Mobile Applications Developer - React Native

Department: Engineering

Location: Onsite (Jumeirah Lakes Towers)

Employment: Full-Time

Reports To: C-suite

About the Role

SportsOS is a rapidly expanding sports technology platform that unifies live activity tracking, wellness monitoring, gamified challenges, and community engagement within a single mobile experience for iOS and Android.

We are seeking a Senior React Native Developer who can step in as a technical leader, raise the bar on our engineering standards, and coach the current team. This is far more than a maintenance position — you will take ownership of a large-scale React Native codebase (1,000+ files) running on React Native 0.7X with the New Architecture (Fabric), React 19, Hermes, and Redux.

The right candidate has a track record of shipping production mobile applications at startups, excels in resource-constrained settings, and holds firm convictions about code quality, testing, and developer experience. You will pinpoint and close critical gaps in our engineering maturity while continuing to deliver features at a rapid cadence.

Technology Stack

Framework: React Native 0.79+ with New Architecture (Fabric) enabled

Language: TypeScript (ongoing migration from JavaScript)

Runtime: React 19, Hermes JS Engine

State Management: Redux, Redux-Thunk, Redux-Persist

Navigation: React Navigation v7 (stack, tab, drawer)

API Layer: Axios with centralised auth interceptors and token refresh queue

Forms: React Hook Form, Formik

Health Data: Apple HealthKit (iOS), Health Connect (Android)

Push Notifications: OneSignal, Twilio, Firebase Cloud Messaging

Payments: Stripe SDK (additional providers planned)

Analytics & Observability: Firebase Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics, Mixpanel, LogRocket

Event Tracking: Custom event taxonomy (pre-CDP), funnel analysis, behavioural instrumentation

Native Bridging: Kotlin / Objective-C++ native modules, Fabric, TurboModules, Codegen, JSI

iOS Build: Xcode, CocoaPods

Android Build: Gradle, Kotlin DSL

Testing: Jest 29, React Native Testing Library

Key Responsibilities, Technical Leadership & Mentoring

• Set the technical direction of the mobile application across iOS and Android

• Coach and develop existing team members through code reviews, pair programming, and architectural guidance

• Define and uphold coding standards, including TypeScript strict mode, component decomposition, and file-size constraints

• Lead the completion of the TypeScript migration

• Introduce architectural decision records (ADRs) and formal technical documentation practices

Testing & Quality Assurance

• Architect and roll out a comprehensive testing strategy covering unit, integration, and end-to-end tests

• Set code-coverage targets (80%+) and enforce them via CI/CD quality gates

• Implement snapshot testing for the existing library of 52+ reusable UI components

• Develop regression test suites for critical user journeys

CI/CD & DevOps

• Stand up CI/CD pipelines from scratch (GitHub Actions, Bitrise, or similar) for automated linting, testing, building, and deployment

• Configure automated release management for iOS (TestFlight) and Android (Play Console)

• Enforce pre-commit hooks, branch protection rules, and structured PR review workflows

• Implement automated versioning, changelog generation, and release notes

Analytics, Event Tracking & Post-Launch Insights

• Integrate Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics on both platforms for quantitative post-launch analysis of user behaviour, crash rates, and session quality

• Design and maintain a structured event-tracking taxonomy (screen views, actions, conversion funnels, feature adoption) as a pre-CDP instrumentation layer

• Build dashboards and reporting pipelines to track post-launch metrics: crash-free rates, ANR rates, session duration, retention cohorts, and funnel drop-off

• Instrument key user journeys (onboarding, booking, wellness sync, challenge participation, payments) with custom Firebase events and user properties

• Establish analytics governance: event naming conventions, parameter standards, and documentation to maintain data quality as the team grows toward a Customer Data Platform

• Leverage Firebase Remote Config for feature flagging and A/B testing linked to analytics outcomes

Security Hardening

• Conduct security audits and remediate identified vulnerabilities

• Enable ProGuard/R8 for Android release builds and review App Transport Security exceptions on iOS

• Implement structured error handling with crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics) across platforms

• Ensure API keys are scoped by platform/bundle ID and never committed to source control

Feature Development & Cross-Platform Quality

• Deliver new features with high quality and consistent cross-platform parity on iOS and Android

• Integrate platform-specific APIs: Apple HealthKit, Android Health Connect, deep linking, push notifications (OneSignal)

• Improve accessibility to meet WCAG standards

• Optimise performance through bundle-size analysis, memory management, and Hermes profiling

Native Component Development & Bridging

• Build custom native UI components and non-UI modules in Kotlin (Android) and Objective-C++ (iOS), bridging them into React Native via Fabric and TurboModules

• Author Codegen specs in TypeScript to generate C++ scaffolding, then implement platform-specific logic using the New Architecture (JSI bridge layer)

• Manage memory, serialisation, and thread safety across the JS–native boundary: preventing retain cycles (iOS), JNI reference leaks (Android), and handling callbacks/promises across threads

• Troubleshoot native build toolchain issues: Xcode configuration, CocoaPods, header search paths, module maps (iOS); Gradle, Android SDK, and JNI linking (Android)

Requirements / Essential

• 6+ years of professional mobile development, with at least 3 years focused on React Native shipping to both iOS and Android app stores

• Demonstrated experience in a startup or scale-up environment where you built engineering processes from scratch and wore multiple hats

• In-depth knowledge of React Native internals, the New Architecture (Fabric / TurboModules), and the Hermes JavaScript engine

• Strong TypeScript proficiency, including experience migrating large JavaScript codebases

• Hands-on experience constructing CI/CD pipelines for mobile applications

• Proven track record of implementing comprehensive test strategies: Jest unit tests, React Native Testing Library, and E2E frameworks (Detox, Maestro, or Appium)

• Experience managing Redux (or Redux Toolkit) state in large-scale apps (25+ reducers, 150+ connected components)

• Solid grasp of mobile security: secure storage (Keychain / Keystore), certificate pinning, code obfuscation (ProGuard / R8), and secrets management

• Hands-on experience with Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics: implementing custom event taxonomies, creating dashboards, and using quantitative post-launch data to inform product and engineering decisions

• Proficiency in Kotlin and Objective-C++ for creating native components and bridging them into React Native via Fabric (UI) and TurboModules (non-UI), including Codegen specs, JSI, and native build toolchain debugging

• Excellent communication skills and a genuine enthusiasm for mentoring junior and mid-level developers

Desirable

• Experience with health and fitness data APIs (Apple HealthKit, Android Health Connect)

• Familiarity with mobile payment integrations (Stripe SDK)

• Experience with push-notification platforms (OneSignal, Twilio, Firebase Cloud Messaging)

• Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1) and assistive technology testing

• Experience with React Navigation v6/v7, including deep-linking configuration

• Familiarity with internationalisation (i18next) in React Native applications

• Experience building real-time features: WebSockets, live data streaming, or gamification systems

• Contributions to open-source React Native libraries or published technical writing

• Experience designing event-tracking schemas and analytics governance as a pre-CDP instrumentation layer

• Familiarity with analytics and experimentation tools: Mixpanel, LogRocket, Firebase A/B Testing, cohort/funnel analysis

• Experience with app store optimisation (ASO) and feature-flag systems (LaunchDarkly, Firebase Remote Config)

What We Offer

We are a startup that rewards impact over titles. You will enjoy meaningful ownership of technical decisions, direct access to leadership, and the chance to shape our engineering culture from the ground up.

• Competitive salary

• Access to premium AI tools

• Direct influence on product direction

• Fast-paced, leading-edge startup environment

• Autonomy to shape engineering culture and processes

How to Apply

Submit your CV along with a short note outlining your experience building mobile engineering teams at startups. We are especially keen to hear about a time you inherited a codebase and meaningfully improved its quality, testing, or deployment process.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: AED15,000.00 - AED20,000.00 per month

Application Question(s):

• Describe your experience implementing Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Analytics in a production React Native application. In particular, outline how you designed and structured your custom event taxonomy, how you tracked and evaluated crash-free user rates after release, and share an example where insights from analytics influenced a product or engineering decision.
• You’re taking over a Redux store with 25+ reducers and more than 150 connected components, with little to no existing test coverage. What would be your first step to establish meaningful coverage without refactoring the entire store? Be specific about the types of tests you would prioritize and your reasoning behind those choices.
• React Native promotes a “write once, run anywhere” approach, but real-world production often tells a different story. Share a concrete example of a bug or unexpected behaviour that occurred only on specific Android vendors or particular iOS versions. How did you identify and diagnose the issue, and what solution did you implement? Additionally, how do you incorporate device-specific testing into your development workflow?

Location:

• Dubai (Required)

Work Location: In person