Founding Full-Stack iOS Engineer

About the Role

A Y Combinator-backed consumer wearable AI startup is hiring a Founding Full-Stack iOS Engineer to own the company's companion iOS app from the ground up. This is a high-ownership, founding-team role at the intersection of consumer hardware, real-time AI inference, and emotional intelligence. The company is building a first-of-its-kind wearable that reads and interprets a user's emotional state in real time — think a fitness tracker, but for your emotions and cognitive performance.

You'll be the primary builder of the consumer-facing mobile experience, translating sophisticated AI model outputs (energy, mood, focus signals derived from audio and biometric data) into intuitive, beautiful interfaces. This role comes with significant equity upside and a clear path to leading mobile engineering as the company scales.

The team is distributed, with presence in San Francisco and London . This role is based in London , with flexibility for hybrid or remote working arrangements.

What You'll Do

• Own the companion iOS app end-to-end — architecture, development, deployment, and ongoing iteration.
• Surface real-time emotional-state outputs from the company's proprietary AI inference model through clean, intuitive app interfaces.
• Build and ship a polished, consumer-grade mobile experience that meets high product and design standards.
• Integrate backend APIs covering authentication, data sync, and data models.
• Make autonomous technical decisions as a founding engineer, setting patterns and standards for the mobile codebase.
• Collaborate across time zones with a small, fast-moving distributed team.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 3+ years of professional iOS development experience with Swift , with a proven track record of shipping production-ready, consumer iOS apps.
• Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of mobile features — from concept through release and ongoing maintenance.
• Strong full-stack capabilities including mobile app development and backend API integration.
• Experience integrating machine learning model outputs or inferences into a mobile app UX.
• Ability to deliver polished, consumer-grade UI/UX with attention to performance and smoothness.
• Comfortable working independently and across time zones as part of a remote/hybrid team.
• Work authorization to be employed in the UK or US — the company does not offer new visa sponsorship (H-1B transfers considered where applicable).

Nice to Have

• Background in data-driven apps that surface complex model outputs through accessible design.
• Experience at a consumer hardware, wearable, or health/wellness tech company.
• Strong CS fundamentals and comfort owning architectural decisions autonomously.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: ~$150,000 USD (US) / ~£75,000 GBP (London) depending on location
• Equity: Meaningful founding-team equity (up to 1–2%)
• Seed-stage company backed by a top-tier accelerator
• High-ownership founding role with a clear path to leading the mobile engineering function

Location

Primary location: London, United Kingdom . The team also has a presence in San Francisco, CA. Hybrid and remote flexibility available for the right candidate. No new visa sponsorship — candidates must have existing UK or US work authorization (H-1B transfers considered).

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