ROLI

Increase the bandwidth of interaction between people and technology.

Founded 2009
201-500 employees
  • News, Media, Advertising, & Publishing
  • Headquarters address
    2 Glebe Road, London E8, UK
    Video preview
    Play button

    The Story

    Founded by Roland Lamb in 2009, ROLI is a design-led music technology start-up based in Dalston, London. With a background as a professional jazz pianist, Roland first conceived of the Seaboard whilst studying in the Design Products wing at the Royal College of Art. Inspired by his desire to create musical expression untethered by the limiting interfaces of the piano and other keyboard based instruments, he invented a radically new instrument, the Seaboard GRAND. The hard edges of a piano are transformed into a soft, organic surface of continuous waves that respond intuitively to each gesture and touch, offering new sonic possibilities to musicians and providing an example of a new technological approach to expanding the bandwidth of interaction between humans and computers.

    Our world-class team design and manufacture the Seaboard in our two railway arches in East London for our customers around the globe, while developing new and exciting projects that are redefining interaction.

    Life @ ROLI

    Here at ROLI we also working to expand the bandwidth of interaction between people as we strive to reimagine the hackneyed notion of “work/life balance” into a more holistic professional and personal synergy. Our deep commitment to people and building community are paramount to our unique culture.

    Food is an important part of life at ROLI: we come together each day over delicious vegetarian lunches prepared for us by our talented Chefs, we welcome family and friends to our monthly dinners, and we experiment with our juicer to varying degrees of success! Whether it be over food, listening to music or geeking out about technology, we are always finding opportunities to come together as a team and a community.

    We believe our greatest asset is found in cultivating, nurturing and building the inherent creative potential that all of us possess. Our rapidly-growing team of designers, engineers and developers are exceptionally talented, with a diverse range of skills and interests that we are always encouraged to cultivate and share. Our weekly Hack Sessions give us space to work on different projects, whether building a boat, developing new software, or making a ROLI branded hot sauce to accompany our lunch, this culture of innovation and learning is at the core of everything we do.

    Join the Team @ 2 Glebe Road

    We are always looking for talented people to join and grow the ROLI team. At ROLI, our culture is crucial and a big influence on the way we approach hiring.

    We begin by asking you to submit your CV with a cover letter; a cover letter is important to us as we love to hear why you’d like to join us at ROLI.

    If you have the right skills and experience, we will ask you to complete our polymath questionnaire. By asking these questions, we hope to gain a broader understanding of who you are and how you might fit into the ROLI community, making for a much more interesting conversation!

    If it feels like a good fit on paper, we will invite you to our offices to meet with us in person, giving us the opportunity to learn more about each other.

    If all this goes well, you will continue to meet more members of our team, including final interviews with our COO and CEO, respectively, as we make our way towards a decision to offer a role to an exceptional candidate.

    Tech stack

    This is the stuff that we use & need, C, C++, Objective C, JUCE, Embedded Linux, Processing, Python.

    Benefits

    Values and quality of life

    Catered meals
    ROLI - Seaboard GRAND Stage
    ROLI - We handcraft our products in some great railway arches in East London.
    ROLI - ROLI team production meeting - sharing ideas and making sure we get it right.
    ROLI - Our team matters - so we keep everyone happy and fed!!
    ROLI - Our HQ, Hack Cafe space - great for collaboration.
    ROLI - Some of our developers in the Brain Hive, creating exciting stuff.