Android Engineer

The Wave; Remote; GBP 89,000 - 114,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial technology company is looking for an experienced engineer to build and enhance payment solutions in a collaborative environment. You will take full ownership of your projects, working closely with product teams and other engineers. Candidates should have at least 5 years of experience in software development, proficiency in Kotlin, and an eagerness to contribute to user-centric solutions. This position offers competitive compensation, benefits, and a remote work option.

Benefits

$1,200 yearly stipend for coworking meetups

Subsidized health insurance

Flexible vacation with generous time off

$10,000 annual charitable donation matching

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience with at least 2 years in Android applications.
• Experience using Kotlin + Jetpack Compose in published applications.
• Fluent in English; French is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Product to design and build features for internal tools.
• Investigate user feedback and resolve system bugs.
• Drive technical design discussions.

Skills

Proficient in Kotlin

Experience with Android development

Problem-solving skills

Team collaboration

Education

5+ years in software development

Tools

GraphQL

Postgres/CockroachDB

Kubernetes

Job description

We’re looking for an engineer who’s independent and excited about getting things done. You’ll be responsible for building and improving the ways people pay and access money with Wave. You’ll take ownership of every aspect of the process, starting with a deep comprehension of the problem, collaborating with Product and Engineering managers to identify the optimal solution for our users, leading the entire lifecycle of your project, and assisting the customer support team in resolving issues. You’ll be joining our Field Product team, responsible for building and maintaining the tools used by our field operators to drive user growth. Our to‑do list changes constantly, but here are some recent projects:

• Improved geo‑localisation of merchants.
• Re‑design of the Field App to match field operators behaviour.
• Supporting new country launches.
• Consolidating field operators on the same application.
• Improving permission management.

In This Role You’ll

• Collaborate with Product to design and build features for the tools used by our internal field operations teams.
• Investigate user feedback and resolve system bugs.
• Drive technical design discussions and direction.
• Actively pair with others and perform code reviews.
• Work closely with other Android engineers in the company to improve the way we do things, Reflexively ask yourself, “is this code the best way to make my users happy?”
• Push through hard problems without giving up.
• Enjoy helping other engineers on your team to improve their frontend skills.
• Are not afraid to take on complicated systems.
• Are excited to learn to do some amount of backend work or even branch out to doing Android work - we love folks who are keen to broaden their skill sets!
• Work to make things easier for the next engineer who will touch your code.
• Always try to improve as a programmer and colleague.

About Engineering at Wave

You’ll join an autonomous, cross‑functional team focused on a single area of Wave’s product. Each team is led by a product manager and mentored by a technical lead on the team. You’ll be responsible for your own frontend‑focused projects as well as supporting the other engineers on your team with the frontend parts of their projects. We organize things to give you as much ownership as possible so typically you’ll be in charge of your projects from planning through to release.

Our Stack (you Only Need Prior Experience With Your Frontend Stack, If You Need To Work With Anything Else We’ll Train You)

• backend: Python 3 (+ pyright)
• API layer: GraphQL
• Android frontend: Kotlin/Jetpack
• iOS frontend: Swift/SwiftUI
• web frontend: TypeScript/React
• database: Postgres/CockroachDB
• infrastructure: GCP / Terraform
• orchestration: Kubernetes

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience with minimum 2 years of it spent building Android applications.
• Experience using Kotlin + Jetpack Compose in a published app (professional or personal projects are fine).
• Fluent in English. French is a plus.

Mission Statement

In 2017, over half the population in Sub‑Saharan Africa had no bank account. That’s for good reason—the fees are too high, the closest branch can be miles away, and nobody takes cards. Without access to financial institutions, people are forced to keep their savings under the mattress. Small business owners rely on lenders who charge extortionate rates. Parents spend hours waiting in line to pay school fees in cash.

Our Mission

We’re solving this by building financial services that just work: no account fees, instantly available, and accepted everywhere. In places where electricity, water and roads don’t always work, you can still send money with Wave. In 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer‑to‑peer and business payments. Now, we have millions of users across 9 countries and are growing fast. Our goal is to make Africa the first cashless continent and that’s where you come in. How you’ll help us achieve it Wave is now the largest financial institution in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, with millions of users across 9 countries and are growing fast. And, we’re still in the early days of our product roadmap and potential impact on people’s everyday lives.

Company Status

Wave is now the largest financial institution in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, with millions of users across 9 countries and are growing fast.

Team Locations

• We have a rapidly growing in‑country team in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon plus remote team members spread across the world.

Our Culture

We’re deeply passionate about our mission of bringing radically affordable financial services to the people who need them most.

Autonomy

We foster autonomy for our employees. You’ll own your projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.

Funding

We raised the largest Series A in Africa in 2021. Our world‑class investors, include Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, and Partech Africa.

Y Combinator Ranking

We are on Y Combinator’s top companies by revenue.

EEO

Wave is an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Remote Requirement

This is a fully remote role. Candidates must be based in one of our talent hub countries (UK, Spain, Kenya and Ghana) or in one of our operating markets in Africa including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, or Burkina Faso.

Stipend

Wave provides a yearly $1,200 stipend to support coworking meetups with teammates.

Travel

Remote team members are expected to travel to our operational markets (e.g. Senegal or Côte d’Ivoire) at least once a year. Exceptions apply, but we’ve found this key to understanding our users and product.

Compensation

Our salaries are competitive and are calculated using a transparent formula. For this role, depending on your level and location, we offer a salary of up to $152,100 USD, plus a generous equity package.

Benefits

• Subsidized health insurance for you and your dependents and retirement contributions (both vary from country to country).
• 6 months of fully paid parental leave and subsidized fertility assistance.
• Flexible vacation, with most folks taking between 21‑30 days exclusive of statutory holidays.
• $10,000 annual charitable donation matching.