Founding iOS Engineer (Native Mobile – Zero to One)

Founding iOS Engineer (Native Mobile – Zero to One)

Location: New York (On-site)

Compensation: $170,000 – $210,000 USD + equity

About the Role

We are seeking a Founding iOS Engineer to build a new native iOS application from scratch for a fast-scaling consumer marketplace.

The current mobile product is built in Flutter. This role will lead the transition to a fully native iOS experience, owning architecture, user experience foundations, and long-term mobile strategy.

This is a true zero-to-one role where requirements are often undefined. You will be expected to bring structure, clarity, and technical direction while shaping what the mobile product becomes.

Key Responsibilities

Product & Engineering Ownership

• Own end-to-end iOS development across core user journeys:
  • Search & discovery
  • Property details
  • Booking flow
  • User accounts and post-booking experience

Architecture & Systems Design

• Build a native iOS codebase from the ground up
• Define architecture patterns and state management strategy
• Design networking layer and API integration structure
• Establish CI/CD pipelines, testing frameworks, and release processes

Performance & Quality

• Optimize app performance (startup time, responsiveness, stability)
• Ensure offline handling and reliability standards
• Instrument observability and analytics for product iteration

Collaboration & Strategy

• Partner with Product and Design on consumer-facing experiences
• Collaborate with Backend teams on API contracts optimized for mobile
• Define long-term mobile engineering strategy and scalability roadmap

Leadership

• Help shape mobile engineering culture and best practices
• Contribute to foundational decisions for future iOS team growth

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience building production iOS applications at scale
• Strong expertise in Swift and modern iOS development patterns
• Experience owning or significantly influencing iOS architecture decisions
• Track record of building polished, consumer-facing mobile apps
• Strong product sense and ability to operate in ambiguous environments
• Experience collaborating with backend engineers on APIs and data contracts

Nice to Have

• SwiftUI and/or UIKit experience
• Exposure to backend systems (Ruby on Rails, Node.js)
• Familiarity with PostgreSQL or MongoDB
• Experience with AWS or Datadog
• Knowledge of mobile observability and performance tooling

Ideal Candidate Profile

This role is best suited for a high-ownership mobile engineer who:

• Thrives in zero-to-one environments
• Prefers defining architecture over following it
• Has strong product intuition and UX sensitivity
• Can independently drive both technical and product decisions
• Is excited to build both product and engineering culture from scratch

Benefits

• Equity participation with meaningful long-term upside
• Founding-level ownership of mobile product direction
• Opportunity to build a native iOS app from scratch
• High-impact role in a fast-growing consumer marketplace