YNAB’s software ecosystem includes apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android phones, and web.
History and Core Values
YNAB started in 2004 and we haven’t taken any outside funding—we’re established, profitable, and in this for the long haul. We have one overarching requirement when it comes to joining our team: our original Core Value Manifesto has to really click with you. If you’re nodding emphatically while reading it, you’ll probably really like it here, and we can’t wait to hear from you!
We live our Core Values every day at YNAB, and we mean it when we say we are an equal-opportunity employer. We believe that a diversity of backgrounds, abilities, beliefs, and experiences is critical to our success, and 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, hard-working, and diverse team that loves working together to build something that matters.
Culture and Awards
We also work really hard, together, to make working at YNAB an amazing experience, and we’re (humbly) proud to have received many of Fortune’s “great place to work” awards over the last several years, including #1 two years in a row! We have a team full of truly exceptional people—the kind you’ll be excited to work with. We’d love to introduce you to a few of them!
Who you’ll be working with:
Our Engineering team is about 45 people strong, including a tight-knit group of six iOS developers. We 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 online 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 PM and Design. Our Product Managers are all about clarity and collaboration. They’re great at setting the stage, understanding needs, mapping out priorities, and inviting and valuing engineering input. And our designers are truly amazing, with the awards (including at least one actual Emmy®) to prove they’re good at designing stuff. YNAB designers 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. With both PM and Design at YNAB, it’s refreshingly not “just build this”; it’s “let’s figure out the best way together.”
How You’ll Work at YNAB
Responsibility and Empowerment
At YNAB, we trust our team. We respect each person’s expertise and judgment—and we empower you to make the calls you think are right. We know mistakes happen—and that’s okay. Taking smart risks and exploring new ideas is how we grow. When things don’t go as planned, we learn fast, adjust, and keep moving forward.
Live (Almost) Anywhere You Want
We’re a distributed team, so you can live and work wherever you want, as long as it’s somewhere between the Pacific Time Zone (UTC-8) and the Central European Time Zone (UTC+1). (Think of a world map moving left to right from PT to CET—those time zones are all OK.) Proximity doesn’t influence productivity, but it sure does help with communication sometimes. Just make sure you have a reliable internet connection. Like, a really good one. Please.
Work Four Days a Week
We’ve adopted a four-day work week (still 100% paid!) and rarely work more than that. There are occasions and seasons where things get busy and people put some extra time in—but then we encourage them to take some extra time off, too. We’re a product-led organization that takes our work-life balance seriously, so we all prioritize working hard and smart, but at a measured pace. We care deeply about what we do, but we also love our families and about 2,000 other things. We have perspective and, ultimately, we think it makes us—and our work—even better.
Flex Your Work Schedule
We’re fully remote, so a lot of our work is done asynchronously, but we love working together in real time when it makes sense. We try to schedule most meetings between 11AM–2PM Eastern Time, Monday–Thursday. Outside of your meetings, we trust you to set your own schedule by balancing your team’s needs with your own needs. You don’t need to ask for permission to take off early one afternoon to see the doctor, or be “active” on Slack if you’re working deeply on a project. We look at what you accomplish—not when or how long you're in front of a computer.
Take Vacation (Seriously)
We want you to take vacation—it’s good for you, and it’s good for YNAB. Most YNAB team members take three or four weeks per year, plus two additional weeks for our company-wide December Break. It’s important to get plenty of downtime to get out and do something. We’ll look forward to seeing pictures in our #office-wall Slack channel!
Meet the Team IRL
Some of our best work (and bonding!) is done in person. You’ll generally have the opportunity to meet with your YNAB teammates at least once a year, at a small-team work-focused meetup or at our company retreat. At the YNAB retreat, we love to catch up on spreadsheets and powerpoints in a Best Western conference room. Just kidding. (It’s actually hard to write that sentence, even knowing it’s a joke.) So far, we’ve gone to Costa Rica, a gigantic cabin in the mountains, a beach house in the Outer Banks, a ranch in Montana, Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, and most recently, Cape Cod. We work together, play together, and reinforce the bonds we’ve made as a team and company. Every time we meet up, we leave refreshed, motivated, and excited for the year ahead together.
Up Your Game
We’re serious about helping you improve your craft. It’s one of our favorite spending categories, and it’s the most important work of our managers. Think conferences, coaches, online courses and subscriptions, dedicated time away from work to learn something new… It's really up to you and your manager. We love to see our people grow!
Other Benefits
Our team is spread all over the world—mostly in the United States, but also in the UK, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and several other countries. Team members who live in the US or UK are set up as employees, and those who live in other countries set themselves up as independent contractors. No matter where you live, you’re eligible for our generous paid family leave, vacation, holidays, and sick time.
If you’re in the US, we also offer fantastic medical, 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!) We also have a Traditional and Roth 401(k) option, where 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.) If you’re in the UK, we also contribute six percent to your pension.
Competitive Compensation
At YNAB, we’re committed to equitable, market-driven, data-based compensation and we aim to offer a competitive benefits package to our team members. The starting salary for this role will be between $145,00 - $190,000 USD annually (with the top of that range reserved only for the most experienced candidates). If we decide to make you an offer, we’ll determine the most appropriate number based on what we know about your experience and competency for the role, and then we’ll make you our best offer and hope that you accept! If you join our team, you’ll also be eligible for a raise once a year and for our profit-share twice a year. (YNAB wins, you win—that kind of thing.)
A Few Final 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!)
We love to celebrate with you when you complete something on your bucket list—AND, we love using your bucket list as inspiration for your best birthday present(s) ever.
We want you firing on all cylinders so we’ll set you up with a top-of-the-line computer and phone and will replace them regularly.
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!