Director, Mobile

We are a diverse and fully-distributed team from around the world, working toward our shared vision to raise the standard of trust online.

Join our team as a remoteDirector, Mobile, assisting DuckDuckGo in growing a team of Mobile Engineers dedicated to building world class applications.

This role offers a unique opportunity to make an impact with hands-on technical leadership alongside mentorship responsibilities. DuckDuckGo seeks to tailor all positions to an individual's unique blend of strengths and career goals.

As part of our growing team, you will collaborate with team members at all levels to identify and close major gaps in our products. Examples of projects you might work on include: expanding mobile tracker blocking, improving app performance, optimizing user experience throughout the app, and working with our privacy engineering team to design, architect, and implement new privacy features.

We empower our team to be self-directed and self-motivated in their work. If you'd thrive in that environment, and our core values resonate with you -- build trust, question assumptions, and validate direction -- you'll fit right in!

What you will do:

• Lead projects from proposal through postmortem, assessing vague problems, proposing high impact solutions, and executing them against a set of success criteria.
• Participate in the full development cycle: technical design, implementation, QA, review, and release.
• Lead a team of engineers dedicated to building world-class mobile applications, and assist in growing that team by hiring and mentoring both engineers and emerging leaders.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders in both tactical and strategic capacities.
• Leverage experiments and data to validate your direction and demonstrate the efficacy of your efforts.
• Apply pragmatic reasoning to navigate complex challenges and competing interests.

What we are looking for:

• Experience leading a team of mobile engineers.
• Significant experience developing large applications on either Android or iOS (preferably both).
• Highly proficient in either Kotlin or Swift.
• Previous engineering experience beyond mobile technologies.
• Ability to leverage both quantitative and qualitative data and to collaborate with a cross-functional team to develop effective UX solutions.
• Deep understanding of the following and how they apply to mobile applications: MV* concepts, mobile threading, and memory management.
• A fundamental understanding of complex data structures and algorithms. You can design and implement new solutions and confidently navigate and improve existing code.
• Exceptional project management skills.
• Creative problem solvers and risk takers. You like to take initiative to push projects forward and know when to involve others.
• Excellent communication skills. You can validate your decisions and communicate them clearly.

Other things to know:

• While we leverage specific job titles for hiring purposes, we do not use them internally. Instead, we follow our own professional levels, with expectations for each level clearly defined across several dimensions.
• We are a small, remote team distributed across time zones, and we rely on a variety of communication tools throughout the day. You should feel comfortable with the intricacies of this type of work situation.
• Sometimes we meet up! Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each ~4-5 days).
• We believe in a focused approach to collaboration, where individual team members work on a single top priority at a time, each supporting larger, company-wide objectives. This philosophy serves to impact our vision to raise the standard of trust online.
• Our work philosophy centers on empowered project management. All team members have opportunities to run projects.
• Transparency supports individual and team success at DuckDuckGo. We encourage everyone to participate in areas of interest throughout the company. Anyone and everyone can (and should) ask questions and offer feedback about our products and internal projects.
• We strive to exemplify our values (build trust, question assumptions, and validate direction) in everything we do.
• While this is a full-time job, we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours, expecting an average commitment of 40 hours per week.
• We support professional development of our team members through career advisory and a learning stipend, reinforcing our culture of growth and skill-building.

DuckDuckGo does not work with any recruiting agencies or services. Instead, we work with each candidate one-on-one throughout a unique hiring process that we've built to reflect our company culture.

DuckDuckGo provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment, and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

If you think you might thrive in this environment, we would love to hear from you.Use the application to apply!

Please note that:

• A successful candidate will be subject to a background check.
• By applying for this role, you confirm that information submitted is accurate and that you understand falsification is cause for denial of employment or termination.