Principal Mobile Engineer

Principal Android Engineer (Hands-on Technical Authority)

Location: Dublin

Working Arrangement: 2-3 days onsite.

Salary: TBC

Type: Contract or Perm

We’re hiring a true Principal Android Engineer, not a Senior Engineer stepping up, and not a delivery-focused Tech Lead. This role needs someone already operating at Principal level, with clear ownership of technical direction beyond a single team.

What “Principal” means here:

You will be the hands-on technical authority for Android/platform decisions, with the ability to:

• Define non-negotiable architectural guardrails
• Drive long-term platform strategy (not just delivery)
• Influence multiple squads and senior stakeholders
• Make and defend trade-off decisions under ambiguity

This is not a people management role.

We are looking for people with a proven background with:

Architecture & technical depth

• Proven ownership of large-scale Android architectures (not just participation)
• Strong experience with:
• Low-level Android design
• Performance, memory, threading, lifecycle, reliability
• Non-functional requirements: scalability, resilience, observability, security
• Clear examples of architectural decisions you personally drove (including rationale and trade-offs)

Strategic technical leadership

• Proactively sets technical direction (not “we’ll fix it later”)
• Defines standards, guardrails, platform-wide conventions
• Experience governing APIs, contracts, shared libraries across teams
• Comfortable challenging product/engineering decisions when needed

Communication & influence

• Clear, concise communication with senior stakeholders
• Can explain complex technical decisions to non-technical audiences
• Demonstrated influence beyond your immediate team/squad

Operating model

• Autonomous, self-directed, comfortable with ambiguity
• Thinks in systems/platforms, not tickets/sprints
• Evidence of shaping engineering culture (not just following it)

What won’t progress

Profiles won’t progress if they mainly show:

• Senior Engineer / Tech Lead execution without principal-level ownership
• Delivery management or people leadership focus
• Architecture participation without clear ownership
• Managerial framing of technical questions
• Reactive optimisation instead of proactive design

This is an excellent opportunity to work on one of the largest transformation projects in the country, you will put your stamp on a major change for a leading Irish brand.

Interested?

Apply with a CV/LinkedIn profile that highlights architecture ownership, platform strategy, and cross-team influence