionic for cross-platform deployment. With multi-tenant Azure-hosted deployments via CI/CD, we ensure small, frequent releases and fast feedback loops.
This is a hands-on senior individual contributor role. You’ll work across the full stack, contributing to both backend services and the mobile app—designing APIs, optimising databases, and delivering performance-critical features. As a senior engineer, you’ll also help shape backend and infrastructure best practices and guide technical decisions. Growth into broader leadership roles is possible if you’re interested.
Our collaboration-focused culture thrives on pair programming, peer review, and regular learning sessions. You’ll work closely with product and design teams to deliver high-quality features at pace.
What We Are Looking For
This role is ideal for a full-stack engineer who excels across all layers of the stack, with a strong focus on backend development. Here’s what we look for:
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Core Capabilities
✅ Experience delivering production-class features across modern web or mobile stacks ✅ Deep expertise in backend development, including:
- API design and implementation
- Data modelling and database optimisation
- System architecture and scalability ✅ Comfort moving seamlessly between backend and frontend codebases in a collaborative team ✅ Pragmatic approach to:
- Reliability design
- Performance tuning
- Security best practices ✅ Clear communication skills and a growth mindset for learning new technologies
Helpful Experience (Not Required)
🔹 Experience with modern UI frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue 🔹 Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) 🔹 Experience with mobile, hybrid, or cross-platform development 🔹 While our mission revolves around dogs, this has no bearing on your technical fit—but a passion helps with culture fit!
We welcome applicants who meet some requirements. If you’re excited by our mission and can grow into the role, we encourage you to apply.
Your Responsibilities
As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll:
- Design and ship cross-stack features, ensuring high-quality, maintainable code
- Take a leading role in backend architecture, data modelling, and API design
- Drive improvements to our Azure-hosted CI/CD pipelines—scaling, reliability, and performance
- Collaborate with the Head of Engineering, product, and design teams to align roadmap initiatives
- Ensure our code meets security, privacy, and performance best practices
- Share knowledge through mentoring, code review, and learning sessions
- Participate in interviews and team-building activities to reinforce our culture of inclusion
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Why Work at ZigZag?
A mission-driven team, purposeful growth, and the chance to impact real lives (and wags). You’ll own your projects while contributing to a platform that pushes boundaries in an exciting space.
What We Offer
Compensation & Benefits
💰 Salary: £75,000 – £85,000 (based on experience and interview performance), with annual reviews 🎁 10% annual bonus (increasing with tenure) 🐕 Referral bonus for bringing in top talent
Wellbeing & Flexibility
🏥 Private health insurance 🏠 Hybrid working model (based in the UK) with 1–2 days/week in our London Victoria office 🌍 Up to 2 weeks/year working from abroad 📅 25 days holiday (increasing to 27 with tenure) + birthday off ⏰ Summer hours (early Friday finish in June–August) 🐶 Dog-friendly office
Family & Lifestyle
👶 4 weeks paid paternity leave 👶 12 weeks paid maternity leave 🎉 Annual summer party 🎅 Christmas party
Growth & Learning
🎓 Full access to LinkedIn Learning 💰 £1,000 annual learning budget 🗺 4 volunteering days per year
Flexibility is key—we’re happy to discuss reasonable adjustments at every stage of hiring.
The Process
Equal opportunity is an intrinsic part of our hiring process. Our values, inclusion, and diversity ethos inform how we operate daily:
- User-led, data-driven: We test relentlessly to confirm real-world impact.
- Devs own their patch: Engineers have full ownership over their system areas.
- Paw-sitive collaboration: Shared ownership, mentorship, and joyful problem-solving.
Join us to make a difference. Together, we’ll build smarter, kinder solutions that�”thank you later�”one happily wagging tail at a time.
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