Lead React & React Native Engineer

Sandton, Johannesburg
Permanent
Full-time

14 days ago
Apply easily

Sandton / Hybrid | 12-Month ContractWe are seeking a highly skilled Lead React & React Native Engineer (Technical Architect) to join a leading financial services institution on a 12-month contract. This role goes beyond writing code we need a technical leader and architect who can elevate projects, mentor teams, and set engineering best practices while remaining hands-on.You will shape the mobile architecture, balance innovation with stability, and deliver secure, high-performance applications that redefine the digital banking experience.Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership: Guide architecture decisions, enforce coding standards, mentor engineers, and drive technical excellence across mobile initiatives.
Hands-On Engineering: Design, build, and maintain scalable, secure React Native applications.
Architecture & Strategy: Define cross-platform strategies, balancing shared code with platform-specific optimisations (knows when to go native).
Native Integration: Develop and integrate custom native modules (iOS/Android) when performance or security requires it.
Security-First Delivery: Implement secure storage, token-based authentication, HTTPS, code obfuscation, and compliance with financial security standards.
DevOps & CI/CD: Own the setup and optimisation of mobile CI/CD pipelines for automated builds, testing, and deployments.
Testing & Quality: Champion test-driven development, implement Jest/Detox test suites, and leverage profilers for performance tuning.
Monitoring & Analytics: Integrate crash reporting (Sentry, Crashlytics), analytics, and monitoring tools (Dynatrace, ELK).
Collaboration: Work closely with product owners, solution engineers, designers, backend developers, and stakeholders to deliver seamless experiences.

Required Core Technical Expertise:

React Native Mastery: 5+ years of experience building and shipping complex mobile apps at scale.
JavaScript/TypeScript: Expert knowledge of modern JS, with a strong preference for TypeScript.
Native Platform Knowledge: iOS (Swift/Obj-C, Xcode), Android (Kotlin/Java, Android Studio).
State Management: Proven experience implementing solutions at scale (Redux, Zustand, etc.).
Navigation: Expertise in React Navigation or React Native Navigation.
Performance Optimization: Profiling, debugging, and applying solutions to ensure smooth, reliable apps.

Deep understanding of mobile app security best practices.
Knowledge of platform-specific security features and release cycles.
Awareness of risks with third-party libraries and JS bridges.

Required Tooling & Tech Stack:

Core: React Native, TypeScript, Expo, Redux/Zustand, Axios, React Navigation, MMKV.
DevOps: Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Firebase App Distribution.
Testing: Jest, Detox, React Native Testing Library, Reactotron.
Design & Debugging: Figma (Dev Mode), Storybook, React Native Debugger.
Monitoring: Sentry, Crashlytics, Dynatrace, ELK.

Preferred Background

Strong background in banking or financial services.
Experience with secure onboarding flows, regulatory compliance, and demo mode for app store reviews.
Familiarity with backend integration, offline capabilities, push notifications, and analytics.

Excellent communicator able to explain technical trade-offs to business and non-technical stakeholders.
Proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams.
Strong mentoring and coaching skills with the ability to elevate the engineering culture.

If you are a React Native leader who thrives in fast-paced, high-security environments and want to play a key role in transforming the mobile banking experience, we'd love to hear from you.

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