Tech Lead – Android Experience Engineering
AI summary
Watu Credit is hiring a Tech Lead for its Android Experience Engineering squad in Nairobi. You will own Android architecture, code reviews, releases and the supporting backend API, while guiding 3-5 engineers. Requires a CS/Software Engineering degree and 7+ years of experience; full-time role with deadline 05/10/2026.
- Own all architecture decisions, PR reviews and final release sign-off for the Android app
- Light people management of 3-5 direct reports (Backend, Frontend/Mobile, QA engineers)
- Own the backend API serving the Android app, plus QA strategy and release process
- Requires a Computer Science or Software Engineering degree and 7+ years of experience
- Full-time management-level role in Nairobi, listed under remote jobs, closing 05/10/2026
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- Required7+ years of relevant experienceThe job post includes a minimum experience signal.
- RequiredEducation or certification mentioned in the postThe captured text mentions education, a diploma, certificate, or licence.
- PreferredPractical evidence in internship, entregador, restauranteThe tags and summary point to skills connected with this role.
- RequiredAvailability to work in Not specifiedThe vacancy is associated with this location.
- UnclearComfort with the Full Time contract termsConfirm hours, duration, probation and benefits at the original source.
Documents to prepare
- Likely requiredUpdated CV
- Role specificCover letter or short employer message
- OptionalProfessional references
- Role specificAcademic or professional certificates
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- Place your strongest Tech Lead – Android Experience Engineering evidence in the first half of your CV.
- In your cover letter or employer message, connect your experience to Watu Credit and the role in Not specified.
- Add concrete examples related to internship, entregador, restaurante, ideally with measurable outcomes or clear responsibilities.
- Follow the instructions from Corporate Staffing Kenya; avoid sending documents to unofficial contacts or copied links.
- Confirm the deadline, interview location and employer contact before sharing personal documents.
- Plan to submit before the listed deadline: 2026-10-05.
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- Original source link available
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- Deadline is available: 2026-10-05
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Original source description
Job Title: Tech Lead – Android Experience Engineering
Date Posted: 25/09/2026
Job Type: Full Time
Job Level: Management
Employer: Watu Credit
Industry: IT
Salary: Open
Location: Nairobi
Country: Kenya
Deadline: 05/10/2026
IT Jobs, Watu Credit Jobs. Tech Lead – Android Experience Engineering guides mobile architecture, leads Android development, and optimizes performance, requires a CS/Software Engineering Degree and 7+ years experience.
Job Summary
Tech Lead is one of the most important individual roles in the engineering organization. You are the technical authority for your squad – you own the architecture, set the quality bar, govern external partners when applicable, and are the primary escalation point for every engineering decision in your domain.
This role carries light people management alongside deep technical ownership. You will have 3-5 direct reports (Backend Engineers, Frontend/Mobile Engineer, QA Engineer). You are responsible for their day-to-day unblocking, their technical growth, and honest feedback on their work. Formal performance reviews and hiring decisions sit with the Head of Engineering – but in practice, your view of each engineer in your squad is the most important input into those decisions. Do not let the word “light” mislead you: if an engineer in your squad is struggling, that is your problem to solve.
You are a peer of the Product Owner, not a subordinate. Product owns What. You own How and When. Sprint commitments are signed off by both of you together. If the roadmap is technically unrealistic, your job is to say so early and clearly.
Squad: Android Experience Engineering
Quick facts for this squad
Partner governance: Tech Lead governs all architecture, code review, QA strategy, and releases. Development is currently hybrid in-house and external (vendor).
Primary tech focus: Android · Java/Kotlin · Partner governance · BE API · QA · Release management
Domain responsibilities
Govern app development: own all architecture decisions, review all PRs, and hold final sign-off on every release. External resources are execution resources, not decision-makers.
Own the BE API that serves the Android app – designed and maintained by this squad, consumed by the app.
Own release process and QA strategy for the Android app – release cadence, feature flag strategy, staged rollout, and rollback procedures.
Own digital experience features delivered through the app – coordinate with the other squads (Device Management Engineering, Payment Engineering, Messaging Engineering, …) for cross squads features and dependencies
Drive the internal mobile engineering capability – the goal over time is to build sufficient internal Android expertise and deliver the best app experience to our clients
Domain-specific requirements
Strong Android development background (Java or Kotlin) – you can review any Android PR raised by developers and know whether it is good and architected/designed in the right away
Experience governing or managing an external mobile development partner – you have been the technical authority over a team that is not your direct report.
Understanding of Android app release management: Play Store submission, staged rollouts, feature flags, crash monitoring.
Experience with mobile API design – REST API design optimized for mobile consumption, offline support, and low-bandwidth environments.
Key Accountabilities
- Architecture & technical direction
- Own the technical architecture for your squad’s domain – system design, API contracts, data models, integration patterns, and the Architectural Decision Records that document why.
- Enforce the Watu engineering standards within your squad: GitHub for all code, mandatory PR review, coverage gates, OpenAPI documentation, runbooks, and secrets management.
- Be the squad’s representative to the Platform General Architecture – escalate cross-squad concerns, contribute to shared standards, and ensure your squad’s patterns align with the broader platform direction.
- Delivery & quality
- Review and approve all pull requests for your squad. Not as a bottleneck, but as the quality gate. Your name is on everything that ships.
- Define and maintain the squad’s Definition of Done. Work with the embedded QA engineer to ensure quality is built in, not bolted on.
- Own the squad’s release process. Nothing ships without your sign-off – including work from external partners where applicable.
- Drive sprint planning with the Product Owner – translate user stories into technical tasks, surface dependencies, flag risks early.
- Partner & vendor governance
- Where your squad governs an external partner, you are the technical point of accountability. The partner executes; you govern. Architecture decisions, code quality, and release timing are owned internally.
- Review partner code via PR access. Nothing a partner ships enters production without your review.
- People management (light but real)
- You have 4-6 direct reports: typically 1–2 Backend Engineers, 1–2 Frontend/Mobile Engineers, and 1-2 QA Engineers. They report to you for day-to-day work; the QA Chapter Lead reports to the Head of Engineering for standards but to you operationally.
- Unblock engineers actively – pair on hard problems, review designs before they build, and create an environment where asking for help is normal and fast.
- Give direct, timely feedback to your direct reports. Engineer growth happens through clear, specific feedback delivered close to the moment – not through annual cycles. You are the primary person responsible for the development of the engineers in your squad.
- Your input into performance reviews and hiring decisions carries significant weight – the Head of Engineering will lean heavily on your assessment of each engineer in your squad.
- Model AI-native engineering. Every engineer in your squad is expected to use AI/LLM tools actively. You set the tone for what that looks like in practice.
Requirements
- Essential
- 7+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years where you were the de facto technical authority for a significant product area or team.
- Strong backend engineering fundamentals: distributed systems, event-driven architecture, API design, database design, and testing strategy.
- Proven ability to review and reason about code across the full stack of your domain – you can give a meaningful review on any PR your squad raises.
- Experience in an Agile/Scrum or Kanban environment where you drove sprint ceremonies, backlog refinement, and delivery alongside a Product Owner.
- Clear, direct communicator – with engineers, with Product, and upward to the Head of Engineering.
- Strongly preferred
- Experience in fintech, payments, or digital financial services in Africa, LATAM or APAC.
- Experience governing external engineering partners or SaaS vendor integrations.
- Hands-on experience with Java backend development (our primary backend language).
- Familiarity with event-driven architecture, Kafka or equivalent message brokers.
- Engineering standards you are expected to uphold
- All code in GitHub – mandatory peer review, unified branching strategy, green CI before merge.
- APIs documented with OpenAPI/Swagger; Architecture Decision Records for significant decisions.
- No secrets in code – AWS Secrets Manager or Vault. OWASP Top 10 awareness is a baseline expectation.
- AI/LLM tooling used actively in your daily workflow – code generation, test writing, documentation, debugging.