Senior Product Engineer - Freelance
About the job
- Experience working across domains and collaborating with creative, product, and trading or marketing teams.
- Strong experience in backend engineering, ecommerce, and user experience.
- Ability to rapidly get up to speed with a technology stack.
- Experience using AI tools thoughtfully to improve speed and impact.
- Ability to work autonomously and exercise judgment in determining what to build.
- Experience with Astro, Next, TypeScript, Heroku, Render, Prismic CMS, and custom ecommerce backends is relevant to the stated technology stack.
- Build product solutions for Wonderbly's customer experience challenges around Kids and Keepsake landing pages and journeys.
- Work closely with the VP of Product and other teams to unlock growth in key business areas.
- Determine the right solutions to build and implement them to a high quality.
- Collaborate with creative, product, and trading or marketing squads.
- Contribute to improving developer experience.
- Work primarily on the Wonderbly website and related product experiences during the contract period.
About the company
Wonderbly creates personalized children's books tailored to each child, combining storytelling, engineering, digital and print to produce bespoke, beautifully illustrated books. These books are made and shipped through an online, direct-to-consumer platform, with the core process centered on collecting a child’s name and details to customize the story text and illustrations before printing and delivering a physical book. The company differentiates itself by offering large-scale, high-quality personalization via an e-commerce platform and strong global reach, backed by venture funding, rather than relying on traditional publishing channels. Its goal is to make personalized storytelling accessible to families worldwide and provide meaningful, gift-worthy books for children.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$27M
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Founded
2012
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Penguin Random House bought Wonderbly on June 4, 2025, validating category leadership.
- Graphite doubled revenues and EBITDA before the sale, proving scalable demand.
- Wonderbly won British Book Awards recognition in 2021 and 2025, strengthening brand trust.
What critics are saying
- PRH integration pressure can dilute Wonderbly's entrepreneurial speed by 2027.
- Amazon, Etsy, and AI-content tools commoditize personalized gifting and squeeze margins.
- A failed personalization platform or print supply chain outage kills the direct-to-consumer model.
What makes Wonderbly unique
- Wonderbly sold 11 million personalized books across 140 countries by June 2025.
- PRH kept Wonderbly independent after the June 4, 2025 acquisition.
- Historic Newspapers added adult gifting and large-format print-on-demand capabilities in 2023.
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Benefits
Remote Work Options
Hybrid Work Options
Flexible Work Hours
Training Programs
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
-1%1 year growth
1%2 year growth
8%Graphite Capital won the Value Creation Deal of the Year award in the Lower Mid-Market at the 2026 Actum Private Equity Value Creation Awards for its transformation of Wonderbly, a publisher of premium personalised books. The recognition followed Wonderbly's sale to Penguin Random House in June 2025. During Graphite's ownership, Wonderbly more than doubled revenues and EBITDA, primarily through organic growth. The business expanded into adult gifting, completed two strategic acquisitions, and achieved B Corp certification. Graphite also strengthened Wonderbly's market position through investments in data science and brand development.
Wonderbly was named Children's Publisher of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards and was shortlisted for both Children's Publisher of the Year and Publisher of the Year at the 2025 British Book Awards.
The Penguin Random House acquisition machine continues to roll on, with the world’s largest trade publishing announcing it has bought one of the U.K.’s fastest-growing independent publishers, Wonderbly, which has used a direct-to-consumer business model to sell more than 11 million books in 140 countries.
Penguin Random House (PRH) has acquired U.K.-based Wonderbly, a fast-growing independent publisher known for personalized gift books. Founded in 2013 and rebranded in 2017, Wonderbly was previously acquired by Graphite Capital in 2021. The terms of the PRH deal were not disclosed. Wonderbly will operate independently within PRH, collaborating with the DK group. CEO Asi Sharabi will continue to lead from London. The acquisition aims to accelerate growth and expand reach.
Since partnering with private equity firm Graphite Capital in 2021, Wonderbly has also acquired The Book of Everyone, which is now available on its website.