Senior Technical Lead — React Native (iOS + Android)

Role Overview

We're looking for the engineer who owns mobile, not just React Native screens.

You'll be the technical lead responsible for Patrika's iOS and Android applications used by millions of readers. You'll own architecture, performance, releases, payments, subscriptions, deep linking, native platform integrations, and the engineering quality of the apps end to end.

This role requires someone who has already built and shipped production mobile apps at scale, understands both React Native and native iOS/Android development, and is comfortable making platform-level technical decisions.

What You'll Own

• Own the architecture and delivery of Patrika's React Native applications across iOS and Android.
• Build product features in React Native, and implement native functionality in Swift and Kotlin whenever React Native isn't enough.
• Design, build and maintain native modules and bridge native SDKs into React Native using the New Architecture where appropriate.
• Own app performance across startup time, scrolling performance, memory usage, rendering, bundle size, ANRs and crash-free sessions.
• Own payments and subscriptions across Google Play Billing and Apple StoreKit, including purchase lifecycle, renewals, restorations, receipts and policy compliance.
• Own deep links and navigation from Google Search, Google Discover, WhatsApp, email, push notifications and the web.
• Build resilient experiences for unreliable networks: offline reading, resumable downloads, caching, retries and graceful failure states.
• Own the mobile release pipeline: signing, TestFlight, Play Console, staged rollouts, OTA updates, crash monitoring and rollback decisions.
• Review code, mentor engineers and drive technical standards across the mobile codebase.

What We're Looking For

Must Have

• 5–8 years building production mobile applications.
• 3+ years building React Native applications in production.
• Strong hands-on experience writing Swift and Kotlin code in real production apps.
• Experience building custom native modules or integrating native SDKs into React Native.
• Strong TypeScript fundamentals with strict typing and maintainable architecture.

Scale Experience

We're specifically looking for engineers who have already worked on apps at meaningful production scale. They should be able to explain:

• Apps they've shipped that are currently live.
• Approximate MAUs, installs or traffic those apps handle.
• The parts of the app they personally owned.
• Performance or architecture challenges they solved at scale.

Native Platform Experience

Hands-on ownership of native mobile capabilities, including several of the following:

• Camera, media, background services and file handling.
• Push notifications and notification permissions.
• Authentication and secure storage.
• Deep linking, Universal Links and Android App Links.
• Location, permissions and platform-specific APIs.
• Native SDK integrations (analytics, ads, payments, media, attribution, etc.).

Payments & Subscriptions

Must have implemented and maintained production payment systems on both platforms. Experience with:

• Google Play Billing.
• Apple StoreKit / In-App Purchases.
• Subscription upgrades, downgrades and renewals.
• Receipt validation and purchase restoration.
• Handling billing edge cases and store policy changes.

Release Ownership

• Play Store and App Store release management.
• Signing, provisioning profiles and certificates.
• TestFlight and staged Play rollouts.
• Crash triage using tools like Firebase Crashlytics or Sentry.
• Rollback strategy and production incident handling.

You'll Stand Out If You Have

• Experience with Expo and migrating between Expo and bare React Native.
• Experience with TurboModules, JSI or the React Native New Architecture.
• Experience optimizing apps for low-memory Android devices.
• Experience leading a small mobile team or acting as the technical owner for a mobile application.

Who Isn't a Fit

• React Native developers who have never written production Swift or Kotlin.
• Engineers who only consume native SDKs through npm packages and have never bridged one themselves.
• Engineers who haven't owned payments, subscriptions or production releases.
• Engineers who haven't worked on live applications with significant production usage.
• Notice period longer than 15 days.

How You'll Work

• Remote (India), full-time contract.
• Immediate joiners preferred (0–15 day notice period).
• You'll be the technical owner of Patrika's mobile applications and work closely with product, design and backend engineering.