TL;DR

  • 36 of Bending Spoons’ 50 open roles can be done remotely, and the application form asks you outright whether you want to work on-site or remotely.
  • But their published policy states plainly: “on average, on-site work leads to superior outcomes… with a bias for on-site work.”
  • Working remotely most of the time requires approval from their Talent team – and it depends on your track record and position.
  • Every European country they hire in is flagged in their own data as eligible for visa sponsorship, which is rare.

Most employers make you guess at their remote policy. Bending Spoons publishes theirs as a PDF, and it is the most candid document of its kind Remote Work Europe has read.

That candour is why they belong in the open-to-remote hub rather than the remote-first one, and why the honest answer about working there is more interesting than either “they are remote” or “they are not”.

Figures are from their own careers site on 8 September 2026.

Can you work remotely at Bending Spoons?

Yes, and their application form asks you which you would prefer. Every applicant chooses between On-site (London), On-site (Madrid), On-site (Milan), On-site (Warsaw) and Remote.

36 of 50 open roles are marked as available remotely in the careers site’s own data. The 14 that are not are exactly what you would expect: the summer internships, office and team assistants, an experiences manager, and their US finance roles.

The benefit is listed on the careers page as “permission-free work from home”.

So far, so good. Now read the policy.

What the policy actually says

From On-Site & Remote Work, published on their own site:

“We’ve come to believe that, on average, on-site work leads to superior outcomes for Bending Spoons when compared with remote work. This is because in-person interactions are probably more effective than remote interactions at fostering bonding and a strong company culture.”

And:

“We encourage each Spooner to determine the on-site and remote schedule that allows them to deliver the most impact… with a bias for on-site work.”

The crucial paragraph, and the one that resolves the apparent contradiction:

“A Spooner who wishes to work remotely the vast majority of the time must first receive approval from Talent… Whether approval is granted depends on the Spooner’s track record and their position, among other factors.”

So “permission-free work from home’ and “must first receive approval” are both true, and they describe different things. Working from home on a Tuesday needs no permission. Working remotely as your normal arrangement is a decision someone else makes about you – and, notably, one that weighs your track record. A new joiner has less of one.

To their credit, they also state the case for remote honestly: increased focus for people distracted by an office, time saved commuting, and “by embracing remote work, we can significantly expand our obtainable talent pool”.

The three conditions that decide whether this works for you

1. You have a primary office whether you go to it or not.

“For a Spooner hired in Ireland or the United Kingdom, this is the London office. For any other Spooner, it’s the Milan office.”

That matters more than it sounds, because of the next condition.

2. Six hours of overlap with your primary office’s time zone.

“Regardless of their current time zone, the Spooner should be available to others for an extended window every day… In most cases, six hours within the standard working day of 9 am to 6 pm in the time zone of the Spooner’s primary office is the minimum.”

For most people that means six hours inside Milan’s working day. Comfortable across Europe. Not compatible with a materially different time zone.

3. A few months in Milan at the start.

“We recommend that a new Spooner be at our Milan office for at least a few months early on, so they can immerse themselves in our company culture. They may divide these few months into a succession of shorter visits.”

It is a recommendation rather than a requirement, and it can be broken into shorter trips. But if you are taking a remote role with caring responsibilities or a mortgage, “a few months in Milan early on” is a thing to discuss before you accept, not after.

And moving country later is not your decision alone: relocating requires prior approval from both People Administration and Talent, “regardless of the specific countries involved”.

Where they hire, and the visa detail worth knowing

Offices appear on their adverts as Milan, London, Madrid and Warsaw, plus Atlanta, Miami, New York and Boston in the US.

⚠️ One discrepancy worth checking before you apply. Their careers page marks Madrid and Warsaw as “coming soon”, while job adverts already list both as office locations. If either is where you intend to be based, ask what exists there today.

The genuinely unusual part: their own structured data flags every European hiring country – Italy, Spain, Poland and the UK – as eligible for visa sponsorship, alongside comprehensive relocation support with its own published policy.

Across the forty European employers Remote Work Europe has profiled, most say nothing at all about sponsorship, and several state that you must already hold the right to work. Bending Spoons publishes eligibility as a field on every role. That is worth knowing if your right to work is the open question.

Two more things before you apply

Their application form asks for your degrees and your GPA. That is worth flagging because it screens on academic record rather than on work, and their own careers page says something rather different about how they judge people internally: “Responsibility is earned through impact, not prior experience.” Both can be true – getting in and getting on are different tests – but if your record is stronger than your transcript, know that going in.

They publish their internal culture documents, including one called Controversial Principles, described as their “most unorthodox—and non-negotiable—operating principles”. Read them. A company that publishes this much is telling you what it is like, and you are unlikely to get a second chance to be surprised.

What kind of company would you actually be joining?

An acquirer. Most of the work Bending Spoons showcases on its own careers page is work done on products it bought: “Evernote rebuild, 2024”, “Komoot UI sprint, 2025”, “Streamyard data modeling, 2025”, “Vimeo growth strategy, 2026”, “WeTransfer sales plan, 2026”.

That is unusual enough to say out loud, because it shapes the job. You would probably not be building something from nothing. You would be working on an established product with existing users, inside a company whose model is to take it over and run it differently.

Whether that appeals is a matter of taste, and the record is genuinely mixed. Evernote is the acquisition people argue about, and long-standing users have been loud about what changed under new ownership. It is also fair to say that several of these products were in difficulty before they were bought, and might not have survived unbought.

The useful version for a candidate is narrower than the argument about whether they are good stewards. It is this: restructuring is the business model rather than an emergency, so ask early where your role sits in a product’s lifecycle, and who was doing the job before you.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bending Spoons a remote-first company? No. Its published policy states a bias for on-site work and says on-site produces better outcomes on average. Remote is available, widely, but it is the alternative rather than the default.

How many roles can be done remotely? 36 of 50 open roles, as at 8 September 2026. The application form asks each candidate to choose on-site or remote.

Do I need permission to work remotely? Not for occasional working from home. Yes, from their Talent team, if you want to work remotely the vast majority of the time – and the answer depends on your track record and role.

Which countries can I work from? They hire in Italy, Spain, Poland and the UK in Europe. Your primary office is Milan unless you are hired in the UK or Ireland, in which case it is London, and you need six hours of daily overlap with that office’s working day.

Do they sponsor visas? Their own data flags every European hiring country as eligible for sponsorship, and they publish a relocation policy. Confirm for your specific role, but this is a far more open position than most.

Sources

  • Bending Spoons careers and jobs.bendingspoons.com, retrieved 8 September 2026
  • Culture & Policies — On-Site & Remote Work, published by Bending Spoons
  • Role counts, office locations, remote availability and visa-eligibility flags read from the careers site’s own structured data
  • Remote Work Europe Connected jobs board

Counts as at 8 September 2026 and will move.