Principal Mobile SDK Engineer

About the company
Our client is building a maps and location intelligence platform, running on their own routing, search, tile, and optimization engines, with worldwide map data and live traffic across more than 80 countries. Every public API and SDK they ship sits under Atlas.

They are now building the mobile layer, the SDK that puts maps, search, routing, and turn-by-turn navigation inside the applications the customers build.

About the role
The groundwork is done and the direction is set; they are now moving from an internal build to a commercial product that external developers integrate and depend on. That step is the one that separates a working prototype from an SDK, and it calls for someone who has made it before. This is engine work rather than application work, so the public interface, its behavior on real devices, and the quality of the documentation are the product rather than a wrapper around it. You will own the architecture end to end, work alongside the routing, search and tile teams behind it, and report directly to the Founder and CEO. As the SDK matures you will grow the mobile team around it and lead it.

What you will own
▪ SDK architecture. A unified design that keeps the underlying mapping and rendering layer private and replaceable.

▪ Core navigation logic. Turn-by-turn guidance, route snapping, off-route detection, rerouting, ETA, and trip state.

▪ Public API design. Idiomatic, thread-safe interfaces that hide the internals. Developer experience is the measure of success.

▪ Documentation and samples. Reference docs, integration guides, migration notes and working sample applications.

▪ Location quality. Sensor fusion across GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope for tunnels, urban canyons, and weak signal.

▪ Performance. Battery, memory, tile caching, and thermal behavior across long navigation sessions.

▪ Background execution. Location and audio modes so guidance survives when the application is backgrounded.

▪ Localization. Multilingual voice guidance including Arabic, and right-to-left map labeling.

▪ Release engineering. Binary packaging and versioning across private gated and public distribution channels.

▪ Quality. Unit, integration, and device testing with simulated location and recorded route replay.

▪ Leadership. Hands-on now, setting architecture and standards for the team as it grows.

Hiring process
Three conversations. No algorithm puzzles and no take-home project that runs past a few hours.

What we are looking for
▪ 10 or more years building mobile software, a substantial part of it on iOS.

▪ Expert Swift, with deep command of the platform fundamentals a location product depends on: concurrency, background modes, application lifecycle, permissions, memory and power behavior.

▪ Proven experience building and maintaining an SDK or library consumed by developers outside your own company. You understand semantic versioning, backward compatibility, module stability, and what a breaking change costs the people who depend on you.

▪ Advanced production experience with a major map or navigation SDK, commercial or open source, such as Mapbox, MapLibre, Google Maps SDK, or equivalent. Well beyond markers and camera movement.

▪ System design ability at the boundary between a complex internal engine and a simple public surface.

▪ You write documentation yourself and treat it as part of the deliverable.

▪ Self-direction and judgment. For the first phase, there is no one else to escalate a design question to.

Strong Advantage
▪ Working proficiency in Kotlin and Android, enough to design and direct the Android SDK when we start it.

▪ Vector tiles, Metal or OpenGL rendering behavior, GeoJSON and coordinate systems including Mercator and WGS84.

▪ Computational geometry: bearings, distances, line snapping, polygon intersection.

▪ Kotlin Multiplatform or a shared core approach to cut duplication between platforms.

▪ Offline-first behavior with large local map datasets.

▪ CarPlay or embedded automotive delivery.

▪ Arabic language products or right-to-left interface work.

▪ Experience growing and leading a small engineering team.