Senior Android Platform Engineer

Katalyst CRO; Dearborn (MI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Katalyst CRO is seeking an experienced Android Full-Stack Engineer to join our platform stability team. You will diagnose, debug, and resolve complex Android stability issues spanning the entire Android stack, working deep within framework internals to ensure robustness across version upgrades.

This hands-on role requires solving the hardest, least-understanding problems in the Android ecosystem and providing technical direction for ambiguous challenges while maintaining platform reliability.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on Android platform/framework development experience.
• Design and develop middleware and Android background services exposing interfaces to apps.
• Proven track record resolving complex, low-level Android stability issues.
• Experience contributing to or modifying AOSP source code.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop middleware and Android background services for platform-level functionality.
• Debug and reverse-engineer complex issues from AOSP source code.
• Own overall Android platform stability and reliability across releases.
• Diagnose and fix bugs in system server components (Activity Manager, Window Manager, Package Manager, etc.).
• Address and resolve Android upgrade and integration issues across releases.
• Provide root-cause analysis for hard-to-reproduce issues and guide other engineers.

Skills

Kotlin

C++

Java

Job description

Position Description

We are seeking an experienced Android Full-Stack Engineer to join our platform stability team. In this role, you will be responsible for diagnosing, debugging, and resolving complex Android stability issues spanning the entire Android stackboth above (System Partition) and below (Vendor Partition) the Treble boundary. You will work deep within Android framework internals, reverse-engineering issues from source code, providing technical direction for ambiguous problems, and ensuring overall platform robustness across Android version upgrades. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who thrives on solving the hardest, least-understanding problems in the Android ecosystem.

Position Description

We are seeking an experienced Android Full-Stack Engineer to join our platform stability team. In this role, you will be responsible for diagnosing, debugging, and resolving complex Android stability issues spanning the entire Android stackboth above (System Partition) and below (Vendor Partition) the Treble boundary. You will work deep within Android framework internals, reverse-engineering issues from source code, providing technical direction for ambiguous problems, and ensuring overall platform robustness across Android version upgrades. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who thrives on solving the hardest, least-understanding problems in the Android ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop middleware and Android background services for platform-level functionality
• Debug and reverse-engineer complex issues directly from Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) source code Own overall Android platform stability and reliability
• Resolve Android upgrade and integration issues across releases
• Diagnose and fix bugs in system server components (Activity Manager, Window Manager, Package Manager, etc.), Car Service, and Surface Flinger
• Investigate and resolve black screen, boot failure, and ANR (Application Not Responding) issues 6. Resolve and provide technical direction and root-cause analysis for unknown or hard-to-reproduce issues
• Address and resolve compliance test failures across CTS, VTS, ATS, and STS

Primary Skills Required:

Kotlin, C++ and Java

Experience Required:

• 3+ years of hands-on Android platform/framework development experience.
• Proven experience in designing and developing middleware and Android background services (long-running/foreground service) that expose feature-rich interfaces (AIDL/Binder, APIs) to applications.
• Demonstrated track record of resolving complex, low-level Android stability issues.
• Experience contributing to or modifying AOSP source code
• Proven experience working across the full Android stack (framework, native services, vendor layers)

Additional Experience Preferred:

• Experience with Android Automotive OS (AAOS) and Car Service.
• Familiarity with HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) and vendor integration.
• Experience with CTS, VTS, ATS, and STS compliance frameworks.
• Knowledge of Android graphics stack and display subsystems
• Experience with native debugging tools (gdb, lldb, perfetto, systrace, logcat analysis).
• Familiarity with Android build systems (Soong/Make) and partition architecture.
• Experience working with SoC/silicon vendors on platform bring-up

Additional Context For Suppliers:

• This role requires a deep-dive, problem-solving mindset and the ability to operate independently on ambiguous, high-impact issues.
• The ideal candidate is comfortable being the technical authority for the most challenging stability problems and can provide direction for other engineers.
• Experience in the automotive or embedded Android domain is a strong plus given to our focus on system server, car service and platform stability.