Staff Engineering Lead, Runna
£95-120k
+ Equity (stock options)
More information about location
2-3 days a week in office (Vauxhall, London)
Tailored running training plans
Be an early applicant
Tailored running training plans
101-200 employees
Be an early applicant
£95-120k
+ Equity (stock options)
More information about location
2-3 days a week in office (Vauxhall, London)
101-200 employees
Company mission
To make running training effective, enjoyable and easy for everyone.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with a focus on technical leadership/engineering management and driving projects end-to-end
- Deep expertise in TypeScript/JavaScript, with a strong foundation across the full stack
- Proven track record of leading the architecture and successful delivery of large-scale React-Native mobile applications in a production environment
- Experience working in AWS cloud environments, with a strong preference for familiarity with serverless architectures (e.g. Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, AppSync)
- Skilled in defining and delivering features from initial architecture and design through to release, testing, and production support
- Comfortable stepping outside your core expertise to solve problems across the stack, from frontend to cloud infrastructure
- Able to thrive in a highly skilled, fast-paced engineering team. In 2024, we shipped:
- 99 mobile app releases (iOS and Android)
- 443 API releases
- 237 modelling backend releases
- Proven ability to mentor engineers, support team growth, and guide complex projects from design to release
- Comfortable making strategic technical decisions while enabling others to lead implementation
- A strong advocate for modern engineering practices, including:
- Iterative development, continuous deployment, and test automation
- Knowledge sharing, pair programming, and collaborative design & development
- Shared code ownership and cross-functional product team collaboration
Desirable
- Have delivered impactful work across the full stack—from mobile to backend services and cloud infrastructure
- Thrive in autonomous roles, taking ownership without heavy direction
- Communicate proactively, surfacing risks early and keeping stakeholders aligned
- Have hands-on experience with SwiftUI or native mobile development
- Are confident working with and improving CI/CD pipelines, release cycles, and deployment processes
- Have experience with React Native at scale in performance-sensitive or offline-first applications
- Have deep experience with AWS services and serverless architecture patterns
- Are comfortable with Infrastructure as Code tooling like Terraform, CDK, or CloudFormation
- Have contributed to open-source communities—through code, issues, testing, or documentation
- Have a personal interest in health, fitness, or sports technology
- Embrace a fast-paced startup environment, adapting quickly to change
What the job involves
- We’re looking for an Engineering Lead to play a pivotal role in driving the technical success of our App Team at Runna
- This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll work across multiple cross-functional product teams, providing architectural direction, ensuring engineering excellence, and enabling the successful delivery of features across our iOS (React-Native), Android (React-Native), and Apple Watch apps, as well as third-party integrations (Garmin, Strava, Coros, Fitbit, Suunto, etc)
- You’ll partner closely with our CTO and founders, as well as product and design leads, to align technical strategy with company goals
- You’ll be a multiplier for the engineering team—mentoring developers, improving processes, and guiding the evolution of our systems as we scale
- Lead the architectural design and technical strategy across multiple product teams, ensuring scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions
- Drive the end-to-end delivery of key initiatives, working hands-on to build, test, and ship features across the full stack (mobile, backend, integrations)
- Define and communicate cross-squad engineering strategy
- Coach and support Tech Leads and engineers, providing guidance, mentorship, and code reviews without creating bottlenecks
- Collaborate with Product, Design, and Engineering Leads to define the best solutions for user experience, balancing speed, quality, and long-term technical goals
- Connect squads and ensure smooth cross-team collaboration, driving quality, unblocking shared work, and resolving dependencies
- Champion developer productivity by improving our CI/CD pipeline, tooling, and internal workflows to accelerate delivery and reduce friction
- Own the release process and support a culture of reliable, continuous deployment—while enabling teams to ship confidently and independently
- Track delivery across squads and ensure alignment with business goals
- Maintain and grow a high-performing engineering culture based on ownership, knowledge-sharing, and continuous improvement
- Contribute to code when it makes sense: unblocking teams, pairing for mentorship, prototyping, or driving quality through example
- Frontend:
- React Native (iOS and Android)
- Typescript
- GraphQL (Apollo Client)
- Fastlane
- SwiftUI (Apple Watch)
- Maestro E2E tests
- Backend:
- Serverless (AWS)
- Lambdas (NodeJS & Python)
- AWS AppSync
- DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, EventBridge, SageMaker
- Snowflake
- All the other good stuff:
- Sentry
- GitHub Actions
- Intercom, Mixpanel
- RevenueCat
- App Store Connect / Play Store
- Google Tag Manager
Application process
- Getting to Know You + Live Coding (45-minute video call, first 25 mins will be an introductory chat followed by two live coding exercises from )
- Take home technical task (max 1-2 hours to complete, or if you have something interesting you recently built and would like to showcase then that's perfectly OK)
- 1.5-hour technical interview (the first half of the call will be used to discuss the take-home technical task from the previous stage and the second half will consist of system design and some general architecture/tech questions)
- Meet the team (in-person chat with founder(s) and rest of the team)
- Once the process is finished, we promise to let you know our decision as soon as possible
- Please note, we are unable to accept any applications outside of Workable
Salary benchmarks
Our take
As a way to keep fit, running has shot up in popularity in recent years, partially due to accessibility, especially during the pandemic. But for those who want to take running to the next level – whether that be a 5K or a marathon – it can be difficult to know where to start in terms of a training plan. Runna supplies an app with personalised training plans for all types of runs, to help people achieve their running and fitness goals.
Runna was founded in 2020 by running enthusiasts for running enthusiasts, in response to the lack of tools – save paying a professional trainer – available to help runners train. Although there is a wealth of day-to-day running apps available, where Runna stands out is in providing training plans for specific races, which can be distinguished by distance and goal time. In addition, it does this whilst maintaining a sense of community, which has proven to be a popular feature amongst other running apps, and still caters to a range of experience levels.
Runna has seen consistent subscriber growth since its launch, serving thousands of users globally. The company plans to build and scale into the future, reach more customers, and expand its team. An acquisition by fitness giant Strava will help it on its way to achieving these aims.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Nov 2023
$6.8m
SEED
Dec 2022
$2.6m
SEED
Total funding: $10.3m
Company benefits
- Own a part of Runna: We want you to own a part of the company you're building. Everyone who joins Runna receives a generous stock options package
- Grow with us: As one of our early hires, you'll have a unique opportunity to shape and influence Runna's product and culture from the beginning
- Learn and develop: We work with all of the latest tools and technologies so you can learn at the cutting edge of product development
- Team socials: We're a friendly bunch and like to make work-like fun, whether that's lunches and dinners or our bi-weekly team run
- Paid vacation: We want people to take time off to rest and rejuvenate. Runna offers 25 vacation days + bank holidays
- Tools: You'll receive all new equipment including a laptop, running watch of your choice, and anything else you need to do your best work
- Get paid to Run(na): We have a dedicated hour block each week where you'll get paid to run! Whether you want to build up to your first 5k or do that tough intervals sessions it's up to you!
- Enhanced family care: 3 months fully paid when you welcome a new Runna into the family, as well as fertility support & a host of other benefits
Company HQ
Vauxhall, London, UK
Leadership
Dom Maskell
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously an Officer Cadet at the RAF and worked both as a Business Analyst and later Product Manager at McKinsey & Company.
Ben Parker
(Co-Founder & Head Coach)Former Personal Trainer and Running Coach. Owned Ben Parker Fitness. Previously a Spin & Pilates Class instructor at Roehampton Club, and Activities Manager at Mark Warner.
Walter Holohan
(CTO)Initially joined Runna as a Technical Lead before being promoted to CTO. Prior to Runna, they were a React Native Developer at 11:FS, a Full Stack Engineer at Nationwide Building Society and a Director at Spartn.
Share this job
View 9 more jobs at Runna