01Owns
Compose screens and navigation
Writes Jetpack Compose UI with hoisted state, stable parameters and a navigation graph that survives process death and configuration changes.
Hire · Native Android
Hire Android Developers
Senior Android engineers who sit inside your squad, commit to your Gradle project and carry Kotlin features from ticket to staged rollout on Google Play. Candidates reach your shortlist only after a paid Compose exercise involving coroutines, WorkManager and a stubborn low-memory device.
Kotlin and Compose exercise, paid
Senior, lead and staff engineers
Play Console rollouts handled in-house
On your team
What an Android developer owns on your team.
02Owns
Coroutines and data flow
Structures repositories around Kotlin Flow, scopes work to the right lifecycle and keeps the main thread free of disk and network calls.
03Owns
Background and scheduled work
Moves sync, uploads and reminders onto WorkManager with sensible constraints, respecting Doze, App Standby buckets and foreground service rules.
04Owns
Device and OS spread
Tests against your real minSdk, small screens, foldables and vendor skins that kill background processes aggressively.
05Owns
Play Console and policy
Manages app bundles, signing keys, staged rollouts, Data safety forms and target API deadlines so updates are never blocked.
Separating Kotlin depth from tutorial knowledge
Plenty of Android candidates can build a Compose screen from a sample. Fewer can say why a list recomposes on every scroll, or which coroutine scope a repository call should run in. Ask how they would stop a Flow collector from running while the app sits in the background; the answer reveals whether they understand lifecycle-aware collection.
Probe background behaviour too. A strong engineer can explain why a periodic job silently stopped on one manufacturer’s phone and what they changed.
Vetting
Skills we test before an Android developer joins.
01Tested
Kotlin idioms
Sealed classes for UI state, null safety at API boundaries, extension functions used with restraint, and structured concurrency instead of GlobalScope.
02Tested
Jetpack Compose
Recomposition scoping, remember and derivedStateOf, lazy list keys, and reading Layout Inspector recomposition counts.
03Tested
Architecture components
ViewModel with SavedStateHandle, Room migrations, DataStore, and dependency injection through Hilt or Koin.
04Tested
Background execution limits
Knows which work belongs in WorkManager, which needs a typed foreground service, and how exact alarms are restricted on recent Android versions.
05Tested
Performance tooling
Baseline Profiles, Macrobenchmark, StrictMode and Android Studio profilers to cut cold start time and dropped frames.
06Tested
Testing on Android
JUnit and Turbine for Flow, Compose UI tests with semantics matchers, and Robolectric or emulator runs wired into CI.
Work sample
How the Android developer work sample runs.
- 01Step 1
Repair a leaking feed
We hand over a Compose feed that recomposes on every scroll and leaks a collector; the candidate finds both causes and explains the fix.
- 02Step 2
Schedule reliable sync
They implement an upload that retries with backoff through WorkManager, survives a reboot and reports progress to the UI, all within one paid day.
- 03Step 3
Handle a runtime permission
They add notification or location permission on Android 13 and above, covering rationale, denial and the settings redirect.
- 04Step 4
Discuss a Play rollout
A call on signing, version codes, staged percentages and how they would halt a release that spikes crashes in Android vitals.
Levels
Android Developers: what changes at each level.
01Level 1
Senior
Delivers Kotlin features end to end in an established module structure and gives useful review on Compose and coroutine code.
02Level 2
Lead
Owns Gradle modularisation, CI build times, release trains and the code conventions the Android team follows.
03Level 3
Staff Android engineer
Plans migrations such as Views to Compose or a multi-module split, and decides when Kotlin Multiplatform sharing is worth it.
Matching the level to your codebase
Bring in a senior when the app already has clear modules and you need more delivery. A lead earns their place when builds are slow, releases are manual or each feature lands in a different style. A staff engineer is for structural calls such as finishing a Compose migration or sharing business logic with iOS through Kotlin Multiplatform.
Other options
When to hire someone other than an Android developer.
01Consider
One codebase for both stores
If parity across iOS and Android matters more than platform depth, a Flutter engineer covers both from Dart.
Open register02Consider
A React web team going mobile
Teams already fluent in React and TypeScript often move faster with a React Native hire.
Open register03Consider
Still choosing a platform
If you have not decided between native and cross-platform, start with a mobile generalist or small team.
Open registerFragmentation is the real test
Android runs on thousands of device models with different memory, screen shapes and OEM tweaks. We give candidates a scenario on a low-RAM device because that is where leaked collectors, oversized bitmaps and process death show up first. Engineers who test only on a flagship emulator tend to ship surprises.
Their first fortnight
Ask for a small fix shipped to the internal testing track by the end of week one, so signing, CI and Play access are proven early. In week two, give them a feature that touches background work or a permission, with acceptance criteria written for an older Android version as well as the latest.
FAQ
Questions to resolve before the build.
01Do your Android developers still work with XML Views?
Yes. Most production apps mix both, so candidates are expected to maintain View-based screens and interoperate with Compose through ComposeView and AndroidView while a migration is under way.
02Can they deal with background work being killed on some phones?
They should. Vendor battery optimisers on certain brands stop work that stock Android would allow, and we expect a senior engineer to design around that with WorkManager constraints and honest user messaging.
03Will they manage our Google Play Console?
With the access you grant, they can prepare bundles, run internal and staged tracks, answer policy declarations and watch Android vitals after release.
Works alongside
Roles an Android developer works best alongside.
01Pair with
iOS developers
Agree API contracts, analytics events and feature flags with the Swift side so both apps behave the same.
Open register02Pair with
Backend in Java or Kotlin
A JVM backend engineer shares tooling and can shape endpoints around what the Android client really needs.
Open register03Pair with
QA engineers
Run exploratory passes across a matrix of OEM devices and Android versions before each staged rollout widens.
Open registerProduct delivery
Need the whole product built instead?
Primary sources
References behind this page
Dated official documentation, standards, and research that support the factual claims on this page.
- 01Android Developers: Guide to background work
Google’s guidance on WorkManager, foreground services and execution limits.
- 02Android Developers: Jetpack Compose performance
Official advice on recomposition, stability and Baseline Profiles.
How to read this page
Scope, cost and timeline figures are planning guidance until confirmed in a written proposal. Diagrams and screens are illustrations, not client deliverables, and source-code rights and handover follow the signed agreement. See the delivery process and the full disclaimer.
Next decision
Turn the brief into an accepted product scope.
Define outcomes, constraints, evidence, rights and handover before delivery begins.
Commercial rights, repositories, environments, documentation, acceptance and handover remain contract-defined.