Babbel is the world’s first and most sold online language learning platform, driven by the purpose to create mutual understanding through language. This means building an ecosystem of language learning offerings that helps people connect across cultures. Babbel, Babbel Live and Babbel for Business provide users with the most effective solution to be able to communicate with real people, in real situations.  Babbel’s team consists of 750 Babbelonians representing over 65 different nationalities working in Berlin and New York.

For more information, visit www.babbel.comor download the apps in the App Store or Play Store.

In your role as Principal iOS Engineer, your mission will be to change the future of language learning.

You will work closely with the product & engineering managers, product & learner experience designers, subject matter experts, and cross-platform engineers to make this mission a reality for Babbel learners. We seek a proficient and driven Principal iOS Engineer with ample experience of collaborating with product teams to create advanced language learning experiences for our mobile apps. In this role, you will be crucial in leading the technical direction, architecture, and building of our iOS language learning app.

You will:

• Technical Leadership: Guide and mentor our iOS engineering team to develop top-quality language learning applications. Lead by example in promoting a culture of knowledge-sharing across Babbel. Be the cultural ambassador of Babbel within the iOS developer community, both internally and externally. Build a strong and collaborative network by collaborating across multiple teams
• Architectural Excellence: Lead the design and architecture of our iOS applications in collaboration with our mobile platform team, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and performance. Being a trailblazer in adopting new technologies. Understanding the potential benefits of emerging technologies for Babbel's future
• Technical Decision-Making: To drive technical decision-making at the company-wide level or affecting multiple teams. Fostering an inclusive and safe environment for sharing different perspectives and evaluating trade-offs objectively. Ensuring all voices are heard and decisions are based on a fair assessment of all options. Experience with tools like ADRs, Decision Matrices,  POCs and facilitation as an aid for decision-making
• Product Collaboration: Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other cross-functional teams to define and implement features that enhance the language learning experience
• Code Quality: Set and enforce coding standards, best practices, and ensure the delivery of clean, maintainable, and efficient code
• Performance Optimisation: Identify and optimize performance bottlenecks to deliver a seamless language-learning experience
• Documentation: Create and maintain technical documentation for core features on our iOS application, ensuring knowledge transfer and codebase understanding

You have:

• A deep understanding of the Swift language.
• Deep understanding of iOS design patterns, frameworks, and libraries. Especially SwiftUI, UIKit and related frameworks
• Demonstrates an open-minded approach towards diverse technical solutions. Has the ability and experience to align and integrate the most efficient technical solutions with the company's business needs
• A solid understanding of the Apple ecosystem, specifically iOS and the Human Interface Guidelines
• Experience with Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery
• Experience with Functional Reactive Programming, preferably using RxSwift
• Experience developing and optimizing performance-critical iOS applications
• Experience in analyzing, developing, supporting, and monitoring system, health, and performance metrics
• Knowledge of how to balance and prioritize technical debt and delivery speed
• Fluency in written and spoken English

What we offer:

• A modern tech stack
• Swift 5.9
• Layout preferably using SwiftUI
• Reactive Programming using RxSwift
• MVVM-C
• Thorough unit test coverage (using Quick/Nimble)
• Project-as-code using Tuist
• A solid codebase that enables multiple teams to implement their features
• A supportive and open-minded iOS chapter, with biweekly chapter meetings
• The opportunity to work with other technologies and platforms

Some perks of becoming a Babbelonian:

• Enjoy 30 vacation days and the chance to take a 3-month Sabbatical. Plus family and life situation counseling
• Decide how, when and from where you want to work with our flexible working hours and remote friendly options as Jobbatical (up to 3 months inside the EU) or work from our fully equipped office with nap, faith and family rooms
• Learn and grow with the internal learning opportunities, and use a yearly learning & development budget for external training. Learn languages with Babbel for free with your full access to Babbel & Babbel Live classes
• Take advantage of your mobility benefits options and a discounted Urban Sports Club membership
• Be part of our employee communities (such as Femgineers, DE&I Ambassadors and LGBTQIA groups), attend cultural and regular social events

Diversity at Babbel

As part of our ongoing journey towards building a diverse, equitable and inclusive company, we welcome everyone to apply, especially those individuals who are underrepresented in tech. We are a learning company, inside and out, and we encourage you to apply even if you do not fit all the technical requirements - all candidates are assessed based on skills, qualifications and on our business needs. Please state your pronouns in your application, and let us know if you’d like to be addressed by a name other than the one appearing on your official documents. If you have a disability or special need, feel welcome to inform us, so that we can provide you with the proper assistance in the application process.

Sounds good? We are already looking forward to hearing from you! Check out also our jobs page, our blog andour techblogto get an impression about #lifeatbabbel!