Lead Mobile Engineer

Deadline for applications: 30 November 2025, 23:59 GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Berlin).

About WFP

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do. The vision for the future workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high‑performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment and living WFP’s values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) while working with partners to save and change the lives of those we serve.

Why Join WFP?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
• WFP invests in the personal and professional development of its employees through training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as internal mobility opportunities.
• A career path provides an opportunity to work across various country, regional and global offices worldwide with passionate colleagues.
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

Position Overview

Lead Mobile Engineer – ShareTheMeal, a WFP fundraising and awareness-raising app. The role is based in Berlin, Germany or remote, with a short‑term contract of 11 months, full‑time Monday to Friday. You will report to the Head of ShareTheMeal Software Engineering.

Purpose of the Assignment

As the technical leader for ShareTheMeal’s mobile engineering function, you will define and execute the mobile technology strategy that enables the organization to scale from 1.9 M to 10 M+ users while maintaining exceptional user experience and operational efficiency, impacting an annual revenue of $30 M USD.

Accountabilities / Responsibilities

• Lead technical strategy and own the mobile engineering vision and multi‑year technical roadmap.
• Define and evangelise mobile architecture standards across iOS, Android, and QA, ensuring scalability for 10 M+ users.
• Hold regular 1:1s with direct reports and build a high‑performing mobile engineering organization.
• Establish engineering metrics and SLOs (e.g., crash‑free rate > 99.9%, P95 load time < 2 s) and drive measurable improvements in app performance, reliability, and user satisfaction.
• Champion innovation initiatives, evaluating and piloting emerging mobile technologies that differentiate the user experience or operational efficiency.
• Represent mobile engineering in cross‑functional leadership forums, influencing product strategy and organizational technical decisions.
• Drive architectural decisions with clear rationale, creating decision frameworks that enable rapid delivery while maintaining quality.
• Continuously optimise team velocity and engineering effectiveness, eliminating blockers and establishing scalable processes.
• Develop engineering talent through structured mentorship.
• Own the technical roadmap, translating business objectives into quarterly engineering initiatives.
• Lead drafting of KPIs, SLOs and project initiatives.
• Establish engineering culture and best practices for code quality, testing and operational excellence.
• Build cross‑functional partnerships with Product, Design, Backend and Data teams to ensure seamless delivery of user‑facing features.
• Spearhead the design of scalable architectures for Android, iOS and QA platforms.
• Drive engineering quality and technical sustainability, balancing feature velocity with technical health.
• Lead technical debt reduction initiatives that measurably improve system maintainability.
• Establish quality gates and engineering standards (code review practices, testing requirements, performance benchmarks).
• Champion engineering investments in tooling, automation and infrastructure that multiply team effectiveness.
• Research, plan and facilitate improvement of product quality, security and performance.
• Design, implement and maintain native Android and iOS solutions using Kotlin and Swift.
• Design and implement test automation systems with the QA team.
• Conduct code reviews and assessments.
• Document architecture/code decisions and APIs.

Deliverables at the End of the Contract

• Deliver product features and technical initiatives across Android, iOS and QA platforms.
• Provide documentation and handover to Head of ShareTheMeal Software Engineering.

Qualifications and Experience Required

• University degree in computer science or related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in developing and designing Android and iOS native apps for millions of users.
• Strong analytical both quantitative and qualitative.
• Ability to make technical decisions that balance platform‑specific needs with cross‑platform efficiency.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills with ability to debug complex mobile issues.
• Ability to interact with managers and stakeholders with maturity and tact.
• Mature judgment with strong interpersonal skills.
• Collaborative spirit able to work effectively across diverse teams and cultures.
• Self‑motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy.
• Adaptability to a rapidly evolving mobile technology landscape.
• Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the World Food Programme.
• Proficiency in Kotlin, Swift and modern Android and iOS development patterns.
• Strong knowledge of Android and iOS SDKs, frameworks, Compose and SwiftUI.
• Experience with Swift structured concurrency, Kotlin Coroutines and modern asynchronous programming patterns.
• Experience with architecture patterns (MVVM, VIPER, Clean Architecture).
• Experience with App Store and Play Store submission processes.
• Knowledge of unit testing, UI testing (Maestro) and test‑driven development.
• Expert understanding of mobile app performance optimisation techniques.
• Experience with mobile CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes.
• Familiarity with mobile analytics, crash reporting and monitoring tools.
• Adherence to principles of clean code, test‑driven development and clean architecture.
• Experience with agile development processes and cross‑functional team collaboration.
• Excellent command of spoken and written English.
• Intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) would be a plus.

Employment Type & Seniority

• Employment Type: Contract
• Seniority Level: Not Applicable

Leadership Framework & Equitable Employment

WFP Leadership Framework guides common standards of behaviour for accomplishing our mission. WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact:

No Fee Disclaimer

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it.

Reminders Before You Submit Your Application

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
• Once your profile is completed, please apply and submit your application.
• Make sure you upload your CV and Cover Letter in English.
• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter.
• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates may potentially be requested at a future time.
• Contact if you face any challenges with submitting your application.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Equal Opportunity Statement

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organisational needs, job requirements, merit and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment and abuse of authority. Selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks. No appointment under any UN advisory or audit bodies will be offered to members of the UN advisory committee on administrative and budgetary questions, ICSC, FAO finance committee, WFP external auditor, WFP audit committee, joint inspection unit and other similar bodies within the United Nations system during or within three years of ceasing service.

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