Senior Mobile Software Architect

National Public Radio, Inc.; Washington, Northern (District of Columbia, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

National Public Radio, Inc. seeks an experienced Software Architect to guide technology strategy across complex, multi-team initiatives and across platform services to client applications and data pipelines.

You will set architectural standards, drive secure and cost-aware designs, and mentor engineers while maintaining high-velocity delivery across NPR’s public media ecosystem. This remote-friendly role supports diverse engineering teams nationwide.

Qualifications

• 7+ years designing and leading architecture for complex multi-team platforms.
• Native mobile architecture expertise (iOS/Android) with Swift/Kotlin/Java/Obj-C.
• Designing high-traffic REST/GraphQL APIs and client-server patterns.
• Experience with media delivery, CDN configs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP).
• Data privacy/compliance (GDPR/CPRA) and cloud cost optimization in HA environments.
• CI/CD and automated testing with Git and modern pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement unified mobile & cross-platform architectures across native and cross-platform integrations.
• Lead personalization and content-delivery pipelines for high-traffic media experiences across owned & member networks.
• Set technical standards; evaluate builds vs vendors; introduce modern technologies.
• Provide oversight across cross-divisional roadmaps and OKR planning for multi-team initiatives.
• Establish governance on code, security, and performance; perform reviews.

Skills

Multi-Team System Architecture

Native Mobile Engineering

Scalable Platform & API Design

Media Delivery & Infrastructure

Data Privacy & Cost Optimization

CI/CD & Quality Automation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering

Job description

A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. The NPR audience values information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility – and our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide.

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

A Software Architect exemplifies technical expertise and excellence at NPR. Working alongside engineering leadership and cross-functional discipline teams, you will guide strategic technology decisions, design scalable solutions, and build robust pipelines, services, and tools that support NPR and our Member Station Network.

In this role, you will lead technology strategy across our most complex engineering initiatives—those impacting multiple product lines, distributed systems, and mobile platforms simultaneously. Responsible for end-to-end architecture from platform services to client applications and downstream data pipelines, you will balance system performance, developer velocity, data privacy, and cost-efficiency to deliver exceptional public media experiences at scale.

This is a union-represented role covered under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement with NABET-CWA DMU.

Responsibilities

Architectural Strategy & System Design

• Architect Unified Mobile & Cross-Platform Systems: Define and implement shared architectural patterns and modular design systems across native iOS and Android codebases and cross-platform integrations to maximize code reuse and development velocity.
• Design Scalable Personalization & Delivery Pipelines: Lead platform-to-client architecture for personalized content delivery, supporting high-traffic, localized media experiences across owned digital properties and member station networks.
• Drive Technology Standards & Evaluation: Conduct technical evaluations for custom builds versus vendor solutions; introduce modern technologies and establish architectural standards across divisions.
• Lead Multi-Team Engineering Initiatives: Provide technical oversight and direction across cross-divisional product roadmaps, project proposals, and OKR planning cycles for multi-team initiatives.
• Establish Quality & Code Governance: Conduct architectural proposals and code reviews, providing substantive feedback on system designs, security protocols, workflows, and peer-written software.
• Integrate Compliance & Cost Controls: Architect solutions with explicit focus on privacy compliance (GDPR/CPRA), security standards, CDN caching strategies, and cloud cost optimization frameworks.

Operational Excellence & Mentorship

• Support Deployment & Operational Resilience: Participate in automated deployments across QA, UAT, and production environments; join the developer on-call rotation to diagnose and resolve critical incidents.
• Contribute High-Quality Code: Author documented, resilient code and reusable core libraries aligned with department standards and sprint commitments.
• Foster Technical Mentorship & Team Growth: Assist in onboarding, training, and interviewing software engineering staff, advocating for efficient agile processes and inclusive team practices.

The above duties and responsibilities are not an exhaustive list of required responsibilities, duties and skills. Other duties may be assigned, and this job description can be modified at any time.

Minimum Qualifications

• Multi-Team System Architecture: 7+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including demonstrated success designing and leading technical architecture for complex, multi-team platform environments.
• Native Mobile Engineering Expertise: Deep technical proficiency in native mobile architecture (iOS and Android) using languages such as Swift, Kotlin, Java, or Objective-C.
• Scalable Platform & API Design: Proven track record designing high-traffic, resilient distributed systems, RESTful/GraphQL APIs, and client-server integration patterns.
• Media Delivery & Infrastructure: Practical experience architecting media playback, streaming protocols, CDN configurations, and cloud infrastructure ecosystems (e.g., AWS or GCP).
• Data Privacy & Cost Optimization: Hands-on experience integrating data privacy and compliance standards (GDPR, CPRA) alongside cloud cost optimization frameworks in high-availability environments.
• CI/CD & Quality Automation: Demonstrated experience with modern version control systems (Git), continuous integration pipelines, and automated testing frameworks.

Preferred Qualifications

• Polyglot Backend Systems: Familiarity with modern backend languages such as Go or PHP in event-driven or microservice architectures.
• Advanced Caching & Open Source: Experience optimizing edge media caches, working with relational databases/SQL, or contributing to open-source software initiatives.
• Cross-Functional Technical Governance: Ability to translate complex business and product requirements into clear, practical architectural designs accepted across multiple engineering teams.
• Technical Mentorship & Code Quality Advocacy: Strong commitment to promoting engineering best practices, conducting empathetic code reviews, and elevating overall code quality.
• Operational Resilience & Diagnostic Vision: Ability to systematically isolate, diagnose, and resolve production incidents under high-urgency conditions during on-call rotation.
• Structured Stakeholder Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills to present software architecture proposals, trade-offs, and technical roadmaps to non-technical stakeholders.
• Mission-Driven Innovation: Passion for leveraging modern technology to advance public media, accessibility, and audience engagement.

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, OR equivalent practical work experience demonstrating equivalent technical architecture capability.

Work Location & Requirements

• NPR Remote-Permitted: This