Principal Android Engineer

About the Role

• We’re hiring a Principal Android Engineer to be the mini-CTO for Android at Zobaze POS. You’ll own the architecture, shared business logic, Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) layer, and technical health of a mobile-first POS app used by hundreds of thousands of merchants globally.
• You’ll work with the founder for business direction—but system design, trade-offs, and technical decisions are yours. Your job: keep us fast and sane while protecting the platform from shortcuts and leading high-impact refactors.
• Zobaze POS is business-critical software used daily by retailers and food outlets for billing, inventory, staff management, and reporting—optimized for low-end devices, flaky networks, and real-world chaos.

What You’ll Own

• Android architecture end-to-end: Modules, patterns, KMP integration, state management, threading, error handling
• KMP strategy: Lead shared code architecture for cross-platform business logic; decide migration paths and avoid technical debt
• System design for harsh conditions: Offline-first, multi-device sync, graceful degradation under poor networks and low-spec hardware
• Full delivery lifecycle: Design → Build → Ship → Debug → Refactor key initiatives
• Refactors & modernization: Lead V1 → V2 rebuilds, module splits, and major migrations without breaking production
• Code detective & RCA owner: Drop into any codebase section, understand it fast, fix what’s broken, prevent recurrence
• Mentorship: Guide junior/mid-level developers and raise the team’s technical bar

Must-Have Skills

• 6–8 years Android dev (4+ years in fast-moving product companies, startups preferred)
• Strong in Kotlin, modern Android APIs, multi-module architectures
• 1–2 years Jetpack Compose in production (not toy projects)
• Large-scale refactor experience: V1 → V2, architecture rewrites, migrations—you handled risk and rollout
• Deep knowledge: MVVM, clean architecture, DI (Hilt/Dagger2), offline handling, sync strategies, coroutines, performance tuning
• Firebase comfort: Firestore, Functions, Auth, Messaging, Analytics, Crashlytics
• Elite debugging: Track down flaky production issues and design systemic fixes
• Code-reading detective: Navigate unfamiliar code and make safe, surgical changes
• Ownership mentality: High-expectation, low-handholding environment

Bonus Points

• POS/retail/operational systems experience
• Hands-on KMP in production (not toy projects)
• Hardware integrations (Bluetooth printers, scanners, cash drawers)
• Analytics tools (Amplitude, Intercom)
• Leading technical decisions in small, high-performance team

How You Use AI

• Proficient with Cursor, Copilot, Claude CLI, etc.
• Use AI as a high-context pair programmer for boilerplate, edge cases, refactor reasoning
• You don’t rely on AI to think for you—architectural understanding and judgment are yours
• Over-reliance without deep understanding is a red flag

Why Join

• Zero red tape: Build, ship, iterate—no committees
• Real impact: Your decisions affect thousands of small businesses daily
• Founder proximity: Influence product direction, protect the platform long-term
• AI-native team: Tooling and workflows that amplify great engineers
• High bar, supportive culture: Compete against mediocre software, not each other

Compensation

• Competitive salary based on capability and leverage created
• ESOPs for long-term owners
• Learning budgets, hardware, AI tooling access
• Health insurance for you & family
• Office perks (lunch, Zobaze Mix, fitness, etc.)

You’re a Fit If

• You see yourself as a mini-CTO for Android, not “just” an app developer
• You’ve built and broken real systems, then fixed them properly
• You want autonomy with accountability
• You care equally about quality, speed, and customer outcomes
• You’re excited about KMP and architecture
• You’re based in Hyderabad (or ready to relocate)