Android Engineer - Community

Substack; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Substack is looking for an experienced Android Developer in San Francisco. You'll work on the core Android app, enhancing features and interfaces for our creators while engaging with a diverse team. The ideal candidate has at least 5 years of experience in mobile software engineering, particularly with native Android apps and Kotlin. The salary range for this role is competitive, between $140,000 and $260,000, depending on experience and skills. Join us in building a better business model for creators.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of native mobile software engineering experience.
• Experience shipping high quality, native Android apps to the App Store.
• Ability to work independently and autonomously.

Responsibilities

• Develop in the core Android app for creators and their audiences.
• Contribute to product discussions regarding Substack community experiences.
• Iterate on key flows in the mobile apps and run A/B tests.
• Collaborate with diverse teams, from product concept to implementation.
• Work directly with customers to solve their problems.

Skills

Kotlin

Mobile development

A/B testing

UI/UX design collaboration

Customer support engagement

Job description

Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. The terms of our culture should not be set by gate‑keeping legacy media or chaos‑fueling social media, but by the people who actually make and participate in that culture. Substack’s model, based on direct subscriptions, has fueled an explosion of independent publishing. It empowers creators with economic autonomy, creative ownership, and a direct connection to their most engaged audiences.

About The Community Team

We’re working on the next frontier of products and features to help Substack creators connect and manage their community. This ranges from DMs to Substack Chat to entirely new products.

Our team brainstorms with the CEO, Chris Best, and each engineer contributes ideas for new products and UI/UX upgrades to existing products. Ultimately those ideas become internal prototypes, and then become products shipped to our millions of users.

We’re a small team of generalists, so we especially value an interest in working across our tech stack, willingness to prototype, and product‑mindfulness. You’d be the Android leader on this team, so code review, mentorship and thoughtful technical architecting will also be key pieces of this role.

Responsibilities

• Develop in the core Android app for creators and their audiences.
• Contribute to high level product and brainstorming discussions around Substack community experiences.
• Iterate on key flows in the Substack mobile apps and web platform, and run A/B tests.
• Collaborate with designers, writers, support staff, and many others. From product concept and research to implementation, experimentation, and measurement, we expect you to own your work and deliver high-quality solutions.
• Work directly with customers to solve their problems. The entire company (CEO included) participates in customer support in order to drive empathy for our users and help us build better products.

Requirements

• At least 5+ years of native mobile software engineering experience.
• Experience shipping high quality, native Android apps to the App Store, with expertise in Kotlin.
• Independent and autonomous. We’re too small to micromanage, and expect that every person at the company owns their work and can be a leader.
• Hold yourself and others to a high standard when working on production systems.
• Take pride in building elegant and delightful product experiences. Substack works best when it gets out of the way so creators can focus on writing and connecting with their readers.
• Enjoy collaboration with a diverse group of thinkers while bringing our own unique experience and background to the team.
• Believe in Substack’s mission to build a better business model for writing.
• Experience at a fast‑growing startup or working on a high‑performing growth team is not required, but is a plus.

Substack’s compensation package includes a market competitive salary, equity for all full‑time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $140,000 - $260,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.

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