Founding iOS Engineer Engineering NYC

Studio; New York (NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Studio is seeking a founding iOS engineer to own and ship delightful mobile experiences. You’ll work directly with the founders to build apps that help millions of users achieve their goals — pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on iOS.

This is a rare opportunity to join a small, exceptional team at the bleeding edge of AI, building all the infrastructure and tools for people to learn, grow, and self-actualize. Based in NYC or willing to relocate for an in-person role.

Qualifications

• Expert-level iOS development with Swift and UIKit/SwiftUI.
• Experience shipping apps to the App Store.
• Ability to move fast and ship iteratively without sacrificing quality.
• Based in NYC or willing to relocate (in-person role).

Responsibilities

• Own and build iOS features from concept to App Store.
• Create beautiful, fluid, and delightful user experiences with meticulous attention to detail.
• Architect and maintain a high-quality, scalable iOS codebase.
• Own features end-to-end across the full stack when needed, from iOS to backend.
• Collaborate closely with the founders and other team members to deliver cohesive experiences.
• Optimize app performance, responsiveness, and battery efficiency.
• Stay current with iOS platform updates and adopt new capabilities quickly.

Skills

Swift

UIKit/SwiftUI

App Store shipping

Performance optimization

Ownership mentality

Collaboration

Relocation willingness

Tools

Xcode

Core ML

Job description

Studio is building the self-actualization company: software tools and AI-powered experiences that help people change their lives, powered by the expertise of world-class creators.We're a small, exceptional team at the bleeding edge of AI — shipping wildly fast, learning constantly, and having fun. Reach out if you want to shape the future of how creators thrive and people self-actualize.

About the role

We're looking for a founding iOS engineer with exceptional craft and product sense to own and build beautiful, delightful mobile experiences. You'll work directly with the founders to create apps that help millions of users achieve their goals — pushing the boundaries of what's possible on iOS.This is a rare opportunity to join a team that moves energizingly fast, thinks deeply, and is building something that genuinely matters. We're not just making another app. We're building all the infrastructure and tools that allow anyone to create effective, innovative software to help people learn, grow, and self-actualize.

What you'll do

• Own and build iOS features from concept to App Store
• Create beautiful, fluid, and delightful user experiences with meticulous attention to detail
• Architect and maintain a high-quality, scalable iOS codebase
• Own features end-to-end across the full stack when needed, from iOS to backend
• Collaborate closely with the founders and other team members to deliver cohesive experiences
• Optimize app performance, responsiveness, and battery efficiency
• Stay current with iOS platform updates and adopt new capabilities quickly

Requirements

• Deep love for learning and creating — you're constantly learning and have a deep appreciation for craft
• Strong product and design sense — you obsess over animations, interactions, and the smallest UX details
• Expert-level iOS development with Swift and UIKit/SwiftUI
• Experience shipping and maintaining apps on the App Store
• Ability to move fast and ship iteratively without sacrificing quality
• High ownership mentality — you see things through to completion, and know what it takes to take something from 90% to 100% and beyond
• Excited about building consumer products that genuinely help people
• Based in NYC or willing to relocate (in-person role)

Nice to have

• You've built your own apps, side projects, or startups
• Experience integrating on-device ML or AI features
• Familiarity with backend development or full-stack thinking
• Background in creator economy or consumer social products
• Experience with SwiftUI and modern declarative UI patterns

We particularly like people who are

• Driven to seek good explanations — you often find yourself creating new theories of how things work or should work
• Able to see the full picture — you think holistically about how every detail interconnects with seemingly unrelated things
• Multidisciplinary and creative — you think across domains, connect unexpected ideas, and turn them into new possibilities
• Low-ego in the pursuit of truth — you care more about what's right than who's right
• Builders who ship fast — you know velocity is a competitive advantage and that momentum compounds. You've founded something before or dream of starting your own company someday.

The team

Our team is insanely talent-dense — and we believe in keeping it that way. In this AI-powered world, we believe in small teams with exceptional, multidisciplinary people with high leverage.The majority of our team are previous VC-backed startup founders. Some of us are also Guinness World Record holders, Grandmasters of Memory, artists with millions of Spotify streams, an award-winning drag queen, an engineer who scored a perfect law school LSAT score, a competitive blindfolded Rubik's Cube solver, an expert knitter, and writers whose blogs reach millions.We care less about resumes and more about people who've built, created, or mastered something remarkable.