Founding Mobile Engineer (React Native / Expo)

Founding Mobile Engineer (React Native / Expo)

Location: United States (US Citizens or Green Card holders only)

Commitment: Full-time

Compensation: Equity-only (early-stage)

Equity: 0.5% – 0.75%

Vesting: 4 years with a 1-year cliff

About the Company

We are an early-stage consumer AI company building a mobile-first product that combines computer vision, social networking, and commerce.

The mobile app is the product.

Everything else exists to support it.

Users scan their real-world wardrobes using camera-based workflows, receive structured outputs from AI models, build outfits, and interact through a social layer with strong privacy guarantees.

We are assembling the founding engineering team ahead of public launch.

Role Overview

We are hiring a Founding Mobile Engineer to own the mobile application architecture end-to-end.

You will be responsible for:

• Core app architecture
• Performance and reliability
• Mobile UX correctness
• Integrating AI inference outputs into user-facing flows

This role requires strong engineering judgement. You will be making decisions that are difficult to change later.

Technical Responsibilities

• Design and implement a production-grade React Native application using TypeScript
• Own navigation architecture (React Navigation, deep linking, modal stacks)
• Build camera and media ingestion pipelines (camera, gallery, uploads)
• Integrate async inference results from cloud APIs into the UI
• Implement complex state management (server state, local state, cache)
• Optimize performance for:
• Large lists (feeds, closets)
• Media-heavy views (images, previews)
• Low-end Android devices
• Handle offline/poor-network scenarios gracefully
• Implement feature gating, experimentation hooks, and analytics events
• Own error handling, logging, and crash triage
• Collaborate with design to ensure accurate Figma → implementation fidelity

Required Technical Experience

You should have most of the following:

• Strong proficiency in React Native + TypeScript
• Experience shipping real consumer mobile apps (Android experience required)
• Deep understanding of:
• React rendering behavior
• Hooks, memoization, and performance tuning
• Mobile layout constraints (safe areas, gestures, keyboard)
• Experience with Expo (managed or bare workflow)
• Familiarity with native mobile concepts:
• App lifecycle
• Permissions
• Memory constraints
• Background tasks
• Strong debugging skills (you can reason from a red screen to root cause)

Nice to Have (But Not Required)

• Experience with:
• React Native Reanimated
• Gesture Handler
• Native modules
• Experience building:
• Social feeds
• Content ranking surfaces
• Media-first apps
• Prior startup or early-stage product experience

Engineering Expectations

• You will own the mobile app — there is no mobile team yet
• You will make tradeoffs consciously and explain them
• You will write code that others can build on
• You will be expected to unblock yourself
• You will care about correctness, not just “making it work”

Compensation & Equity

• Equity: 0.5% – 0.75%
• Vesting: 4 years with a 1-year cliff
• Cash Compensation: Minimal or none initially

This role is designed for someone optimizing for long-term ownership, not short-term income.

Eligibility (Non-Negotiable)

• US Citizen or US Green Card holder
• Legally authorized to work in the United States
• Full-time availability

Who Should Apply

Apply if:

• You’ve shipped production mobile apps
• You enjoy owning architecture, not just features
• You can operate without perfect specs
• You care about product quality and technical debt

Do not apply if:

• You require guaranteed salary
• You’re looking for contract or advisory work
• You prefer narrow, pre-defined tasks

How to Apply

Please include:

• A short introduction
• Links to GitHub / mobile apps you’ve shipped
• Any relevant technical writing or deep dives (optional but strong signal)

Apply via LinkedIn or contact details provided in the posting.