Senior Mobile Engineer

Role Overview

We are looking for a Senior Mobile Engineer to own the mobile surface of AI-powered government products — the applications through which citizens and government users actually interact with AI capabilities on iOS and Android. You will design, build, and operate mobile applications that make complex AI behaviour usable, trustworthy, and accessible at government scale.

This role requires real depth on both sides of the React Native boundary. You will own architecture across the JavaScript layer and into native modules, platform APIs, and device-level integrations when the problem demands it. You will work closely with AI product engineers, backend platform engineers, and designers to ensure that mobile interfaces reflect what the underlying systems are actually doing — including their uncertainty, latency, and failure modes — within the constraints of mobile networks, devices, and operating systems.

At senior level, we expect more than reliable execution. You will own the architecture of major mobile surfaces end-to-end, raise the engineering bar around you, surface and resolve UX, performance, and security risks before they reach users, and contribute meaningfully to the standards set across the mobile stack. You operate independently, mentor others, and partner with staff engineers to shape how the mobile platform evolves.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate mobile applications for AI-powered government products on iOS and Android using React Native, Expo, and TypeScript — owning the architecture of the surfaces you build.

• Architect React Native applications that hold up at scale: navigation structure, state management, data fetching, offline behaviour, and the structural decisions that keep a mobile codebase coherent and evolvable as it grows across multiple products.

• Own the native boundary when the problem requires it: write and maintain native modules in Swift / Kotlin, integrate platform APIs (camera, biometrics, secure enclave, push, background tasks), and troubleshoot OS-level issues on both iOS and Android.

• Build AI-aware mobile UX patterns that work in production: streaming responses, conversational interfaces, real-time feedback, partial outputs, citations and grounding, and graceful handling of latency, cancellation, and error on mobile networks.

• Own mobile performance: startup time, bundle size, JS thread behaviour, native rendering performance, memory usage, and the optimisations that keep applications responsive on real devices and real networks — including low-bandwidth conditions.

• Own mobile security as a first-class engineering concern: secure storage, certificate pinning, biometric authentication, token handling, jailbreak/root detection where appropriate, and the practices required for high-value government applications.

• Design and operate the mobile release pipeline: build configuration, code signing, EAS or equivalent build infrastructure, over-the-air updates, app store submission, and the release engineering practices required to ship safely to iOS and Android.

• Build and maintain reusable components and design system primitives that scale across multiple mobile products and government entities, with consistent behaviour across iOS and Android.

• Own accessibility on mobile: VoiceOver, TalkBack, dynamic type, and the practices that make government services usable by everyone who needs them.

• Integrate cleanly with backend and AI services: REST and streaming APIs, authentication flows, error contracts, retry and offline strategies, and the client-side patterns that handle non-deterministic AI output reliably on mobile.

• Instrument mobile applications to a high standard: crash reporting, performance metrics, real-user monitoring, and the observability that makes mobile behaviour transparent in production across a fragmented device fleet.

• Contribute to mobile platform standards across the AI Factory: architectural conventions, TypeScript and native code standards, testing practices, and the technical bar that applies to anything user-facing in production.

• Participate in incident response for mobile issues, lead resolution in your area, and follow through to turn regressions into durable improvements.

• Mentor engineers on the team, raise the bar through code review and design review, and help newer engineers grow into independent ownership.

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of mobile engineering experience, with a track record of owning the design and operation of significant production mobile applications shipped to real users on iOS and Android — not just contributing to applications built by others.

• Strong expertise in React Native and Expo in production, including the architectural depth to make sound decisions about navigation, state, data flow, and the structure of a non-trivial mobile codebase.

• Expert-level command of JavaScript and TypeScript, with the depth to set conventions and evaluate trade-offs across a non-trivial codebase.

• Real depth at the native boundary: experience writing native modules, integrating platform APIs, and troubleshooting OS-level issues on both iOS and Android. You do not treat the native side as someone else's problem.

• Strong expertise in mobile security best practices: secure storage, authentication and token handling, certificate pinning, and the engineering discipline required for applications handling sensitive user data.

• Strong expertise in mobile performance: startup time, JS thread behaviour, native rendering, memory profiling, and the practical depth to make a real application fast on real devices.

• Demonstrated ability to design AI-aware UX patterns: streaming responses, real-time feedback, and the client-side handling required when backend behaviour is non-deterministic, latency-sensitive, or occasionally wrong — within mobile constraints.

• Solid grounding in mobile accessibility: VoiceOver, TalkBack, and the practices required to build inclusive interfaces.

• Experience with the mobile release pipeline: build configuration, code signing, EAS or equivalent, over-the-air update strategies, and app store submission to both iOS and Android.

• Strong testing practice: unit tests, component tests, integration tests, and end-to-end testing on mobile, with the discipline to use the right kind of test for the right kind of problem.

• Strong written and verbal communication — you can author design documents, drive technical decisions in design reviews, and explain mobile architectural trade-offs clearly to other engineers, designers, and product stakeholders.

• Proven ability to operate autonomously, take ownership, and deliver high-quality work end-to-end.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building mobile interfaces for AI or LLM-powered products in production: chat UIs, copilots, or agent-driven experiences that handle real model behaviour on mobile.

• Experience integrating with AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, or equivalent) and handling streaming model output on mobile, including partial rendering, cancellation, and reconnect behaviour.

• Experience with on-device or edge inference on mobile: ML Kit, Core ML, ExecuTorch, or equivalent, and an understanding of when on-device makes sense versus calling a backend.

• Experience with Arabic-language interfaces and right-to-left layout on mobile — relevant for government services in the UAE.

• Experience with mobile device management (MDM) integration, enterprise distribution, or government app store and distribution requirements.

• Experience with offline-first architectures, sync engines, and conflict resolution patterns on mobile.

• Experience with deeper native development in Swift or Kotlin, beyond the React Native bridge — including building substantial features natively where the framework is the wrong tool.

• Working knowledge of modern web frontend frameworks (React, Next.js) sufficient to collaborate effectively with the frontend team and contribute when the problem genuinely calls for it.

• Experience in a regulated or government-adjacent environment: accessibility compliance, audit requirements, data sovereignty, or operating user-facing systems to a high standard of reliability.

Our Stack

We use the tools best suited to each problem. Current defaults reflect what works well for our use cases — not a mandated standard. Candidates should be productive across most of these areas and willing to operate across them.

• Mobile:React Native, Expo, TypeScript, native modules in Swift and Kotlin

• State and data:TanStack Query, Zustand or equivalent, REST and streaming APIs

• AI integration:LLM APIs, streaming output handling, citation and grounding patterns, on-device inference where appropriate

• Build and release:EAS Build and Update, Fastlane, code signing, over-the-air updates, App Store and Play Store distribution

• Testing:Jest, React Native Testing Library, Detox or equivalent end-to-end testing

• Security:Secure storage, biometric authentication, certificate pinning, OAuth / OIDC flows

• Observability:Crash reporting, performance metrics, real-user monitoring, structured client-side telemetry

• Infrastructure:Cloud platforms (Azure), CI/CD pipelines for mobile

How We Work

• Ownership.Takes responsibility for the surfaces you build from design through production operation and post-release behaviour. Does not stop at the boundary of a sprint or a Figma file.

• Bias for delivery.Moves from design to working production application at pace, while holding a high bar for code quality, accessibility, security, and performance.

• Evidence-driven.Grounds architectural and UX decisions in evidence: real device data, real network conditions, real user behaviour, and crash and performance telemetry. Knows the difference between a polished demo and an application that holds in real users' hands.

• User-aware.Thinks about who will use what you build and whether it actually solves the right problem — including for users on older devices, slower networks, in different languages, and with different abilities.

• Reliability by design.Treats network failures, latency, AI failure modes, and device fragmentation as first-class design concerns, not edge cases. Designs interfaces that degrade gracefully and keep users oriented.

• Raises the bar.Mentors other engineers, runs and contributes to design reviews, and documents in a way that transfers depth — not just solves the immediate problem.

• Clear thinker.Writes and communicates with precision. Can explain mobile architectural decisions and UX trade-offs to other engineers, designers, and non-technical stakeholders.

Technical Depth Expectations

Candidates will be expected to demonstrate genuine depth in at least three of the following areas. Conceptual familiarity is not sufficient.

• React Native application architecture — navigation, state management, data fetching, offline behaviour, and the structural decisions that keep a mobile codebase coherent as it grows.

• Native integration —writing native modules in Swift and Kotlin, integrating platform APIs, and resolving OS-level issues on both iOS and Android.

• AI-specific UX engineering on mobile — streaming responses, real-time feedback, citation and grounding patterns, and the client-side handling of non-deterministic backend behaviour within mobile constraints.

• Mobile performance —startup time, JS thread behaviour, native rendering, memory profiling, and the depth to optimise a real application on real devices and real networks.

• Mobile security —secure storage, certificate pinning, biometric authentication, token handling, and the practices appropriate for high-value government applications.

• Mobile release engineering —build configuration, code signing, over-the-air updates, app store submission, and the release practices required to ship safely to iOS and Android.

• Mobile observability and reliability — crash reporting, performance metrics, real-user monitoring, and the practices that make mobile behaviour transparent across a fragmented device fleet.

• Accessibility engineering on mobile — VoiceOver, TalkBack, dynamic type, and the practices that make government services genuinely inclusive.

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