Lead Mobile Engineer, React Native

Lead Mobile Engineer, React Native

Location : Madrid (Hybrid)

• Full-time
• Competitive compensation + equity

Shape the Future of Marine Navigation

Orca is reinventing how people navigate the sea—building the next-generation navigation platform for recreational boating. Our mobile-first experience already guides hundreds of thousands of boaters with features like real-time routing, weather overlays, and offline navigation.

We’re looking for a Lead Mobile Engineer (React Native) to drive and scale the development of the Orca App. This is a hybrid role that blends hands-on engineering with technical and team leadership. Your success will come from architecting long-term solutions that endure, raising the bar for the team, and shaping an engineering culture centered on delivering high customer value .

What You’ll Do

Lead the mobile App team— own the app architecture , drive technical decisions , and ensure high-quality delivery .

Mentor, support, and help grow a small team of talented React Native engineers.

Balance hands-on contributions with coaching and technical guidance.

Partner closely with Product , Design , and Backend to shape roadmap and execution.

Build robust, performant, and reliable features like sail routing , weather layers , real-time navigation , and offline maps .

Champion best practices in code quality, testing, performance, and release management.

Contribute to hiring and onboarding as we scale the engineering team.

What You Bring

Technical Skills

7+ years of mobile development , including 5+ years building production React Native apps.

Strong foundation in computer science principles and software architecture design.

Expert-level 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 applications.

Leadership & Execution

Proven experience leading small engineering teams or technical projects.

Strong systems thinker who balances short-term velocity with long-term maintainability.

Clear communicator who can align teams, clarify tradeoffs, and push through ambiguity.

Passion for product and UX—thinks like a customer and codes like an owner.

Why Join Orca?

High ownership : Your work will directly impact thousands of users at sea.

We’re a small, fast-moving team with big ambitions and no unnecessary layers.

Real-world impact : This isn’t a typical consumer app—it's a mission-critical tool used in high-pressure, real-world scenarios.

Great incentives : Competitive salary + equity in a well-funded, high-growth company.

Global ambition : Join us early as we scale Orca to become the reference platform for boating worldwide—read more on our blog (

Check out some features we’ve shipped :

Navigation instruments -

Weather for boaters -

Guard Mode -

Upgraded Logbook -

Apply Now

Send your CV and links to your work (GitHub, portfolio, apps) to

Want to jump the queue? Try our coding challenge ( review submissions fast.