Product Engineer

About ZURU

ZURU is on a mission to disrupt across industries, challenge the status quo and catalyst change through radical innovation and automation advances. This is in play in different pillars of the company: ZURU Toys are re-imagining what it means to play; ZURU Tech is shaping a better future by leading the next building revolution; ZURU Edge is pioneering new generation FMCG brands to better serve modern consumers.

Founded in 2003 by EY Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray, ZURU has quickly grown to a team of over 5000 direct and indirect members across more than 30 international locations.

One of the largest toy companies in the world, globally recognized and award-winning brands include Bunch O Balloons, Mini Brands, XSHOT, Rainbocorns and Smashers. Our global FMCG brands include MONDAY Haircare, Rascals, NOOD, BONKERS, Gumi Yum Surprise, and more!

For more information, visit www.zuru.com.

Position Overview

This role builds software for ZURU's own teams — sited inside a business unit rather than a central engineering office. The Junior Engineer owns one problem end to end, from the first conversation with the person who has it to the thing running in production. There is no spec handoff. The business owner names the outcome with the engineer sitting next to them. A separate organization owns ZURU's external product engineering — this role is internal.

Position Impact

At 6 months, the engineer reaches a Go/No-Go decision with the business inside 5 days of assignment, has shipped at least one application that reached its target users, and holds no more than 3 ungraduated applications.

At 12 months and beyond, the engineer's work shortens the Group's ask-to-live median — the business days from an accepted ask to the thing live in the asker's hands. Applications reach measured weekly-active adoption against their target population, and each one takes a clean exit — graduating onto the supported estate, retiring, or moving to the team that runs packaged systems.

Who you are:

You can sit with a finance, sales, or operations team and work out what they actually do. You direct coding agents well and can tell when the output is wrong. You read and reason about code, and you ship working software — not prototypes. You've built something another person went on to use. Engineering years are not the bar — candidates from finance, sales, or operations who can direct an agent against a standard are in scope.

Key Responsibilities

Discovery in Place

• Work inside the business unit and find the context nobody wrote down — the spreadsheet, the manual join, the workaround everyone stopped noticing.

Validation in Days

• Drive to a Go/No-Go decision with the business inside 5 days of assignment.

• The artifact sits on the paved path from the first commit — so a no costs a week rather than a project.

Build on the Rails

• Start every build on the internal tooling that resolves current standards and their automated checks into the repository.

• The standards live in the work, not in a review meeting.

End-to-End Ownership

• Validate, build, and hold the application until it graduates.

• The artifact does not change hands.

Directing Agents

• Direct coding agents against established patterns and judge the output — rather than starting from a blank page.

Consuming Platforms

• Take governed data and the paved path as products other teams own.

• Raise a gap in either rather than routing around it.

Graduation & Estate Hygiene

• Make each application reproducible from a clean clone — with the capability version pinned, a runbook in the repository, telemetry wired, an SLO defined, and alerts routed to a rote.

• Hold 3 or fewer ungraduated applications at any time.

Skills & Experience

• Can sit with a finance, sales, or operations team and work out what they actually do

• Directs coding agents well — and can tell when the output is wrong

• Reads and reasons about code, and ships working software rather than prototypes

• Has built something that another person went on to use

• Business-unit background welcome — engineering years are not the bar; candidates from finance, sales, or operations who can direct an agent against a standard are in scope

LIFE@ZURU

ZURU is on a quest to reimagine tomorrow. Founded in 2003, ZURU Group has rapidly grown and now spans three core divisions—ZURU Toys, ZURU Edge (consumer goods) and ZURU Tech (construction).

At ZURU, we have cultivated a high-performing culture that encourages excellence. Our team works towards ambitious goals, learning, performing, and improving together, all while having fun. We empower talented individuals to do their best work every day.

At ZURU, you get out what you put in. You are responsible for driving your own career and we provide the platform to achieve it. As ZURU is on such a fast growth trajectory, there are opportunities here that you won’t find anywhere else.

Get to know us a little better by checking out @lifeatzuru on Instagram or www.zuru.com.

WHAT WE OFFER

• 🌱 Culture for Growth

• 🧘 Health Benefits

• 🌎 Global Opportunities

• 💡 Surrounded by an A Player Team

• 💰 Competitive Remuneration

• 🍓 Lots of fresh fruit, coffee, pals fridge and more (optional)

ZURU – Reimagining tomorrow 🚀

ZURU may use AI tools to help screen, assess or select applicants.