Senior Mobile Developer (Contract)

Cardata; United States; Remote; USD 96,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work and flexible hours

Mentorship and development

Extended medical & dental benefits

Healthcare spending account

Health and Wellness Spending Account

Employee assistance program

Unlimited time off

Job summary

Cardata is hiring a Senior Developer with deep mobile expertise for a three-month contract with potential extension or full-time. You will prototype end-to-end experiences, validate with customers, and iterate rapidly from V1 onward, balancing speed with security and data integrity.

You will work with a small, autonomous team to turn ambiguous problems into testable bets, then harden and scale the solution for handoff to the core product and engineering teams.

Qualifications

• 6-8 years of software engineering at senior level with startup/fast-paced experience.
• Proven ability to ship from nothing, trim scope under time pressure, and deliver.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and turning under-specified problems into progress.
• Strong product thinker linking driver/administrator needs to technical choices.
• Excellent communication and ownership with transparent trade-offs.

Responsibilities

• Turn ambiguous problems into a unified driver-and-admin prototype.
• Build the smallest end-to-end prototype in 1–2 weeks.
• Refine prototypes based on customer feedback to V2/V3 and beyond.
• Cut scope when needed and iterate on secure, scalable design.
• Prepare features for handoff to core product and engineering teams.
• Collaborate with Product Manager and Web Developer on validation.

Skills

React Native

Swift (iOS)

Kotlin (Android)

Mobile development

REST APIs

Security & privacy

Prototyping

Product thinking

Communication

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Git

Job description

Cardata is where driven people make an outsized impact. We're a small but mighty team transforming how businesses manage vehicle reimbursement - replacing outdated programs with smart, automated solutions.

Our vision is bold: to provide the most comprehensive, intelligent, and automated software and services for creating ideal vehicle programs. And we're building toward that vision every single day.

Join us and you'll find challenge, growth, and the chance to deliver real impact - helping hundreds of companies and thousands of drivers across North America focus on the work that matters most to them.

We're hiring a Senior Developer with deep mobile expertise for a small, self-contained innovation group (Initial three-month contract, with opportunity for extension or move to full-time). Working alongside a Product Manager and a web-focused developer, you will take an ambiguous business problem, turn it into a testable product bet, and build the smallest end-to-end experience that can generate meaningful evidence, often in roughly one to two weeks. You will bring early versions back to customers and the market validation group, gather feedback, and rapidly iterate through V1, V2, V3, and beyond. Once the concept is validated, the group will shift from proving the idea to determining what must change for it to become secure, reliable, scalable, and ready for handoff.

The group operates like an entrepreneurial startup within the larger organization and owns the path from problem discovery through rapid prototyping, customer and market validation, iterative development, and a validated proof of concept. From there, it determines what is required to harden and scale the product before handing it to the core product and engineering team.

The operating principle is simple: build to learn first, then build to scale. During validation, speed comes from controlling scope and making deliberate, reversible technical choices—not from designing the final production architecture before the opportunity is proven. Security, privacy, and responsible data handling remain non-negotiable throughout. Once an idea demonstrates value, you will work with our Core team at key technical integration points to harden, refactor, or redesign what is needed for scale. That judgment lets us discard weak ideas cheaply and invest deeply in the ones that earn it.

This is a fit for someone with strong product and commercial instincts, sound technical judgment, and a high degree of ownership. You identify gaps, propose a path forward, and keep momentum without waiting for perfect requirements. You own outcomes, make clear trade-offs to meet timelines, and raise consequential risks early.

What you'll do:

• Work with the Project Lead, Product Manager and Web Developer to turn ambiguous problems into unified driver-and-admin experiences
• Build the smallest end-to-end prototype that can test the idea, often within one to two weeks
• Bring prototypes to customers and the market validation group, then rapidly translate feedback into V2, V3, and beyond
• Challenge assumptions, cut scope, and keep the group moving without waiting for perfect requirements
• Make deliberate, reversible technical choices during validation while protecting security, privacy, and data integrity
• Build within the shared codebase, behind feature flags and in isolated modules that can be removed cleanly
• Integrate with our platform backend and third-party APIs using existing contracts and patterns
• Once a concept is validated, identify and complete the work required to harden, scale, test, and release it
• Prepare validated features and technical context for a clean handoff to the core product and engineering team

What you'll bring:

Core Experience

• 6-8 years as a software engineer at a senior level, with a track record of product work at startups and in fast-paced environments
• You’ve built from nothing, cut scope under time pressure, and shipped
• Comfortable with ambiguity: you can take an unfamiliar domain and an under-specified problem and make progress without waiting to be handed a spec
• Strong product thinker who can connect driver and administrator needs, commercial value, and technical choices across mobile and web
• Strong communicator who identifies gaps, proposes a path forward, and keeps the work moving
• High ownership, sound judgment under time pressure, and a track record of delivering against commitments without hiding material trade-offs
• Comfortable working in a small, autonomous group where priorities can change quickly as new evidence emerges

Technical

• Very comfortable with React Native, plus native iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) development
• Familiar with the full mobile release process for both iOS and Android, including store submission and review
• Solid integrating against REST / backend APIs and handling auth, tokens, and SSO on device
• Comfortable collaborating across mobile, web, and backend boundaries to create one coherent product experience
• You adopt the existing patterns and conventions of the mobile codebase rather than introducing your own
• You know how to code and understand good software design. You are not strictly a "vibe coder": you can reason about architecture and trade-offs, not just prompt your way to output

AI-Native Mindset

• You've adopted modern AI development workflows and use tools like Cursor, Claude Code, or Copilot as part of how you ship
• You understand AI skills, agents, and code-spec workflows, and how to use them without losing engineering rigor
• You lean on AI to move faster on prototypes and to hold quality up during hardening

Bonus (nice to have)

• Ability to flex onto the Portal stack (TypeScript / Next.js / NestJS / PostgreSQL) when a bet calls for it

Why you'll love working at Cardata:

We'll be honest - Cardata isn't for everyone. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, take extreme ownership, and constantly push yourself (and your work) to be the best, you'll fit right in.

You'll be surrounded by driven teammates who genuinely care - about the work, about our customers, and about helping each other succeed. Together, we take on ambitious goals and celebrate the wins along the way.

What we offer in return for you bringing your best:

• Remote work and flexible working hours
• Mentorship and development opportunities (to help you achieve your career goals!)
• Extended medical & dental benefits
• Healthcare spending account
• $3,000 annual Health and Wellness Spending Account to support your overall wellbeing
• Employee assistance program (EAP)
• Flexible (Unlimited) Time Off: No annual cap on vacation, supported by a trust-based, flexible approach to time away.

Cardata is an equal opportunity employer. All candidates will be equally considered without regard to race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, physical and/or mental handicap or financial ability. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome to bring their authentic selves to work.

If you require accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know.