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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Lead iOS Developer

💰 $150,000 - $220,000

EngineeringMobile DevelopmentSoftware DevelopmentTechnology

🎯 Role Definition

Are you ready to take the helm of a talented iOS team and shape the direction of a product used by millions? This role requires an inspiring and technically-astute Lead iOS Developer to drive innovation, mentor fellow engineers, and architect the next generation of our iOS application. In this pivotal role, you will be the technical authority for our iOS platform, balancing hands-on coding with strategic leadership. You'll collaborate closely with product, design, and backend teams to translate vision into a reality, ensuring our application is scalable, performant, and delightful to use. If you have a passion for building beautiful, robust mobile experiences and a desire to lead and elevate a team, we want to hear from you.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior iOS Developer
  • Principal iOS Engineer
  • Senior Software Engineer (with extensive mobile focus)

Advancement To:

  • Engineering Manager (Mobile)
  • Staff / Principal Engineer
  • Director of Mobile Engineering

Lateral Moves:

  • Solutions Architect
  • Technical Product Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead the architectural design and technical direction of our iOS application, making key decisions on frameworks, libraries, and patterns to ensure long-term scalability and maintainability.
  • Provide hands-on technical mentorship and guidance to a team of iOS developers, fostering their growth through pair programming, constructive code reviews, and career development discussions.
  • Author and contribute high-quality, elegant, and testable code in Swift for new features and improvements, setting the standard for the entire team.
  • Drive the technical roadmap for the iOS platform, collaborating with product managers and stakeholders to define and prioritize engineering initiatives.
  • Champion and enforce best practices for code quality, testing, and performance, establishing a culture of excellence and continuous improvement.
  • Conduct thorough, insightful code reviews to ensure code quality, share knowledge, and identify areas for improvement across the team.
  • Own the entire mobile application development lifecycle, from conceptualization and technical design through to development, testing, and release on the App Store.
  • Decompose complex product requirements into well-defined, actionable technical tasks and user stories for the development team.
  • Proactively identify and address performance bottlenecks, memory leaks, and other technical debt to ensure a smooth and responsive user experience.
  • Lead technical deep-dive sessions, architectural reviews, and decision-making forums within the mobile engineering group.
  • Spearhead the implementation and continuous improvement of our CI/CD pipelines using tools like Fastlane, Jenkins, or GitLab CI to automate builds, testing, and releases.
  • Act as the primary technical point of contact for the iOS platform, effectively communicating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Investigate, debug, and resolve complex production issues, demonstrating a systematic approach to problem-solving under pressure.
  • Partner closely with backend engineering teams to design, define, and evolve robust and efficient APIs tailored for mobile consumption.
  • Ensure our application meets high standards of accessibility (WCAG), localization, and internationalization to serve a diverse global user base.
  • Evaluate, prototype, and recommend new technologies, SDKs, and tools to keep our platform modern and enhance developer productivity.
  • Manage the App Store submission process, including certificates, provisioning profiles, and compliance with Apple's guidelines.
  • Collaborate with UX/UI designers to translate wireframes and high-fidelity mockups into polished, pixel-perfect, and intuitive user interfaces using SwiftUI and UIKit.
  • Foster a collaborative and inclusive team environment where all members feel empowered to contribute their ideas and grow professionally.
  • Develop comprehensive technical documentation for architectural decisions, complex systems, and onboarding processes to support team alignment and knowledge sharing.
  • Lead agile ceremonies for the mobile team, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives, to ensure predictable and efficient delivery.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Expert-Level Swift: Deep, idiomatic understanding of the Swift language, including the latest features like async/await and Swift Concurrency.
  • Modern iOS Frameworks: Extensive hands-on experience with SwiftUI and Combine for building declarative, reactive user interfaces.
  • Architectural Patterns: Proven ability to design and implement scalable mobile architectures such as MVVM, VIPER, or Clean Architecture.
  • Testing & Quality: Mastery of testing frameworks like XCTest for creating robust unit, integration, and UI tests.
  • Persistence & Data: Strong knowledge of data persistence strategies using Core Data, Realm, or SwiftData.
  • CI/CD & Automation: Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with tools like Fastlane, Jenkins, CircleCI, or GitLab CI.
  • Performance Tuning: Proficiency with Instruments and other profiling tools to diagnose and resolve performance, memory, and battery consumption issues.
  • API Integration: Deep experience working with RESTful APIs and a solid understanding of GraphQL principles.
  • Dependency Management: Fluency with Swift Package Manager (SPM) and familiarity with CocoaPods.
  • App Store Lifecycle: Complete understanding of the App Store Connect portal, including the entire submission, review, and release process.

Soft Skills

  • Technical Leadership & Mentorship: A natural ability to guide, inspire, and develop other engineers.
  • Exceptional Communication: The skill to articulate complex technical ideas clearly to diverse audiences, both written and verbal.
  • Strategic & Critical Thinking: The capacity to see the bigger picture, anticipate future challenges, and make sound, long-term technical decisions.
  • Product-Oriented Mindset: A strong sense of user empathy and a passion for building products that solve real-world problems.
  • Collaboration & Teamwork: A proven track record of working effectively in cross-functional teams with product, design, and QA.
  • Problem-Solving: An analytical and persistent approach to troubleshooting complex technical issues.
  • Pragmatism & Prioritization: The ability to balance technical perfection with business needs and delivery timelines.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical work experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s Degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 7+ years of professional experience in iOS development, with at least 2-3 years in a Senior or Lead capacity.

Preferred:

  • A demonstrable portfolio of high-quality, successful applications available on the Apple App Store that you have significantly contributed to or led. Proven experience guiding a mobile project through its entire lifecycle, from initial concept to launch and subsequent iterations.
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