Lead Mobile Application Engineer
Lead Application Engineer (Mobile Platforms)OverviewThe Lead Application Engineer will provide hands-on technical leadership for the mobile application engineering team, supporting iOS and Android experiences across multiple brands and digital platforms. This role will lead the development and evolution of React Native mobile applications, drive platform quality, improve release readiness, and establish scalable mobile engineering standards across a complex digital ordering ecosystem.This position is responsible for driving delivery through a hybrid model of internal engineering resources and offshore vendor teams, ensuring work meets standards for quality, predictability, transparency, and engineering excellence.The ideal candidate is a hands-on mobile engineering leader who can balance architecture, delivery, code quality, production stability, offshore delivery accountability, and cross-functional collaboration. This individual will work closely with Product, Design, Web, API, QA, Architecture, DevOps/SRE, and vendor partners to deliver high-quality customer-facing mobile experiences.Key ResponsibilitiesMobile Engineering LeadershipLead mobile application engineering for high-priority platform initiatives.Design, develop, and maintain scalable React Native mobile applications for iOS and Android.Establish and enforce engineering standards, coding practices, release processes, accessibility requirements, performance standards, and testing strategies.Provide hands-on development support for complex mobile features, platform enhancements, production issues, and technical debt remediation.Partner with Product and UX teams to translate customer experience requirements into high-quality mobile solutions.Collaborate closely with API, Web, QA, Architecture, DevOps/SRE, and vendor engineering teams to ensure reliable end-to-end delivery.Offshore Team & Vendor LeadershipProvide day-to-day technical leadership and delivery oversight for offshore mobile engineering teams.Partner with vendor leads to ensure sprint commitments, feature delivery, defect resolution, release readiness, and app store deliverables are completed successfully.Communicate engineering standards and expectations for React Native development, native platform considerations, code quality, testing, release governance, and production stability.Drive accountability across offshore teams by reviewing progress, identifying blockers, escalating risks, and ensuring timely issue resolution.Ensure resources are aligned with sprint priorities, technical approaches, acceptance criteria, platform standards, and release timelines.Validate deliverables through technical reviews, code reviews, defect reviews, application behavior validation, and release readiness assessments.Quality, Performance & Release ManagementReview pull requests for code quality, scalability, maintainability, performance, security, accessibility, and platform consistency.Support release planning, app store submission readiness, defect triage, production issue analysis, and root cause resolution.Improve application stability, performance, crash rates, observability, and overall customer experience.Mentor engineers and provide technical guidance across internal and external teams.Break down large initiatives into epics, stories, technical tasks, and sprint-ready deliverables.Drive adoption of best practices including automated testing, CI/CD, feature flags, reusable components, and release governance.Partner with leadership and vendor management to identify performance gaps, improve delivery practices, and support remediation efforts.Support AI-assisted SDLC adoption, including test generation, documentation, code scaffolding, defect analysis, and release readiness, while maintaining strong engineering oversight and governance.Required Qualifications7+ years of professional software engineering experience with a strong focus on mobile application development.3+ years of experience leading technical delivery, mentoring engineers, or serving as a senior technical owner.Strong hands-on experience with React Native, JavaScript, TypeScript, and mobile application development for iOS and Android.Experience building and supporting customer-facing mobile applications at scale.Strong understanding of:Mobile architectureState managementAPI integrationsApplication performance optimizationOffline and error handling strategiesPush notificationsDeep linkingMobile UX best practicesExperience with REST and/or GraphQL integrations.Experience with Git-based workflows, pull request reviews, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and Agile/Scrum methodologies.Experience supporting application releases, app store submission processes, production issue resolution, and release readiness activities.Experience working with offshore engineering teams, vendor partners, or distributed delivery models.Ability to drive technical execution through both internal and external engineering resources.Proven ability to hold partner teams accountable for quality, timelines, engineering standards, defect resolution, and release commitments.Strong collaboration skills across Product, Design, QA, API, Web, Architecture, and vendor teams.Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts and tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.Proven success operating in fast-paced, multi-product or multi-brand environments.Preferred QualificationsExperience with e-commerce, digital ordering, retail, loyalty, payments, promotions, location services, or customer-facing transactional platforms.Experience supporting white-label or multi-brand mobile application platforms.Native iOS and/or Android development experience using Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin, or Java.Experience with mobile CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions, Fastlane, CodePush, Expo, or similar platforms.Experience with observability, crash analytics, performance monitoring, and production support tools.Experience with automated mobile testing frameworks such as Detox, Appium, Maestro, WDIO, Playwright, Jest, or similar.Experience with:Universal linksDeep linksPush notificationsGeolocation servicesDigital wallet integrationsThird-party SDK integrationsExperience leading offshore vendor delivery within staff augmentation, managed services, or hybrid delivery models.Experience improving engineering practices related to code review discipline, release governance, regression testing readiness, defect management, estimation, and sprint execution.Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or similar technologies with appropriate engineering governance.