Lead Developer

Job Description

About Arabic Unlocked

Arabic Unlocked is on a mission to help people learn Arabic in an effective, enjoyable and efficient way .

Our app and academy are already helping hundreds of thousands of people around the world improve their Arabic, and we just getting started.

About the Role

We are looking for a Head of Engineering (iOS and Android Developer) to lead the evolution of our product and technology strategy, along with building a growing team of software engineers.

We believe engineering leaders need to be technically excellent and able to zoom in and zoom out as needed – from being hands-on with writing great core code to making key architecture and people decisions.

You will work closely alongside the CEO and be part of the leadership team. You should have a desire to wear multiple hats, and thrive in a start-up environment.

In the early days, you will be responsible for working with outsourced development team to inherit our existing systems and manage the transition to in-house development.

In the long-term, you’ll grow & develop the technical team to build a scalable technology infrastructure and enable Arabic Unlocked’s international expansion.

If you join us, you’ll be an early team member helping us shape:

1. Our company culture
2. Our engineering culture
3. The vision and execution strategy of our products

General responsibilities

• Ownership of the development process, including choosing the appropriate framework to develop our apps in and tech stack.
• Hands on in programming and developing the app.
• Hiring and retaining our first-rate engineering team, develop team structure and execution strategies, while managing the overall software development lifecycle
• We’re small and nimble, you’re someone who figures out how to do the things that need to get done and gets them done. You participate, delegate, and accomplish
• Be able to mentor frontend and backend developers and at be able to code as well, if and when needed.
• Report on the status of development, to the executive leadership team
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Role Requirements

• 4+ years of relevant engineering experience- Mobile ( Android and IOS) and web. React and AWS preffered
• Experience and deep knowledge of the full iOS/Apple tech stacks e.g. Xcode, Swift, SDK etc
• The ideal candidate will have prior experience in a senior technical leadership position and deep expertise in building and shipping consumer facing products.
• We are growing rapidly so candidates should have experience hiring building and managing teams of engineers.
• Experience in designing software architectures for scalability, reliability and performance
• You should be highly motivated and an inquisitive Senior Engineer, with in-depth knowledge of the web ecosystem – from mobile and desktop to the cloud.
• Experience with developing automated internal frameworks, increasing developer and release velocity, improved code health and building developer tools
• Solid software development background including design patterns, data structures and test driven development
• Experience with remote work, ideally across time zones.
• You have an ownership mindset: you are comfortable with both responsibility and accountability.
• You work well in teams and enjoy collaborating with engineers, designers and product teams.
• You are passionate about Arabic language education and care about having impact on tens of millions of lives with your work
• Thrive in working in a remote startup environment

Good to have

• Effective written and verbal communication (We are a remote team to this is very important.)
• Excellent analytical and problem solving abilities
• Excellent time management and organisational skills
• A collaborator and team player by nature
• A person that is capable to lead by example