01Owns
SwiftUI and UIKit screens
Builds new views in SwiftUI and keeps older UIKit controllers healthy, bridging the two where the app still mixes them.
Hire · Native iOS
Hire iOS Developers
Senior Swift engineers who join your iOS team, work in your Xcode workspace and take features through code review, TestFlight and App Store submission. Every shortlisted engineer has been paid to complete a SwiftUI task built around structured concurrency, a widget and a review-ready build.
SwiftUI task completed and paid for
Only senior, lead and principal levels
TestFlight and App Review experience
On your team
What an iOS developer owns on your team.
02Owns
Concurrency correctness
Uses async/await, task groups and actors so network, persistence and UI updates never race, and adopts strict concurrency checking step by step.
03Owns
Extensions and widgets
Ships WidgetKit widgets, share and notification extensions, Live Activities and App Intents, with app groups for shared data.
04Owns
Data and sync
Persists with SwiftData or Core Data, handles schema migrations, and syncs through your API or CloudKit without losing edits.
05Owns
Submission and review
Prepares privacy manifests, entitlements and review notes, runs TestFlight groups and answers App Review feedback quickly.
Questions that reveal real Swift experience
Ask a candidate what happens when an actor method awaits halfway through and another call arrives. Engineers who have shipped concurrent Swift will talk about reentrancy and re-checking state after the suspension point. Those who have only read about it usually will not.
Ask also about the last rejection they handled. Specific answers about guideline numbers, privacy manifests or in-app purchase rules signal someone who has owned releases rather than watched them.
Vetting
Skills we test before an iOS developer joins.
01Tested
Swift language depth
Value types, protocols with associated types, generics, result builders and Sendable rules under Swift 6 language mode.
02Tested
SwiftUI state
Observation, @State and @Bindable, environment injection and keeping view bodies cheap so diffs stay small.
03Tested
Structured concurrency
MainActor isolation, cancellation propagation, actor reentrancy pitfalls and bridging older completion-handler APIs.
04Tested
Instruments and diagnostics
Time Profiler, Allocations, Leaks and Hangs instruments, plus MetricKit and crash logs from Xcode Organizer.
05Tested
App Store rules
Knows the Review Guidelines on payments, sign-in, data use and account deletion, and spots rejection risks before submission.
06Tested
Testing in Xcode
XCTest and Swift Testing for logic, snapshot tests for views, XCUITest for key journeys and Xcode Cloud or Fastlane in CI.
Work sample
How the iOS developer work sample runs.
- 01Step 1
Fix a data race
The candidate receives a view model with a race between two async loads and resolves it with actor isolation, explaining the trade-offs.
- 02Step 2
Build a screen and a widget
They create a SwiftUI list fed by an API plus a small WidgetKit widget sharing data through an app group, paid at a day’s rate.
- 03Step 3
Handle a privacy prompt
They request camera or photo library access, covering limited access, denial and a path to Settings.
- 04Step 4
Rehearse a rejection
We play App Review and reject a build; the candidate explains the guideline, the fix and the reply they would send.
Levels
iOS Developers: what changes at each level.
01Level 1
Senior
Ships Swift features independently inside an agreed architecture and raises the quality of the team’s reviews.
02Level 2
Lead
Owns modularisation with Swift packages, CI signing, release cadence and the conventions for SwiftUI and concurrency.
03Level 3
Principal iOS engineer
Steers big moves such as a UIKit-to-SwiftUI transition, Swift 6 strict concurrency adoption or a shared design system across apps.
Choosing between senior, lead and principal
A senior engineer adds steady throughput to an app whose patterns are settled. Pick a lead when there is no agreed approach to state, signing is fragile or TestFlight builds go out irregularly. A principal is worth it when you face a platform-level change, such as adopting strict concurrency across dozens of modules.
Other options
When to hire someone other than an iOS developer.
01Consider
Spatial or camera-led product
If the core experience is placing 3D content in the room, an AR specialist brings ARKit and asset pipeline skills.
Open register02Consider
Shared code across platforms
When Android must match iOS from one codebase, consider a Flutter engineer instead of two native hires.
Open register03Consider
A game rather than an app
Real-time rendering, physics and engine tooling call for a game developer working in Unity or Unreal.
Open registerExtensions are where shortcuts break
Widgets, notification service extensions and Live Activities run in separate processes with tight memory limits and their own lifecycles. A developer who has only built the main app often stores data where an extension cannot read it. That is why our exercise includes a widget fed through an app group.
Settling a new iOS hire in
Get a minor change into an internal TestFlight group within the first few days to confirm certificates, provisioning profiles and CI access. Then assign something that crosses a boundary, such as a feature with a widget or a notification extension, so you see how they reason about shared data and memory limits.
FAQ
Questions to resolve before the build.
01Do they still write UIKit, or only SwiftUI?
Both. Many mature apps keep UIKit for complex collection views or legacy flows, so candidates must be comfortable hosting SwiftUI in UIKit and the reverse.
02Can they move our codebase to Swift 6 strict concurrency?
A lead or principal can plan it module by module, turning on warnings first, marking types Sendable and isolating shared state in actors before enabling errors.
03Who deals with App Store rejections?
The engineer you hire. Reading the cited guideline, fixing the build or replying through Resolution Center is part of the job, and our exercise includes a mock rejection.
Works alongside
Roles an iOS developer works best alongside.
01Pair with
Android developers
Keep feature parity, shared analytics naming and synchronised release dates with the Kotlin team.
Open register02Pair with
UI/UX designers
Translate designs into Human Interface Guidelines patterns, Dynamic Type and accessibility traits from the start.
Open register03Pair with
Node.js developers
Shape push notification services, receipt validation and API endpoints that the Swift client consumes.
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.
- 01Apple: App Store Review Guidelines
The rules every iOS submission is reviewed against.
- 02Apple Developer Documentation: Swift concurrency
Reference for async/await, tasks and actors in Swift.
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.