Lead Android Developer

About the Company:

Our client is an established, profitable product company in the fintech space, serving a large international user base with strong security and regulatory credentials. This is a product company with a real engineering culture and genuine ownership - not an agency or outsourcing shop.
About the Role:

Our client is hiring their first Lead Android Developer. This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You write Kotlin every day AND set the company's Android engineering standard. You own the architecture, CI/CD, release pipeline, and security bar.

This is not a pure management role and not just a stronger IC. There are no formal direct reports - you earn influence through expertise and mentorship. Split is roughly 90% hands-on coding, 10% technical leadership.
Key Responsibilities:
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Own the Android technical roadmap , architecture, and engineering standards from scratch

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Write production Kotlin daily using Jetpack Compose, Coroutines & Flow

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Own the full Google Play lifecycle: A pp signing, keystore management, release tracks, Play Console

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Set up and improve Android CI/CD (GitLab CI, Bitrise, or Fastlane)

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Enforce Android security standards: Keystore, EncryptedSharedPreferences, biometric auth, root detection, SSL pinning

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Lead code reviews , set the PR quality bar, and mentor the Android team

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Represent Android in cross-functional work with Product, Design, Backend, and QA

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Own incidents and drive them to resolution end-to-end

What We Expect:

Must-have:
- 6+ years of commercial Android development in Kotlin: Idiomatic, not Java-in-Kotlin

- Proven technical leadership: Setting standards, driving architecture, raising the team's bar

- Deep Kotlin mastery: Coroutines, Flow, sealed classes, extension functions, DSLs

- Jetpack Compose in production: Real screens shipped, state management, theming, performance optimization

- Strong XML/View system foundation: ConstraintLayout, RecyclerView, custom views alongside Compose

- Architectural patterns at depth: MVVM + Clean Architecture; understands MVI trade-offs

- Jetpack suite ownership: ViewModel, StateFlow, Navigation, Room, WorkManager

- Dependency injection: Hilt/Dagger - set up the DI graph for a real multi-module project

- Networking: Retrofit + OkHttp, interceptors, token refresh, retry logic, error handling strategies

- Android security: EncryptedSharedPreferences, Android Keystore, biometric auth, root detection, SSL pinning

- Android CI/CD: GitLab CI, Bitrise, or Fastlane - has built or significantly improved a pipeline

- Google Play lifecycle: App signing, keystore management, release tracks, Play Console - full ownership

- Testing culture: JUnit, Mockk, Espresso or Compose testing - writes testable code and enforces it in review

- Code review leadership: Sets PR quality bar, gives actionable feedback, establishes standards others follow

- Active mentorship with measurable outcomes: Can describe specific developers and improvements

- Cross-functional communication: Works effectively with Product, Design, Backend, QA

- Ownership mindset: Drives problems to resolution end-to-end without being managed

- Languages: English(At least B2) for PRs and architecture proposals

Nice-to-have:
- Domain experience: Fintech, payments, or banking mobile apps

- KYC SDK integration (Sumsub, Onfido or similar) on Android in production

- Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile: Exposure or hands-on experience

- Performance profiling with Android Studio Profiler: Identified and fixed real production bottlenecks

- Payment SDK integration at Android level (Checkout.com, Stripe, or equivalent)

- Detekt, SonarQube, or static analysis tooling: Enforced across a codebase

- Real-time data: WebSocket or SSE for live prices, order status, or market feeds

- Experience interviewing: Participating in or leading Android technical hiring interviews

- Firebase suite: Analytics, Crashlytics, Remote Config, A/B testing — set up and owned team-wide

- Offline-first or sync-heavy mobile architecture experience

- Multi-module Android architecture: Designed or migrated a project to feature modules

- AI tools in daily development (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.)

How You Work:
- You write code every day and lead by example, not hierarchy

- You take full ownership of the Android platform, not just your tasks

- You make pragmatic decisions under uncertainty and commit

- You treat security and quality as non-negotiable

- You adapt fast and prefer low-bureaucracy, high-autonomy environments

What Does Success Look Like:
- First 30 days: Gets acquainted with the codebase, starts contributing, establishes the Android delivery pipeline, and understands team architecture, stack, and processes

- 90 days: Proposes an approach to documenting application architecture, actively participates in tech discussions and provides valuable, trusted input on development decisions

- 180 days: Demonstrates leadership, develops the engineers they lead, acts as the Android voice in cross-functional discussions, and owns incidents and leads their resolution end-to-end

Hiring Process:

- Interview with TR

- HR screening

- Technical interview

- Final interview with Head of Engineering + Tech Lead

We Offer:
- A founding opportunity to build Android engineering culture from scratch at a scaled, profitable company

- Modern stack: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Coroutines, Flow

- Salary and the Logistics: €6,500 gross / month, remote-first, high autonomy

- Clear growth path: Lead Android Tech Lead potential Head of Mobile

- Professional development budget for courses, seminars, and conferences

- Work culture: Friendly, supportive, and skilled colleagues in a fast-growing fintech company

Originally posted on Himalayas