Mobile Developer Lead (React Native, Android and IOS)

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Frontend Engineering Manager to lead our mobile application development team across Android and iOS. The ideal candidate has strong hands-on background in native mobile development and has successfully led or participated in a React Native brownfield migration. This role blends technical leadership, people management, and architectural decision-making to modernize our mobile platform while ensuring continuity of existing functionality and user experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of frontend/mobile engineers working across Android, iOS, and React Native.

• Own the technical strategy and roadmap for migrating legacy native mobile applications (Android/Kotlin/Java, iOS/Swift/Objective-C) into a unified React Native codebase using a brownfield migration approach.

• Define and enforce best practices for incremental migration, ensuring minimal disruption to existing app functionality, performance, and release cadence.

• Partner with product managers, designers, and backend engineering teams to align technical execution with business and UX goals.

• Establish CI/CD pipelines, testing strategies, and code quality standards suited to a hybrid native/React Native codebase.

• Drive decisions on native module bridging, third-party library evaluation, and platform-specific edge cases during migration.

• Manage sprint planning, technical estimation, and delivery timelines for mobile initiatives.

• Conduct code reviews and provide technical guidance on architecture, performance optimization, and app stability.

• Oversee the native-to-React Native integration boundary (navigation bridging, TurboModules/JSI, lifecycle handoff) owned by the iOS and React Native leads, ensuring consistent architecture across platforms.

• Own production monitoring, crash analytics, and performance metrics (App Store/Play Store ratings, crash-free rates, load times).

• Support hiring, onboarding, and career development of mobile engineers.

• Stay current with Android/iOS platform updates, React Native releases, and mobile ecosystem trends; assess their impact on the roadmap.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in mobile/frontend software development, with 2+ years in a people management or technical leadership role.

• Strong working knowledge of native Android development (Kotlin/Java) and native iOS development (Swift/Objective-C).

• Demonstrated experience leading or executing a brownfield migration integrating React Native into an existing native mobile application (not a greenfield/new-app build).

• Solid understanding of React Native architecture, native module bridging, and hybrid app performance considerations.

• Familiarity with native module/bridge and TurboModule/JSI patterns used to expose native iOS and Android capabilities to React Native.

• Experience with mobile CI/CD tools (Fastlane, Bitrise, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.).

• Familiarity with app store release processes (Apple App Store, Google Play Console), including versioning, phased rollouts, and compliance requirements.

• Strong understanding of mobile app architecture patterns (MVVM, MVI, MVP, MVC, MV, Clean Architecture) and state management (Redux, MobX, Context API, etc.).

• Experience with performance profiling, crash reporting, and monitoring tools (Firebase Crashlytics, Sentry, New Relic).

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to work cross-functionally with product, design, QA, and backend teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a large-scale enterprise or consumer-facing mobile app environment.

• Prior experience defining a phased/incremental migration strategy (screen-by-screen or module-by-module rollout) rather than a full rewrite.

• Familiarity with TypeScript, GraphQL/REST API integration, and mobile security best practices.

• Experience with automated testing frameworks (Detox, XCTest, Espresso, Jest).

• Exposure to accessibility standards (WCAG) for mobile applications.

• Experience managing distributed or hybrid (in-office/remote) engineering teams.

• Familiarity with native UI framework interop patterns (e.g., UIKit/SwiftUI) used within brownfield mobile architectures.