Junior Software Engineer

Changing the world of pet food for good

We’re Tails.com, a dog food subscription company with a big difference. We create truly tailored food for each and every dog we serve. We start by asking people a few simple questions about their dog. Then we use that information to create their dog’s unique Tails.com recipe – so their dog gets exactly the nutrition they need, in the taste they love, delivered to their door every month. It’s clever stuff.

We are a fast-growing scale-up company, transitioning from our start-up roots and entering an exciting phase of rapid growth. As we evolve, we are focused on building a modern, scalable, and secure architecture that will support our ambitious plans for the future.

We’ve got bold plans. Having created an entirely new category in pet food, we’re now scaling fast in the UK – backed by Purina, one of the world’s largest pet food companies. You’ll join a bunch of smart people working towards the same goals – and a bunch of smart-ish dogs, all working on their own thing.

Together, we’ll change the world of pet food for good.

The Role

As a Junior Software Engineer, you’ll be part of a cross-functional squad, building high-quality software that helps Tails.com deliver personalised nutrition at scale. You’ll work closely with experienced engineers, gaining hands-on experience across our stack and learning how to design, develop, and maintain reliable systems that make a real impact for our customers.

You’ll contribute to new features, improvements, and technical initiatives while deepening your understanding of how we build, test, and deploy software in a modern engineering environment. You’ll be supported by your team as you continue to develop your skills and confidence as a full-stack engineer.

Your responsibilities

Technical delivery & quality

Design, implement, and maintain features within your squad’s systems under guidance from senior engineers
Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code in Python, our core language
Learn and apply best practices in testing, CI/CD, observability, and security
Participate in code reviews and contribute to improving quality and standards
Gain exposure to modern front-end frameworks and tooling used across our platform

Collaboration & delivery

Work closely with your squad’s Lead Software Engineer, Product Manager, to deliver core capability services features and improvements
Collaborate effectively within your squad, sharing progress, asking questions, and seeking feedback
Help identify and flag potential risks or dependencies early in the development process

Continuous improvement

Take part in retrospectives and suggest ideas to improve how the squad delivers software
Learn from feedback, proactively seek out opportunities to grow, and share what you learn with others
Contribute to documentation, demos, and internal learning sessions

Growth & learning

Pair with and learn from senior engineers to develop your technical and problem-solving skills
Take ownership of smaller tasks or components, delivering them end-to-end with support
Build confidence working within an agile, product-led environment
Develop an understanding of our systems, architecture, and how your work fits into the bigger picture

Commercial awareness

Understand how your work supports the squad’s goals, customer needs, and business priorities
Show curiosity about the product and how technology helps us scale personalisation and operational efficiency

About you

You have 6–12 months of commercial experience in software engineering
You have hands-on experience coding in Python (our core language)
Experience in Node.js or another modern language is a plus, as the skills are transferable
You’re keen to grow as a full-stack engineer, with interest in both back-end and front-end development
You understand the basics of building APIs, integrating services, and working with databases
You’re familiar with using Git and working within modern development workflows
You take pride in writing maintainable, readable code and enjoy solving technical problems collaboratively
You’re proactive about learning, open to feedback, and value knowledge-sharing with your peers
You’re motivated by building products that make a tangible difference for customers and their dogs
You’re excited to grow your technical depth, learn from experienced engineers, and contribute to a high-performing team

What's in it for you?

Competitive salary, reviewed annually
Annual bonus, based on company performance
Flexible core hours, giving you true work-life balance
Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you
25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days
9/10 day working week to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance
Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year
When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months
Health insurance for you, paid by Tails.com
Extended maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption pay. 6 months at 70% pay
Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependants, people close to you and pets
In-house L&D team, with access to year-round courses to help drive your development
50% discount on all Tails.com
Discounted gym membership

What’s next?

If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an underrepresented demographic.

Our Commitment

We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are underrepresented at Tails.com.

During your interview process, you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.