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: - Own the Android technical roadmap, architecture, and engineering standards from scratch - Write production Kotlin daily using Jetpack Compose, Coroutines & Flow - Own the full Google Play lifecycle: App signing, keystore management, release tracks, Play Console - Set up and improve Android CI/CD (GitLab CI, Bitrise, or Fastlane) - Enforce Android security standards: Keystore, EncryptedSharedPreferences, biometric auth, root detection, SSL pinning - Lead code reviews, set the PR quality bar, and mentor the Android team - Represent Android in cross-functional work with Product, Design, Backend, and QA - 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