Job Description:
We are seeking an exceptional Principal Android Engineer help lead our agile teams responsible for developing and maintaining our customer's customer-facing mobile app. As a Principal Engineer, you will provide technical leadership across multiple teams, drive architectural decisions and mentor engineering talent.
You will work inside a cross-functional team, including Product Owners, Scrum Masters, fellow Android & iOS Developers, and QA specialists, to deliver high-quality, delightful mobile experiences. In addition to feature development, you will be responsible for setting technical direction, establishing best practices and ensuring scalable solutions across our 10-12 person teams with a combination of in-house full-time employees and offshore contract staff. This role requires deep expertise in Android development, exceptional problem-solving skills and proven ability to transform complex business requirements into enterprise-scale, maintainable solutions. Our customer is transforming its Digital Experience, giving you extensive opportunities to architect and develop features from the ground up while leading technical strategy. You will be instrumental in extending their mobile experience for customers while modernising their codebase and establishing technical standards.
This role will operate on a hybrid model, with candidates able and willing to work from our customer's office at least once a week.
Required Experience:
- 10+ years of professional experience in Android Mobile App development, with 3+ years in a technical leadership role mentoring teams and driving technical decisions
- Expert-level proficiency with Android SDK, Android Studio, Kotlin, and Jetpack Compose. Deep understanding of Android internals, performance optimisation, and platform-specific capabilities
- Proven experience designing and implementing large-scale mobile architectures. Expert knowledge of design patterns, clean architecture principles, and scalable system design
- Communication: Exceptional English communication skills, both written and spoken, with ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
- Has architected, released, and scaled production apps in the Google Play Store serving large user bases with high availability requirements
- Expert in mobile testing strategies including unit, integration, and end-toend testing
- Strong experience with CI/CD pipelines, mobile DevOps practices, remote configuration management, and observability/monitoring solutions
- Deep expertise with networking, security, REST and GraphQL-based APIs, and third-party service integrations
- Expert in Git, SCM practices, code review processes, and agile development methodologies
- Proven ability to lead technical discussions, make architectural decisions, resolve conflicts, and drive consensus across teams
- Exceptional analytical and troubleshooting skills with ability to solve complex technical challenges and guide others through problem-solving processes
- Understanding of how technical decisions impact business outcomes, with ability to balance technical excellence with business priorities
Key responsibilities & duties include:
Technical Leadership & Strategy
- Define and own the Android technical vision, ensuring alignment with peers, and with architectural and long-term product goals
- Lead cross-team architectural discussions, evaluating trade-offs, and driving best-in-class solutions
- Champion scalability, performance, and maintainability across the mobile codebase
Solution Design & Innovation
- Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and tools to continuously evolve our Android engineering capabilities
- Guide teams in adopting modern Android paradigms (Jetpack Compose, modularization, reactive programming, multiplatform opportunities)
- Proactively identify opportunities to enhance developer productivity, system reliability, and app performance
Mentorship & Influence
- Provide technical mentorship to senior and mid-level engineers, raising the overall capability of the Android community of practice
- Influence engineering practices beyond your team, ensuring consistency, code quality, and knowledge sharing across the organisation
Delivery Excellence
- Drive critical initiatives and features, ensuring the mobile app remains robust, secure, and easy for customers to use
- Partner with Product Owners, Architects, and Engineering Managers to develop solutions that balance delivery speed with quality
- Represent Android engineering in cross-functional forums, influencing product direction with technical insights
Operational Responsibility
- Oversee observability, resilience, and operational excellence for Android apps in production
- Lead initiatives to reduce technical debt and improve codebase maintainability
- Guide the evolution of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release strategies
- Take ownership of resolving complex production issues and preventing recurrence through systemic improvements
Desirable Experience:
- Experience with cross-platform development strategies and shared codebase architectures
- Experience with advanced analytics platforms, A/B testing frameworks, and data-driven development practices
- Experience with enterprise-level integrations, security frameworks, and compliance requirements
- Deep knowledge of AWS services including API Gateway, App Sync, CloudWatch, Lambda, and mobile-specific cloud solutions
- Experience establishing accessibility standards and practices for mobile applications, ensuring WCAG compliance
- Advanced experience with mobile performance optimisation, profiling tools, and scalability solutions
- Experience in airline, travel, or other regulated industries with complex business requirements and high reliability needs