Lead Mobile Developer

Hippo Digital is a rapidly growing digital consultancy passionate about building and delivering transformative digital solutions for a diverse range of Public and Private sector clients. We are recruiting for a Lead Mobile Developer to support in our mission. We work at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology to solve complex problems and create lasting value. Our collaborative and agile culture empowers our teams to make a genuine impact.

As a Lead Mobile Developer at Hippo Digital, you will be a key technical leader, responsible for the design, governance, and delivery of innovative, scalable, and secure mobile applications. This is a hands‑on role where you will be embedded within project teams, leading mobile strategy and mentoring engineers, while also engaging directly with client stakeholders. You will translate complex business needs into clear, actionable mobile roadmaps and ensure the successful implementation of the high‑performance applications you architect.

Your Role in a Nutshell:

• Lead the technical design and delivery of mobile solutions on client projects, ensuring they are robust, performant, and aligned with modern mobile‑first business objectives.
• Work hands‑on to define and implement mobile architectural patterns (MVVM, Clean Architecture), choosing the right tools, whether native or cross‑platform, for the job.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to senior and mid‑level Engineers, fostering a culture of high‑quality code reviews and continuous learning in the mobile space.
• Collaborate with clients and UX/UI designers to understand user challenges and translate complex requirements into seamless mobile technical architectures.
• Ensure solutions adhere to industry best practices in areas such as mobile security, offline capability, accessibility (WCAG), and App Store/Play Store compliance.
• Support the development of proposals and bids, articulating our technical approach to mobile‑led digital transformation to potential clients.
• Represent Hippo Digital’s technical excellence in client meetings, mobile workshops, and discovery phases.

About the Candidate:

• Extensive experience as a Lead or Senior Mobile Engineer, with a proven track record of designing and delivering complex, consumer‑facing mobile applications.
• Deep hands‑on expertise in Native Development, specifically with Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android), with a strong understanding of their respective SDKs and ecosystems.
• Proficiency in Cross‑Platform Frameworks, specifically Flutter (Dart), including state management (Bloc, Provider, or Riverpod) and platform channels.
• Solid understanding of modern mobile architecture patterns, modularisation and mobile‑specific CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Bitrise, Fastlane, or GitHub Actions).
• Experience with mobile‑centric integration, including RESTful APIs, GraphQL, Firebase services, and local data persistence (Room, CoreData, or SQLite).
• Strong grasp of the mobile release lifecycle, including automated testing (Unit, UI, and Integration) and managing beta distribution via TestFlight or App Center.

About the Company:

• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%)
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of: private health cover, private dental cover, additional company pension contributions, additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days), wellbeing contribution, charity contributions, tree planting.

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo:

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio‑economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hippo Locations:

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We’re on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices which will be your contracted office location. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on‑site at a Hippo office or at an in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel. Plus, we offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8k (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.