Senior Android Developer SDK Development

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI); Hyderabad; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) seeks a Senior Android Developer to lead the design, development, and security-focused evolution of Android SDKs within its R&D function. You will shape secure mobile architectures, drive tokenization, encryption, and safe device interactions while guiding a team of engineers across multiple Android platform components.

The role emphasizes leadership, secure SDLC practices, and collaboration with product, security, and compliance teams to deliver

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software development experience with Android
• Proven experience in Android SDK/library development
• Security-focused Android engineering experience in regulated ecosystems
• Prior leadership/technical lead experience preferred

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end Android SDK design, development, and maintenance
• Drive secure mobile development across key components (Keystore, tokenization, encryption)
• Prototype and evaluate emerging mobile tech in NPCI R&D
• Mentor Android team and govern architecture, quality, and delivery
• Ensure performance, memory efficiency, and reliability across devices and OS versions
• Own documentation, testing strategies, and release governance

Skills

Java

Kotlin

Android SDK

Security engineering

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/IT/EC

Tools

Android Studio

Gradle

Keystore/Attestation tooling

Job description

Role Overview

NPCI is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Android Developer to lead the design, development, and enhancement of Android-based SDKs and security-focused mobile platform capabilities within its R&D function. This role will be responsible for building robust, scalable, secure, and developer-friendly Android SDK components that support next-generation digital payment, authentication, and mobile ecosystem initiatives.

The position requires strong expertise in Android platform internals, SDK architecture, mobile security, cryptographic integrations, secure transaction flows, and enterprise-grade software engineering practices. As a Team Leader, the role also includes technical leadership, mentoring, architecture governance, cross-functional coordination, and ownership of delivery quality across SDK and security workstreams.

Key Responsibilities

1) SDK Architecture, Design, and Development

• Lead the end-to-end design and development of Android SDKs, reusable libraries, APIs, and framework components for payment, authentication, device interaction, and mobile service enablement.
• Define clean, modular, scalable, and backward-compatible SDK architectures suitable for integration by internal teams, partner banks, fintechs, merchants, OEMs, or ecosystem participants as applicable.
• Develop developer-friendly SDK interfaces, abstraction layers, and integration models that simplify adoption while maintaining strict performance and security standards.
• Ensure SDKs are robust across multiple Android OS versions, device types, OEM customizations, and deployment environments.
• Establish standards for SDK versioning, dependency management, release control, and long-term maintainability.

2) Security Engineering and Secure Mobile Development

• Drive implementation of security-first mobile application and SDK design practices across all Android development work.
• Design and develop security-sensitive components involving:
  • secure key handling
  • device binding
  • tokenization support
  • encryption/decryption workflows
  • secure storage
  • certificate handling
  • tamper detection
  • runtime integrity checks
  • app hardening techniques
  • secure communication and API protection
• Integrate Android security capabilities such as:
  • Android Keystore
  • hardware-backed security where available
  • biometric authentication
  • secure device authentication
  • attestation mechanisms
  • permission and sandboxing controls
• Conduct secure code reviews and enforce remediation of vulnerabilities identified through internal testing or external assessments.
• Support design and implementation of controls aligned to payment-grade and regulated ecosystem requirements.

3) Research & Development Responsibilities

• Work within the NPCI R&D function to prototype and evaluate emerging mobile technologies relevant to secure payments, digital identity, authentication, embedded financial services, and future Android platform capabilities.
• Assess new Android OS features, APIs, security models, NFC interactions, device capabilities, and OEM variations for potential use in strategic product or infrastructure initiatives.
• Translate exploratory concepts into production-ready engineering artifacts, reusable SDK modules, and architectural recommendations.
• Contribute to technical innovation in areas such as:
  • contactless and NFC-based ecosystems
  • secure mobile transaction flows
  • SDK-based ecosystem enablement
  • trusted execution and integrity validation
  • future-ready authentication and device-side controls

4) Team Leadership and Technical Governance

• Lead a team of Android developers within the R&D setup, providing hands‑on technical guidance and delivery oversight.
• Break down product and research goals into technical work packages, development plans, milestones, and sprint deliverables.
• Mentor team members on Android architecture, secure development lifecycle practices, coding standards, testing frameworks, and debugging approaches.
• Review designs, code quality, architecture decisions, and implementation patterns to ensure consistency, security, and maintainability.
• Drive engineering discipline across documentation, reusable assets, issue tracking, release governance, and technical risk management.
• Collaborate with product, architecture, backend, security, compliance, QA, and partner teams to align engineering execution with business and ecosystem goals.

5) Integration, Performance, and Reliability

• Ensure developed SDKs and applications meet high standards of:
  • performance
  • memory efficiency
  • startup latency
  • battery optimization
  • reliability under varied network/device conditions
• Troubleshoot complex production and integration issues across Android devices, OS versions, and partner application environments.
• Build instrumentation, logging, diagnostics, and observability support into SDKs to facilitate integration and support.
• Optimize compatibility with enterprise distribution requirements and controlled deployment environments.

6) Quality, Compliance, and Documentation

• Own technical documentation for SDK architecture, public APIs, integration guides, sample applications, security controls, release notes, and troubleshooting references.
• Ensure adherence to secure SDLC, coding standards, release validation, and quality assurance processes.
• Partner with internal security and compliance stakeholders to support reviews, audits, certifications, and control validation where required.
• Define and maintain automated testing approaches including unit tests, instrumentation tests, integration tests, and regression frameworks.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics, or related discipline from a recognized institution.

Experience

• 10+ years of overall software development experience with significant hands‑on expertise in Android development.
• Proven experience in Android SDK/library development, not only application‑level development.
• Demonstrated experience in security‑focused Android engineering, preferably in regulated, payment, fintech, banking, telecom, identity, or large‑scale platform environments.
• Prior experience leading engineering teams or acting as technical lead/team leader is strongly preferred.

Required Technical Skills

Android Development Expertise

• Strong proficiency in Java and Kotlin
• Deep understanding of:
  • Android SDK
  • Android framework components
  • services, broadcast receivers, content providers
  • app lifecycle and background execution models
  • AIDL/Binder/IPC concepts where relevant
  • multi-module Android architecture
• Experience building and publishing reusable Android SDKs/AARs/libraries
• Strong knowledge of Android build systems including Gradle
• Experience with Android debugging, profiling, and performance tuning tools

Security and Cryptography

• Strong understanding of secure mobile application design principles
• Experience with:
  • Android Keystore
  • key management practices
  • encryption standards and secure data handling
  • secure API communication
  • certificate pinning
  • authentication/authorization integration
  • app obfuscation and anti‑tamper approaches
  • root/jailbreak detection concepts where applicable
• Familiarity with mobile threat models, vulnerability classes, and mitigation techniques
• Knowledge of cryptographic concepts and practical implementation considerations in Android environments

SDK and Platform Engineering

• Experience designing public‑facing APIs and integration workflows for third‑party developers
• Ability to define SDK architecture for extensibility, maintainability, observability, and backward compatibility
• Experience with semantic versioning, dependency control, and release packaging for SDK consumption
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for Android libraries and controlled releases

Testing and Quality

• Experience with unit testing, integration testing, and automation frameworks for Android
• Experience with secure code review practices and static/dynamic analysis tools
• Familiarity with defect triage, reliability engineering, and issue root‑cause analysis

Preferred Skills / Desirable Experience

• Experience in payments, digital transactions, mobile banking, cardless/payments acceptance, authentication, or regulated transaction ecosystems
• Exposure to NFC, secure contactless interactions, tokenized transactions, or device‑based payment enablement
• Familiarity with backend/API integration patterns in secure mobile ecosystems
• Awareness of OEM customizations, device compatibility concerns, and enterprise mobility constraints
• Experience working in R&D, innovation labs, standards‑driven environments, or platform engineering teams
• Understanding of compliance‑oriented development expectations in high‑trust transaction systems
• Exposure to white‑box cryptography, attestation, HCE, secure elements, or trusted hardware concepts would be an advantage

Leadership Competencies

• Strong technical leadership and ownership mindset
• Ability to lead by example through hands‑on engineering contribution
• Clear decision‑making on architecture, trade‑offs, and delivery prioritization
• Ability to mentor and develop high‑performing engineering teams
• Strong stakeholder management and cross‑functional collaboration skills
• High attention to detail, especially in security, quality, and regulatory sensitivity
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Key Deliverables

• Secure, scalable, and maintainable Android SDKs for strategic NPCI initiatives
• Security‑hardened Android components aligned with payment ecosystem expectations
• Technical architecture and implementation guidance for R&D mobile initiatives
• High‑quality documentation and integration artifacts for internal/external developers
• Well‑governed engineering execution across design, coding, testing, and release cycles
• A technically strong and well‑mentored Android development team

Success Measures

• Timely delivery of SDK and security engineering milestones
• SDK stability, integration ease, and compatibility across target Android environments
• Reduction in security vulnerabilities and improved security posture of mobile components
• Code quality, test coverage, and maintainability of delivered components
• Effectiveness of technical leadership, team productivity, and engineering maturity
• Adoption readiness of SDKs for internal and ecosystem integration use cases