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