Senior Engineer (Mobile) at Virgin Active South Africa

Your Purpose…

• As we transform into a Social Wellness Club, we’re redefining how we approach technology by building globally scalable solutions. A key part of this transformation is consolidating our core member engagement platform (our Mobile App and related services) under a central team.
• This team will own a unified codebase, enabling faster, more consistent feature rollouts across multiple countries.
• We’re looking for a Senior Mobile Engineer to design, build, and evolve mobile app capabilities using Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP).
• You’ll work closely with the Engineering Manager / Leads, Product Managers, Designers, QA, and backend engineers to deliver high-quality mobile experiences across Android and iOS through shared KMP modules and platform-specific implementations where needed.
• This is a hands-on senior engineering role with responsibility for owning larger technical problem spaces, shaping implementation approaches, improving engineering quality, and driving scalable, maintainable mobile solutions. The role is app-focused, while working closely with backend teams to support end-to-end delivery.

Your Duties and Responsibilities...

Delivery & Ownership

• Own the design, build, and delivery of complex mobile features and technical components using Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP).
• Own and evolve shared business logic, domain, networking, and platform integration layers across Android and iOS.
• Lead technical input into discussions, sprint planning, backlog refinement, and estimation for larger or more complex work.
• Drive pragmatic decisions on shared vs platform-specific implementation to optimise reuse, maintainability, performance, and user experience.
• Set a high standard for clean, maintainable, and testable code, and influence implementation quality across the team.
• Provide high-quality code reviews, guide technical decisions, and raise implementation quality through constructive feedback.

Technical Execution

• Own end-to-end delivery of complex technical work from design through implementation, testing, release, and post-release support.
• Partner with the Engineering Manager / Leads to shape and strengthen engineering standards, architectural patterns, and development practices.
• Drive alignment with backend engineers on integration design, technical trade-offs, and end-to-end delivery quality.
• Proactively identify and drive improvements in app reliability, performance, observability, and maintainability across the mobile stack.
• Lead investigation of complex production issues, drive root cause analysis, and put preventative improvements in place.
• Improve mobile release processes, CI/CD practices, and automation to increase delivery speed, stability, and confidence.
• Own significant cross-platform delivery outcomes across Android and iOS through shared KMP code and sound implementation decisions.
• Make strong technical trade-off decisions between reuse and platform-specific implementation to support long-term scalability and user experience.
• Own delivery across shared modules, app architecture, testing, and release readiness for larger problem areas or feature sets.
• Influence technical decisions to support scalable and repeatable delivery across multiple countries and products.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product Managers and Designers to shape robust technical solutions, challenge assumptions where needed, and improve delivery quality.
• Coordinate effectively with QA, Data, Operations, and backend teams to deliver high-quality features and resolve cross-team technical challenges.
• Communicate progress, constraints, trade-offs, and delivery risks clearly, and help drive alignment on the best path forward.
• Play a leading role in agile ceremonies, especially for estimation, technical planning, and identifying delivery risks or dependencies.
• Drive strong engineering documentation, share knowledge proactively, and improve reusable development practices across the team.
• Identify and drive improvements in automated testing, CI/CD, code quality tooling, and developer experience.
• Proactively identify and champion opportunities to reduce technical debt, simplify solutions, and improve delivery speed and quality.
• Stay current with mobile engineering practices, Kotlin ecosystem developments, and KMP best practices, and help embed them into team practice where valuable.

Our Minimum Requirements...

We can’t live without…

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent professional experience in software engineering.
• 6+ years of professional software development experience, with deep hands-on experience in mobile engineering and ownership of complex mobile delivery.
• Strong experience building and evolving production mobile applications at scale.
• Strong experience working in cross-platform or shared-code mobile environments, ideally with Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP), including ownership of complex shared module delivery.
• Strong understanding of mobile architecture, design patterns, modularisation, and maintainable software design, with the ability to make sound technical trade-offs.
• Strong experience integrating mobile applications with backend APIs, services, and third-party platforms, including handling complex integration challenges.
• Strong understanding of RESTful APIs, client-side networking patterns, and mobile app performance considerations.
• Strong experience writing unit tests and improving broader automated testing practices.
• Strong familiarity with version control, peer code review, and collaborative engineering workflows, with consistent contribution to team quality standards.
• Strong debugging, problem-solving, and communication skills, with the ability to handle complex technical ambiguity.
• Ability to work effectively as a senior hands-on individual contributor, influencing delivery and technical quality across a cross-functional product and engineering team.
• Strong production experience with Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP).
• Experience owning delivery across both Android and iOS through shared cross-platform modules.
• Strong exposure to CI/CD pipelines, mobile release management, crash reporting, and observability tooling, including improvement of team practices.
• Strong familiarity with agile delivery frameworks and working effectively in product-led engineering teams.
• Experience in consumer-facing digital products, subscription products, wellness, lifestyle, or marketplace platforms.
• Demonstrated experience improving engineering standards, testing practices, developer tooling, or technical ways of working within a team.

Core Interpersonal Skills:

• Emotional Intelligence- proven ability to anticipate the needs of others before they are voiced
• Active Listening- Able to genuinely hear concerns with the ability to defuse tense situations and ensuring members and staff feel heard and valued
• Cultural Awareness and Fluency- understand international norms, etiquette and diverse backgrounds to provide a welcoming environment for our international and VIP members
• Empathy – be able to understand, or and be aware of, someone else’s feelings especially during stressful situations, such as travel delays or billing disputes

Operational & leadership Skills Required:

• Attention to Detail, noticing the small things
• Resilience and Composure, be able to remain calm and optimistic under extreme pressure, during peak or periods or system failures
• Problem solving and conflict resolution – be able to turn challenges into opportunities by thinking and acting quickly to resolve issues before they impact a member’s experience
• Adaptability: be flexible to handle unpredictable shifts in processers, resource changes, last minute VIP guest arrivals, or sudden changes in event plans.
• Relatability – the capacity to connect with diverse stakeholders across all backgrounds
• Situational Awareness – constantly monitoring the environment to identify members who need support or help
• Curiosity- the ability to seek out and transform standard transactions into personalised stories and memorable experiences
• Time Management – the ability to efficiently meet stringent deadlines while maintaining a relaxed and unhurried demeanor for guests.
• Digital Fluency – must be proficient in new age technology and systems

Closing Date 15 April 2026