Manager, Mobile Software Engineering

NPR is a mission-driven multimedia organization producing news, information, and music programming through partnerships with public radio stations. NPR is seeking a Mobile Software Engineering Manager to lead mobile engineers building and delivering features for its flagship mobile applications. The role oversees team development, technical quality, Agile delivery, cross-functional collaboration, vendor relationships, and production support.

Responsibilities:

• People Leadership & Coaching: Manage, mentor, and coach a team of Mobile Software Engineers, actively investing in their career growth, professional development, and psychological safety
• Talent Acquisition & Onboarding: Lead recruitment and hiring efforts for software engineering vacancies on your team, and manage the structured onboarding and training of new engineering staff
• Vendor & Agency Management: Oversee external software vendors, development agencies, and staff augmentation contractors. Define statements of work (SOWs), monitor deliverable milestones, enforce SLA quality targets, and manage budget utilization for external technical engagements
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with product managers, UX designers, data analysts, and editorial partners across all stages of the product development lifecycle
• Agile Delivery Management: Lead the technical planning, scoping, and execution of future software projects, facilitating Agile ceremonies (stand-ups, backlog refinements, sprint planning, and retrospectives) as needed
• Technical Quality & Code Review: Conduct thorough software design and code reviews, providing constructive and substantive feedback to maintain code health, architectural integrity, and security standards
• Continuous Process Improvement: Analyze, propose, and implement engineering workflow improvements to enhance the speed, safety, and quality of software delivery
• Developer Experience Automation: Identify common engineering blockers and pain points, writing helper tools or automation scripts to optimize team developer experience (DX)
• Incident & Production Support: Oversee and coordinate the team's response to critical mobile production bugs or infrastructure incidents
• Vendor & Contributor Management: Coordinate workflows, code standards, and deliverables for external contributors and specialized development vendors

Requirements:

• At least 3+ years of experience directly managing mobile software engineers within an agile organization
• 2+ years of experience overseeing external engineering vendors, contractors, or development agencies (including managing technical SOWs, deliverables, and code integration quality)
• Prior experience as an individual contributor in engineering, testing, and shipping robust code for at least one large-scale mobile application
• Hands-on proficiency in modern mobile platform languages, specifically Swift/Objective-C (iOS) or Kotlin/Java (Android)
• Strong working knowledge of native mobile release infrastructures (such as Apple App Store Connect/provisioning profiles or Google Play Console/staged rollouts)
• Hands-on experience working with modern version control systems (primarily Git)
• Demonstrated experience collaborating within cross-functional Agile/Scrum product teams
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts, system architectures, and engineering trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated competency in fostering an equitable, supportive, and inclusive team culture
• Strong analytical skill set with an "automation-first" mindset for resolving manual bottlenecks and production issues
• A strong focus on quality and empathy for end-users, ensuring highly performant, accessible mobile application experiences
• Deep fluency in Agile methodologies and software project delivery management
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical work experience
• Professional experience managing both internal employees and external agency vendors/contractors
• Experience with native mobile media streaming frameworks (such as AVKit/AVFoundation for iOS, or Media3/ExoPlayer for Android)
• Familiarity with modern responsive design architectures (SwiftUI/Combine or Jetpack Compose/Coroutines), design patterns (MVVM), and automotive platforms (CarPlay/Android Auto)