Lead React & React Native Engineer (Technical Architect) at DeARX Services (Pty) Ltd

• We 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.