Mobile Team Tech Lead, London, Contractor

ION Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Lab49 is seeking a Mobile Team Tech Lead to own the technical direction of client engagements, design systems, and guide a high‑performing team. This on‑site role involves leading mobile initiatives for premium financial clients, with direct stakeholder interaction and a focus on onboarding, account management, and money movement.

You will mentor engineers, drive best practices, and ensure high‑quality outcomes while occasionally contributing code. London or Birmingham office, 5 days/week.

Qualifications

• 10-12+ years of experience designing and building complex, commercial‑grade software systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, deliver, and test iOS and Android applications.
• Lead architectural decisions and mentor engineers.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure technically sound, business-aligned solutions.

Skills

Swift

SwiftUI

UIKit

SwiftData

Concurrency (async/await)

RESTful APIs

CI/CD pipelines

Mobile UI/UX

Team leadership

Agile

Tools

Xcode

Android/Kotlin (bonus)

Job description

Lab49 is an award-winning specialist consultancy that creates bespoke technology in partnership with the most important companies in finance. We were founded in 2002 to bring Silicon Valley solutions to Wall Street’s door. Since then, we have worked on successive waves of technological change, including distributed computing, high-speed automation, enterprise UX and digital distribution (for which Lab49 was among the first significant practices established on Wall Street), DevOps, cloud and data science.

Today, we are an established partner in financial markets, having delivered hundreds of projects for clients including all the world’s tier-one investment banks and many of the largest buy-side firms globally.

Lab49 is currently looking for a Mobile Team Tech Lead who will play a critical role on key projects for Lab49 clients. Working in a collaborative and innovative project team, with direct client‑facing interactions, you will have an opportunity to apply your skills and expertise to design innovative applications that solve complex problems and enhance performance and productivity at our marquis clients. You will help build and modernize large‑scale consumer banking experiences, focusing on areas such as customer onboarding, account management, and money movement. As part of a greenfield initiative, you will lead the development of new mobile capabilities designed to support expansion into new markets and evolving regulatory requirements.

THE ROLE

As a Mobile Team Tech Lead at Lab49 you are a true project leader. You own the technical direction and delivery of client engagements while multiplying the effectiveness of the engineers around you.

This is a hands‑on leadership role. You will design systems, write code when it matters most, guide architectural decisions, and ensure the team delivers high‑quality outcomes even when you are not directly contributing code.

You will work closely with client stakeholders, designers, product partners, and Lab49 leadership to ensure solutions are technically sound, aligned with business objectives, and delivered with excellence.

This is an on‑site role. 5 days/week at the office in London or Birmingham, UK

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

• Design, implement, deliver, and test innovative iOS and Android applications while understanding our products from both a technical and product perspective in the context of our client’s business.
• Actively contribute to the adoption of strong software architecture, engineering best practices, and new technologies. We are always improving the process of building software; we’ll need your help to do that.
• Bring a passion to stay on top of tech trends.
• Experiment with and learn new technologies.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Your teams consistently deliver high‑quality software that meets user and client objectives.
• Engineers around you become more autonomous, capable, and effective because of your leadership.
• Clients trust your judgment and rely on you for technical direction and clarity.
• You demonstrate strong ownership of outcomes, proactively addressing risks before they become issues.
• You can step away from day‑to‑day coding when needed without compromising delivery quality or team performance.

WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE

• 10-12+ years of experience designing and building complex, commercial‑grade software systems, with 4+ years leading Agile teams
• Proficiency in Swift and experience with native iOS development tools such as SwiftUI, UIKit, SwiftData, Swift Concurrency (async/await)
• Experience in consumer banking including account management and onboarding.
• Familiarity with integrating RESTful APIs and third‑party libraries
• Experience with agile development methodologies
• Knowledge of continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines for mobile applications
• Understanding of mobile UI/UX principles and best practices to create intuitive and engaging user experiences
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

BONUS POINTS

• Exposure or hands‑on experience with native Android development with Kotlin using tools like Jetpack Compose, Kotlin Coroutines, MVI
• Experience in fraud management/KYC/AML and regulatory reporting
• Experience using on device biometrics for authentication
• A strong portfolio of released applications on the App Store
• Experience with AppConfig community standards and enterprise app distribution
• College degree in Computer Science or related field of study or equivalent experience
• Leverage AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Claude Code, Copilot) to improve team velocity and code quality, and help the team adopt them responsibly

WHY LAB49

At Lab49, you’ll work on complex, meaningful challenges alongside talented engineers, designers, and consultants. You’ll gain exposure to a wide range of technologies, business domains, and client environments while continuing to grow your career.

We value curiosity, judgment, and ownership. If you care about quality, enjoy helping others succeed, and want your work to have a meaningful impact, Lab49 is a place where you can thrive.

INCLUSION & EQUALITY

Lab49/ION is committed to maintaining a supportive and inclusive environment for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We respect the varied identities, abilities, cultures, and traditions of the individuals who comprise our organization and recognize the value that different backgrounds and points of view bring to our business.

Lab49/ION adheres to an equal employment opportunity policy that prohibits discriminatory practices or harassment against applicants or employees based on any legally impermissible factor.