Updated October 2026
A strong startup mobile engineer job description names the platform you have already chosen, native Swift and Kotlin or cross-platform React Native or Flutter, and says whether the hire owns iOS, Android or both. It lists outcomes for releases, crash rate and offline behaviour, keeps must-haves to six, and shows salary and equity ranges.
Make the platform call before you write the job. Swift, Kotlin, React Native and Flutter engineers are largely separate candidate pools, and a JD that says "help us choose our stack" gets whoever applies first, who then picks the stack they already know.
Our illustrative example: a Seed-stage delivery startup hiring its first mobile engineer for a driver app. Drivers lose signal in car parks, most carry Android phones, and a contractor built a React Native prototype last year.
Copy-and-paste mobile engineer job description
About [Company]
[Company] builds [one sentence on the product] for [who uses the app]. We raised [round] from [investors] in [month, year]. We are [number] people, [number] of them engineers.
The role
We're hiring our [first / second] mobile engineer to own the [Company] app on [iOS and Android]. We build in [Swift and Kotlin / React Native / Flutter] because [one-line reason]. You'll report to [name, title].
What you'll do in your first 6 months
- Ship [feature] to both stores by [month], then release every [two / four] weeks.
- Get crash-free sessions to [X]% and keep them there.
- Make [core flow] work with no signal and sync cleanly when it returns.
- Set up push notifications users control, and measure which they act on.
- Own the release process from build pipeline to staged rollout.
What you'll bring
- You've shipped and maintained an app real users relied on.
- Production experience with [Swift / Kotlin / React Native / Flutter], plus enough native tooling to fix a failed build.
- You've recovered from a rejected submission or a bad release.
- Offline-first experience: local storage and sync.
- Comfort agreeing API versioning with backend engineers.
- You've worked in a team of [X to Y] engineers.
Nice to have
- [In-app payments / maps and location / Bluetooth].
- Accessibility work with VoiceOver and TalkBack.
- Some backend experience in [language].
What we offer
- Salary: [£/$/€ X to Y].
- Equity: [X% to Y%] in [options / shares], [vesting schedule].
- [Remote / hybrid, X days in City], with test devices for both platforms.
- Stage: [Seed / Series A / Series B]. [Benefits].
Prefer to start from notes? Try the free job description builder. Our mobile engineer interview questions test each scorecard row below.
In the delivery example, the role line becomes "We build in React Native, Android first, iOS by [month]." That sentence filters out most wrong applicants.
How a mobile engineer job description changes by stage
| Seed | Series A | Series B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform scope | Both, one person | Both; the second hire specialises | One platform per engineer |
| Release ownership | Everything, including store listings | Sets up CI, beta tracks, staged rollouts | Runs a release train others ship on |
| Quality bar | Crashes and the core flow offline | Crash-free rate, start-up time, ratings | Performance budgets and accessibility |
| Title to consider | Founding mobile engineer | Senior mobile engineer | Staff engineer or mobile lead |
Benchmark salary and equity against current data for your market.
Scorecard: how you'll judge success
Offline sync gets its own row in the delivery example, because a lost confirmation costs money.
| Outcome | What good looks like at 12 months | How you'll test it in interviews |
|---|---|---|
| Release rhythm | Regular releases, staged rollout every time, no weekend firefights | Walk through their last bad release |
| Stability | Crash-free sessions at [X]%, top crashes triaged weekly | Hand them a real crash report from your app |
| Offline behaviour | Core flow works without signal, no duplicate syncs | Work sample against a flaky API |
| Notifications | Permission asked at a sensible moment; the team knows what users act on | Ask when they would request permission |
| Cross-team work | Backend changes never break older app versions | Ask about users who never update |
You cannot hot-fix a binary. Old versions stay on phones for months, and candidates who have lived with that plan releases differently.
30-60-90 day plan
| Days | Focus | By the end they should have |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 30 | Ship one small fix through the store, read crash logs, ride along with a driver | A written list of top crashes and offline gaps |
| 31 to 60 | Set up CI, beta tracks and crash alerts; fix the worst crash cluster | A steady release rhythm |
| 61 to 90 | Ship offline [core flow] behind a staged rollout | The core flow working without signal |
Mistakes founders make in mobile engineer job descriptions
Listing every framework. "React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin" says you haven't decided. Specialists skip the post and generalists apply.
Hiring a web engineer "with some React Native". The JavaScript transfers. Build tooling, memory limits on cheap phones and store review do not, so ask for one shipped app.
Keeping the second platform quiet. If one person owns both, say so. An iOS specialist who finds Android on their desk in month three starts looking elsewhere.
Where Funded.club fits
We've helped 500+ startups from Seed to Series D across North America, Europe and APAC, on a low fixed fee agreed upfront, averaging 6 to 9% of salary. Illustratively, a 20 to 25% contingency fee on a $140,000 hire is $28,000 to $35,000; our fixed fee in that band is $11,500 (see pricing).
One dedicated recruiter runs the search, with first screened candidates within 7 days. If we don't deliver a shortlist of at least 3 qualified candidates within 30 days, you can claim the advance back in full. Read how to hire a mobile engineer for a startup for the full process.
Frequently asked questions
Should a startup hire a native or cross-platform mobile engineer?
Decide from how much the app depends on device hardware and what your engineers already write. Hardware-heavy apps lean native; list-and-form apps built by a TypeScript team often suit React Native. Make the call before hiring.
Can one mobile engineer cover iOS and Android?
At Seed, usually yes, with React Native or Flutter or by letting one platform wait. Plan a second hire once both platforms compete for one person's week.
What should a mobile engineer own besides code?
The release: build pipeline, store submissions, staged rollouts and crash monitoring. Write that into the JD so nobody assumes another team handles it.
Worth a brief chat about your next hire? Book a free call.
Hiring after a funding round?
First candidates in 7 days. Fixed-fee, no commission.