Principal Mobile SDK Engineer

About the Company

Our client operates a comprehensive maps and location intelligence platform powered by proprietary routing, search, tile, and optimization engines. Their platform integrates global map data and live traffic updates covering more than 80 countries. The product family, known as Atlas, includes all public APIs and SDKs.

Currently, they are developing the mobile layer: an SDK delivering maps, search, routing, and turn-by-turn navigational capabilities directly into client applications.

Role Overview

With foundational work completed, the project is transitioning from an internal build to a commercial-grade SDK designed for external developer integration and reliance. This phase requires expertise in building robust engine components rather than mere applications. The focus is on crafting the public interface and its real-device behavior while ensuring high-quality documentation. The role involves end-to-end ownership of the SDK architecture, close collaboration with routing, search, and tile teams, and reporting directly to the Founder and CEO. As the SDK matures, the principal engineer will expand and lead the mobile development team.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and maintain the SDK architecture, ensuring a unified structure that encapsulates the underlying map rendering layers with replaceability in mind.
• Develop core navigation features including turn-by-turn guidance, route snapping, off-route detection, rerouting strategies, ETA calculations, and trip state management.
• Create idiomatic, thread-safe public APIs focused on developer usability and reliability.
• Produce comprehensive documentation including reference materials, integration guides, migration instructions, and sample applications.
• Enhance location accuracy through sensor fusion techniques combining GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope inputs, optimizing performance in challenging environments like tunnels and urban canyons.
• Optimize performance parameters such as battery consumption, memory usage, tile caching, and thermal behavior during extended navigation usage.
• Implement background execution capabilities permitting location updates and audio guidance to continue when apps are in the background.
• Support multilingual voice guidance including Arabic, and ensure right-to-left map labeling is correctly handled.
• Oversee release engineering including binary packaging, versioning, and management of distribution channels both private and public.
• Ensure high quality through rigorous unit, integration, and device testing using simulated location data and route replay.
• Provide leadership by setting architectural direction, coding standards, and growing the mobile engineering team.

Desired Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in mobile software development, with a significant focus on iOS.
• Expert proficiency in Swift, with strong understanding of concurrency, background processing, application lifecycle, permissions, and resource management for location-based products.
• Track record of building and maintaining SDKs or libraries intended for external developers, with deep knowledge of semantic versioning, backward compatibility, and module stability.
• Advanced hands-on experience with major map or navigation SDKs such as Mapbox, MapLibre, Google Maps SDK or equivalents, beyond basic features like markers and camera control.
• Strong system design aptitude bridging complex internal engines with simplified public APIs.
• Proven ability to author clear and complete developer documentation.
• Self-motivated with strong judgment, capable of independently making design decisions without oversight.

Additional Advantages

• Proficient in Kotlin and Android development to contribute to Android SDK design and leadership.
• Experience with vector tiles, Metal or OpenGL rendering, GeoJSON standards, and coordinate systems such as Mercator and WGS84.
• Knowledge of computational geometry concepts including bearings, distances, line snapping, and polygon intersection.
• Familiarity with Kotlin Multiplatform or similar shared core development techniques to reduce cross-platform duplication.
• Background in implementing offline-first capabilities with substantial local map data sets.
• Exposure to CarPlay or embedded automotive software delivery.
• Experience with Arabic language digital products and right-to-left user interfaces.
• Demonstrated ability to grow and lead small engineering teams.

Hiring Process

Candidates will engage in three interview rounds without algorithm puzzles or extended take-home projects exceeding a few hours.