Humbly Confident Product Marketing Writer - remote

We build “You Need a Budget,” the best budgeting software and educational resources around. (But people in the know call us YNAB, which is pronounced “why-nab.”) For more than a decade, people have been using YNAB and then telling their friends what a difference it has made in their lives. Google us, or read some of our reviews on the app store, and you’ll see what we mean. We love building something that has a huge positive impact on people’s lives.

Teaching people how to get control of their money is what gets us up in the morning. Well, that and a hot beverage. We’re looking for a versatile Product Marketing Writer to help us teach others about the life-changing power of YNAB and all of its awesome features.

You are a natural writer and collaborator—funny and creative—and you’re always wondering how stuff works. You’ve also got a knack for turning technical speak into easily understandable metaphors—which your less-than-tech-savvy aunt loves you for. 

Not only are you swift and mighty with your pen, it comes in a red ink variety too. Your editing prowess would make your 9th-grade English teacher proud (this one’s for you, Mrs. Wilson!). You know that writing is rewriting and welcome constructive feedback with open arms. You thrive working in teams, and the time you get to collaborate with other people in the company is when you feel most yourself. You’re not shy to reach out to clarify, gather, collate, or offer ideas and feedback no matter the role or department.

You have a solid understanding of product marketing, copywriting on the web, and technical writing in the software space. Of course, you are an excellent writer and editor, but even more than that you understand that it is the right content, for the right audience, in the right context, that converts. 

You take rough drafts of copy—sometimes scribbled on a used napkin (just kidding, we work remotely, we don’t mail each other used napkins) and give it such an impressive spit shine and polish that the marketing and product teams will quickly wonder how they ever got on without you—freeing them up to do what they do best—improving our product.

You can shift gears—blog posts about new features, release notes, in-app copy, emails, ad campaigns, newsletters, reports, and maybe even a script for TikTok or two—because regardless of the format, you can crack yourself up and nail the headline without breaking a sweat. 

That’s a super-brief intro to what you’ll be working on. But first, you need to know if you’ll even like working with us. Let’s talk a bit about life at YNAB, and then we’ll go into more detail about what we’re looking for. 

We’re profitable, bootstrapped, and growing. YNAB started in 2004 and we haven’t taken any outside funding—we’re in it for the long haul. We have one overarching requirement when it comes to joining our team: our original Core Values Manifesto has to really click with you. If you’re nodding emphatically while reading it, you’ll probably really like it here, and we can’t wait to hear from you!

We live our Core Values every day at YNAB, and we mean it when we say we are an equal opportunity employer. We believe that a diversity of backgrounds, abilities, beliefs, and experiences are critical to our success, and we are passionate about creating a welcoming, supportive, and collaborative environment for all employees. All are encouraged to apply as we continue to grow a smart, hard-working, and diverse team who loves working together to build something that matters.

We also work really hard, together, to make working at YNAB an amazing experience, and we were (humbly) proud to be named Fortune’s #1 Best Small Company to Work For for the last two years. We have a team full of truly exceptional people—the kind you’ll be excited to work with. We’d love to introduce you to a few of them!

Lindsey &The Gang aka the Marketing Team aka just a rag-tag but lovable bunch of underdogs who defy the odds—making budgeting software hilarious, emotional, and accessible—day in and day out. (Disney, are you listening?) 

We love musical theater, board games, stand-up comedy, the Enneagram, video games, and art, to varying degrees, depending on who you talk to first. Our internal Slack channel is so much fun, it has a growing fanbase. 

Lindsey, our Head of Marketing, will be the first to delete something very important, but also the first to celebrate your wins—big and small. Ryan, our Lead of Growth Marketing, will quickly become your lifeline in any type of bracketology-related emergency and even under website-launch-level-stress, he can sneak in the jokes that make you feel like, “if Dad’s OK, we’ll all be OK.” There’s Reema, our Lead of Marketing Operations, who keeps all the balls in the air, while wearing many different hats, basically, if there is a need, yo, she’ll solve it (and yes, that was a seamless incorporation of Vanilla Ice lyrics).

Rachel, our Content Lead and writer-of-all-of-the-things spells prolific with a capital P...no she doesn’t...unless it’s at the start of a sentence. She’s what those in the sports world (don’t worry, there are only three people in all of YNAB who even pays attention to sports) call a “generational talent.” It’s like how Lebron James can shoot, rebound, block and take over a game, but her game is content creation and strategy and she DOES. IT. ALL. Also, you can tell she didn’t write this because it’s both not concise and it rambles a ton...which is where you come in. Help her, please!

Ashley, our Content Marketing Writer, has cracked the code to make our Google search results sing our praises. If you’re not laughing at her sharp wit and dry humor by the end of the meeting, she must be on mute. But it’s not just her incredible writing prowess that’ll wow you, she absolutely cranks on content and you’ll probably increase your writing VO2max just by occupying the same virtual air space as her. Did we give you enough reasons to want to have a meeting with Ashley? Oh, here’s one more: cat Zoom bombs from her furry friends. Yeah, you’ll love her.

Kelly, our Product Marketing Manager. She is a compassionate teacher of the YNAB method and exactly the person you want in every meeting. Seriously. No screen sharing issues ever, and she's our in-house Zoom meeting DJ. She has the elusive gift of selecting the perfect song every time. Catch Kelly in our live YouTube show, Fun Money! Feel free to ask her about her chickens.

Ingi, Hannah, Megan, Elena, Lee, Jacob, Caitlin, and Milène make up the leaders of our product team, and these are the folks that have all the balls in the air, color-coded, timed, and with a plan for what to do with said balls five years from now. To say they’re good at life would be an understatement. They’re the honors students of the company—at a company of honors students. All that to say, you’ll be crafting copy for some smart cookies on product features and crossing paths quite a bit. The best kind of crossing. Criss crossing, Applesauce-ing with a scoop of ice cream on the side.

Now that you’ve met some of your potential future teammates, let’s talk more about YNAB as a company. Here’s how we operate:

We’ve always been a fully remote team, and have people all over the world. For this particular position, however, we're looking for someone within +/- two hours of Central Standard Time (UTC-6), due to the high amount of synchronous coordination needed with the Marketing and Product teams. Anywhere within those time zones is okay, though. Just make sure you have a reliable internet connection.

We want everyone to have a full life outside of YNAB, and we seldom work more than 40 hours per week. There have been a few occasions where things got busy and people had to put some extra time in. But then they took some extra time off, so it all balances out. We work hard and smart, but we’re in this for the long haul.

We want you to take vacation. In fact, we have a minimum vacation policy of three weeks per year. Five weeks feels about right (plus two extra weeks for our company-wide December break). It’s important to get plenty of downtime and get out and do something. We’ll look forward to seeing pictures of your adventures in our #office_wall Slack channel!

When the pandemic isn’t keeping us from traveling, we get the teams together once a year to catch up on spreadsheets and powerpoints in a Best Western conference room. Just kidding. So far, we’ve done Costa Rica, a gigantic cabin in the mountains, a beach house in the Outer Banks, a ranch in Montana, and most recently, Laguna Beach. We work together, play together, and reinforce the bonds we’ve made as a team and company. Every year, we leave refreshed, motivated, and excited for the year ahead together.

We’re serious about helping you improve your craft. We budget for it (hey-o!). Think conferences, online courses and subscriptions, dedicated time away from work to learn something new… it’s really up to you and your manager. But we love to see our people growing.  

Our team is spread all over the world, including Switzerland, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and all over the United States. We currently set up team members who live in the U.S. or U.K. as employees, and those who live in other countries as independent contractors. You’re an equal part of the team no matter where you live!

As mentioned, we have some time zone restrictions for this role, but as long as you're within +/- two hours of Central Standard Time (UTC-6), we're good!

If you live in the U.S., you’ll be eligible for our health, dental, and vision insurance, where we cover 100% of the premium for you and your family. No need to check your vision, you read that right—100%. Although if you did need to check your vision, NBD, we’ve got you covered!

We also have a Traditional and Roth 401(k) option. YNAB matches your contributions up to six percent, and matches vest immediately. (Are you a personal finance junkie like our founder Jesse? He set up YNAB’s 401k to have the lowest fee structure possible, where all plan costs are paid by YNAB, not your retirement nest egg. The investment funds available are fantastic, passively-managed, ultra low-cost index funds. You’re not a PF junkie? Trust us, it’s awesome.) 

The starting salary range for this position is $63,000-$75,000 annually. We consider raises every year, and have a bi-annual profit-share bonus. YNAB wins, you win—that kind of thing.

If this sounds like your ideal environment, read on because now we want to talk about you, and how you’ll play a big part in changing people’s lives.

Our product team is cranking out features (maybe you’ve noticed?), and we want to give these releases the best possible content foot forward. Considering the size of our current team, we pump out a remarkable amount of content, but we are looking for a sharp, creative, curious storyteller to help us tell the story of our product and new features.

When you learn about a new feature your brain immediately begins churning out ideas and ways that we can teach, brag (humbly of course), and show it off to our loyal fans. You’re eager to meet with everyone involved with the new feature to become an expert before you write about it, including designers, support specialists, product managers, and the content team. This regularly happens before that feature is even fully functional. 

You’ve got an optimizer's brain and are always working through a quicker, faster, or clearer way to improve a process. You’re fluent with our current customers and somehow manage to delight new ones at the same time.

We’re excited to hear from you!

P.S. We'll send you a confirmation email once you apply. Please add that email to your safe sender list, to ensure that future emails come through. (If you don’t receive it, please check your Promotions inbox, junk folder, or any filters you may have set up.)

P.P.S. If you’re not interested in or available for this position, but know someone who is, we would really appreciate it if you passed this along!