Lead Mobile App Developer -React Native

Key Responsibilities:

Technical:

• Architect, develop, and maintain high-quality consumer-facing mobile applications using React Native setting the technical benchmark for code quality, performance, and reliability across iOS and Android.
• Own the mobile platform architecture making well-reasoned decisions on navigation, state management, native module usage, app structure, and cross-platform parity.
• Build and maintain a shared mobile component library, ensuring design system consistency and reusable patterns across the app.
• Collaborate closely with UX designers to implement intuitive, accessible, and visually polished mobile interfaces that adhere to both Apple Human Interface Guidelines and Google Material Design principles.
• Lead the integration of the mobile app with RESTful APIs, third-party SDKs, and platform services including push notifications, analytics, authentication, in-app purchases, and deep linking.
• Own the end-to-end release lifecycle for both Apple App Store and Google Play Store including build configuration, code signing, release management, phased rollouts, and platform compliance.
• Drive mobile performance optimization profiling app startup time, render performance, memory usage, and battery efficiency to deliver smooth 60fps consumer experiences.
• Define and enforce mobile coding standards, testing conventions, and code review practices across the team.
• Establish and evolve CI/CD pipelines for automated mobile builds, testing, and store submissions using tools such as Fastlane, Bitrise, or GitHub Actions.
• Identify, investigate, and resolve complex cross-platform bugs, native module issues, and performance regressions under time pressure.

Leadership & Team:

• Lead and manage a small team of mobile engineers providing technical direction, day-to-day guidance, and regular one-to-ones that support individual growth.
• Plan and prioritize mobile engineering work in collaboration with Product and PMO decomposing complex features into well-scoped, deliverable tasks with clear acceptance criteria.
• Conduct thorough, constructive code reviews that raise the technical capability of the team over time not just catching defects but transferring knowledge.
• Identify skill gaps within the team and create targeted development plans, pairing opportunities, or learning resources to address them.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex mobile technical issues stepping in to unblock engineers and drive resolution during high-stakes incidents or release pressures.
• Represent mobile engineering in cross-functional planning sessions, sprint ceremonies, and architectural reviews acting as the authoritative voice on mobile platform decisions.
• Champion a quality-first culture across the team covering automated testing, crash monitoring, accessibility, and store rating improvement initiatives.
• Contribute to mobile engineering hiring defining technical assessment standards and participating in candidate interviews.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 912 years of mobile engineering experience, including at least 3-4 years in a lead, principal, or senior technical role with direct team responsibilities. A strong track record of shipping consumer-facing apps on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store is essential.
• React Native expertise: Expert-level, hands-on proficiency with React Native including the new architecture (Fabric, JSI, TurboModules), navigation (React Navigation, Expo Router), and deep knowledge of the React Native runtime and bridge.
• TypeScript & JavaScript: Expert-level TypeScript skills with a strong command of modern JavaScript (ES6+) including type system design, generics, and strict-mode development for a production mobile codebase.
• iOS & Android platform depth: Solid understanding of platform-specific differences, native module development, and the ability to write or modify native code in Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android) when required.
• Consumer app experience: Proven experience building high-traffic, consumer-facing mobile applications with a strong appreciation for UX quality, app store ratings, crash rates, and the operational realities of maintaining a live consumer product.
• App Store & Play Store mastery: Deep experience managing the full release lifecycle on Apple App Store Connect and Google Play Console including provisioning profiles, code signing, build variants, staged rollouts, and platform policy compliance.
• API & third-party integration: Confident integrating with RESTful APIs and third-party SDKs including push notifications (APNs, FCM), analytics (Firebase, Amplitude), authentication (OAuth, biometrics), and payment services.
• Mobile performance optimization: Demonstrated ability to profile and optimize React Native apps for render performance, app startup, memory management, and battery consumption using tools such as Flipper, Xcode Instruments, and Android Profiler.
• Testing: Experience establishing and maintaining mobile testing practices including unit tests (Jest), component tests (React Testing Library), and end-to-end tests (Detox or Maestro).
• AI-assisted development: Practical experience using Gen AI coding tools such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Claude to accelerate development workflows including code generation, refactoring, debugging assistance, and documentation. Able to critically evaluate AI-generated output for correctness, security, and maintainability before integrating it into production code.
• Responsible AI usage: Awareness of the limitations and risks of AI coding assistants including hallucinated APIs, license and IP considerations, and the importance of human review and consistently applies sound engineering judgement when incorporating AI-generated suggestions into the codebase.
• Team leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead a small mobile engineering team setting direction, running code reviews, planning delivery, and growing individual engineers.
• Agile/Scrum: Experienced in sprint-based delivery, contributing to planning, retrospectives, and cross-functional ceremonies as a technical lead.

Nice to Have:

• Familiarity with React (web) and an appreciation of shared design system or component logic between web and mobile surfaces.
• Exposure to backend-for-frontend (BFF) patterns or lightweight Node.js services that support mobile API needs.
• Familiarity with mobile security best practices secure storage (Keychain, Keystore), certificate pinning, and app obfuscation.
• Experience with feature flag platforms for staged mobile feature rollouts and A/B testing.
• Understanding of mobile analytics and crash reporting pipelines Firebase Crashlytics, Sentry, or equivalent.
• Experience contributing to or establishing mobile engineering hiring processes and technical assessments.

Leadership Thinking & Soft Skills:

This is a lead role the following qualities are as important as technical skills in determining the right fit:

• Independent decision-making: Comfortable owning and defending mobile architecture and release decisions without needing senior approval at every step knows when to escalate and when to move forward with confidence.
• Consumer empathy: Thinks constantly from the perspective of the end-user understands that small UX regressions, slow app launches, or unreliable notifications have outsized impact on consumer trust and app store ratings. Treats app quality as a personal standard, not a QA checkbox.
• First-principles thinking: Approaches complex mobile challenges by reasoning from fundamentals able to evaluate whether to use a third-party library, build natively, or bridge, and articulate the trade-offs clearly to both engineers and product stakeholders.
• Strategic prioritization: Balances feature delivery against platform stability and technical debt knows when to push back on scope, advocate for a performance sprint, or flag that a release is not ready, with constructive alternatives rather than just blockers.
• Clarity under ambiguity: Able to move the team forward when product requirements are incomplete or designs are still evolving defines just enough technical structure to make progress without over-engineering or blocking delivery.
• Cross-functional influence: Earns trust from Product, UX, and PMO peers through consistent delivery, transparent communication, and the ability to represent mobile platform constraints and opportunities clearly in planning and design conversations.
• Calm under pressure: Stays composed during production incidents, store rejections, or critical release crises models the behaviour the team needs to stay focused, methodical, and effective when the stakes are high.

Tech Stack at a Glance:

React Native | TypeScript / JavaScript | REST APIs | Jest / Detox | Fastlane / CI/CD | App Store & Play Store | Firebase