Lead Mobile Engineer - React Native
Location: Berlin · Hybrid · Full-time · Equity included
TL;DR: We’re looking for a hands-on Lead Mobile Engineer to set technical direction, lead the mobile team, and ship high-quality navigation features that shape how boaters plan and navigate on the water.
Shape the Future of Marine Navigation
Orca is modernising marine navigation, building a planning and navigation platform for recreational boating. Our mobile-first product is used by hundreds of thousands of boaters and shaped by real-world use on the water.
We’re looking for a Lead Mobile Engineer to lead the technical direction and evolution of the Orca app. This is a hybrid role combining hands-on engineering with technical and team ownership. Success in this role comes from making sound architectural decisions, raising the bar for quality, and helping the team build systems that hold up over time.
What You’ll Do
Working in a small team means your contributions have clear impact, and there’s room to take on meaningful responsibility as the product and organisation evolve.
Lead the mobile app team, owning architecture, technical direction, and delivery quality.
Balance hands-on development with mentorship and day-to-day technical leadership.
Collaborate closely with product, design, and backend on roadmap and execution.
Guide and contribute to the development of robust, performant features across planning, navigation, and real-time use cases.
Set and uphold standards for code quality, testing, performance, and release management.
Contribute to hiring and onboarding as the team grows.
What You’ll Bring
We don’t expect you to tick every box, but you should bring deep experience in mobile engineering and the judgment to lead technical decisions in a complex product.
Technical Skills
7+ years of mobile development, including 3+ years building production React Native apps.
Strong foundation in computer science principles and software architecture design.
Deep, practical knowledge of TypeScript, React, and modern front-end patterns.
Hands-on experience upgrading React Native versions and managing related code migrations.
Strong capability in profiling and optimization for performance and battery usage.
Experience with app instrumentation for monitoring, analytics, and observability.
Proficiency with native development in Java/Kotlin and Objective-C/Swift, including integration of native modules and working knowledge of TurboModules/JSI.
Experience implementing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for mobile apps.
Leadership & Execution
Proven experience leading small engineering teams or owning technical delivery for complex projects.
Experience designing systems that balance short-term velocity with long-term maintainability
Experience driving alignment across teams, making tradeoffs explicit, and pushing work forward in ambiguous situations.
Passion for product and UX, thinks like a customer and codes like an owner.
About the Team
You’ll be joining a small, close‑knit team with deep experience in building and scaling technology products. As a lead, you’ll work closely with the founders on technical direction and team growth. The founding team has worked together across multiple startups and brings long‑standing expertise in product development, software, and hardware engineering.
The company was founded by:
Amir Borovac – https://www.linkedin.com/in/borovac/
Kristian Fallrøe – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristfal/
Jorge Sevillano – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorge-sevillano/
We work closely together and value open, direct communication. If you’re curious about the role or how we work, you’re welcome to reach out.
Why Join Orca?
Orca is modernising marine navigation, building products that improve how people plan and navigate on the water. We are well-funded and already making waves (pun intended) in the marine industry. We offer competitive compensation and an attractive employee stock option program. This is an opportunity to help shape the future of marine navigation on a global scale, working with a passionate team on a product you’ll be proud of.
For a deeper look at the kinds of problems and interfaces you’d work on, here are a few relevant posts from our blog:
Ready to jump in?
If this sounds like you, we’d love to chat! Drop us a message here or send an email to careers@getorca.com with your CV and links to your work (GitHub, portfolio, apps). For the fast track, try tackling our programming challenge.
