The Guardian Work For Us

The Guardian is one of the world's biggest liberal news organisations. We are renowned for our ground-breaking independent journalism, our award-winning digital products and excellent engineering team. We're looking for an Android Developer/Engineer to join our Apps team on a 12 month fixed term contract or internal secondment.

Development of digital products is central to the Guardian. You could be building the products that showcase our progressive and independent journalism, crafting the tools that journalists use to write their stories, developing the services that allow those stories to be distributed across the globe, or safeguarding our financial future.

Please visit our Guardian engineering site which contains information and a blog about working in the Product & Engineering department.

We create our award-winning Android app primarily in Kotlin and Java using Android Studio. We're focussed on providing a fast and stable experience to our users, and our Play Store rating of 4.7 stars is testament to that.

About the Role

• You'll be building and testing major new features, as well as improving and maintaining existing functionality for The Guardian's Android apps
• Our current codebase is 90%+ in Kotlin, but you may be required to work with Java too.
• You won't be coding in isolation - our culture is strongly collaborative, whether pair programming with other developers or working closely with other stakeholders.
• You can expect to work closely with iOS, server-side, and web engineers, and designers, product managers, editorial and commercial colleagues.
• You'll have a voice in all big decisions the team makes.
• Sometimes deciding what code to write is as hard as writing the code itself. As an engineer you'll be involved in product decisions as well as technical ones.
• You'll be reviewing the code of other engineers to ensure we maintain our app's high standard.
• You'll strive to be innovative on a daily basis, as well as at our regular hack days.

About You

• You have demonstrated experience building and deploying Android applications.
• You aspire to be an expert in Android development and have a strong interest in growing your skills
• You're confident coding in Kotlin building in Android studio.
• You have some experience with Java or are willing to learn.
• You can make considered and confident choices regarding what technologies to use and when to use them.
• You drive code quality and best practices.
• You have experience of, and a willingness to work in Agile development environments

We operate in a hybrid environment. Our Software Engineers/Developers are expected to come into the office at least 1 day per week. If you want to come in more than that, that's great too.

We strive for transparency in remuneration. The salary for new Apps Developers at the Guardian is £62,000 per year.

We value and respect all differences (seen and unseen) in all people. We aspire to have inclusive working experiences and an environment that reflects the audience we serve, where our people have equal access to career development opportunities, their voices are heard and can contribute to our future. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Many of our staff work flexibly and we will consider all requests for flexible working arrangements.

How to Apply

To apply, please upload your latest CV and a cover letter which outlines why you'd love to take on this role, and why you're a great match for what we're looking for.

We appreciate the time taken to prepare each application we receive. We do not use AI-assisted technology to review applications; every application is reviewed by a member of our recruitment team.

The closing date for applications is Monday 15th December 2025.

All roles at the Guardian are open for everybody to apply. It is important to us that you feel supported and comfortable throughout your recruitment process, in order to perform your best. Please let us know if there are any changes we could make to help your application, this includes providing documents in accessible formats or personalising the process to better support your needs. Please contact Anna Vipers at anna.vipers@guardian.co.uk to discuss further so we can work with you to support you through your application.

Benefits in our Product & Engineering team

• 30 days annual leave and the option to purchase an extra 5 days
• Flexible public holidays
• Generous pension scheme; if you contribute 5% then the Guardian will contribute 8-12% (depending on your age)
• Multi-faith prayer room
• Cycle to work scheme and subsidised gym membership
• Paid volunteering days
• 10% time - Dedicated time for personal development, separate from time spent contributing to your team's delivery.

Culture and Wellbeing

We want everyone to feel like they belong at the Guardian and we champion diversity of thought. Our various employee forums provide a platform to use their voice to foster an inclusive workplace. We became the first major media organisation to achieve B Corp status.

We offer tools to help you prioritise your wellbeing including access to our employee benefits platform which provides tailored support for health and wellbeing. In addition, we also offer free yoga and pilates classes. These run alongside our corporate gym membership and cycle to work scheme.

Our canteen has views overlooking the Regents Canal and caters for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Learning and Development

We encourage personal and professional growth. Employees have access to a broad range of tools and solutions, and we are happy to support the pursuit of professional qualifications through vocational courses and apprenticeships.