Mobile Engineering Lead

Guardian Recruiting (Pty) Ltd; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Guardian Recruiting (Pty) Ltd is partnering with a global agricultural tech client to hire a Mobile Engineering Lead in Stellenbosch (Hybrid) or remote if outside the Western Cape. You will lead the development of a cross-platform mobile platform focused on secure field data capture and dissemination, blending architecture with hands-on coding and AI-enabled features.

This role requires strong leadership, mobile security expertise, and experience delivering production-grade iOS/Android apps in a

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering (or equivalent).
• 7+ years in mobile development, with at least 2 years in leadership/management.
• Proven track record delivering production-grade iOS and Android apps.
• Strong expertise in React Native and Flutter; JavaScript and Dart.
• Experience building offline-capable apps with syncing.
• Solid mobile security knowledge: encryption, auth, secure APIs.
• Experience integrating RESTful APIs and JSON services.
• AI/ML in mobile development; Git, Xcode and Android Studio proficient.
• Excellent communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and grow a team of mobile engineers including coaching and performance management.
• Drive sprint planning, prioritisation, and delivery against objectives.
• Define architecture for cross-platform mobile apps (React Native/Flutter) for iOS/Android.
• Design offline-first mobile solutions with data storage and sync.
• Ensure secure app architecture with authentication and encrypted APIs.
• Guide integration of AI/ML capabilities with data/platform teams.
• Oversee API integrations, testing strategies, CI/CD, deployments and performance.
• Maintain high engineering standards, privacy, compliance and excellence.

Skills

Leadership

Mobile architecture

AI/ML integration

Offline-first

Security

RESTful APIs

CI/CD

UX

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering

Tools

React Native

Flutter

JavaScript

Dart

Git

Xcode

Android Studio

Job description

Mobile Engineering Lead - EE

Location: Stellenbosch (Hybrid) or fully remote if not based in the Western Cape

Our client is a global organisation operating within the agricultural technology sector, driving innovation through advanced software solutions and data-driven technologies. They are seeking an experienced Mobile Engineering Lead to lead the development of a cross-platform mobile platform focused on secure field data capture and dissemination.

This is an exciting opportunity for a hands-on technical leader who enjoys combining software architecture, AI-enabled mobile technologies and people leadership to deliver innovative mobile solutions in a fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of mobile engineers, including performance management, coaching, hiring and capacity planning.

• Drive sprint planning, prioritisation and successful delivery against business objectives.

• Define the technical architecture for cross-platform mobile applications (React Native/Flutter) across iOS and Android.

• Design robust offline-first mobile solutions, including local data storage, synchronisation and conflict resolution for low-connectivity environments.

• Ensure secure mobile application architecture, including authentication, encryption, secure API communication and role-based access.

• Guide the integration of AI/ML capabilities into mobile applications and collaborate with data and platform teams to deliver AI-driven functionality.

• Oversee API integrations, testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines, application deployments, performance optimisation and version control best practices.

• Ensure high engineering standards, code quality, privacy, compliance and operational excellence across the mobile platform.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

• Minimum 7 years' mobile development experience, including at least 2 years in a technical leadership or engineering management role.

• Proven experience delivering production-grade iOS and Android applications.

• Strong expertise in React Native, Flutter, JavaScript and Dart (FlutterFlow advantageous).

• Experience developing offline-capable mobile applications with reliable synchronisation.

• Solid understanding of mobile security, including encryption, authentication and secure API integration.

• Experience integrating RESTful APIs and JSON-based services.

• Working knowledge of AI/ML applications within mobile development.

• Proficiency with Git, Xcode, Android Studio and modern mobile development practices.

• Strong understanding of UX principles together with excellent communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills.

Advantageous Experience

Experience within agricultural technology, computer vision, precision agriculture, native iOS/Android development, mobile testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, on-device machine learning frameworks and enterprise data platforms will be highly advantageous.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Should you not have heard back within a two-week period, please assume thatyour application was unsuccessful.

All job postings are in accordance with our Client's BEE requirements.

Please only send certificates when requested to do so.