Mobile Rust Backend Developer Jobs in Washington

About Uplifter

Uplifter Inc. is a leading North American sports-technology company powering 1,700+ clubs, 200+ national and provincial organizations, and 4 million users across gymnastics, curling, skating, cycling, athletics, and more. With teams in Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal, and Nashville, we build the mission-critical infrastructure that keeps amateur and elite sport running—membership, events, payments, compliance, sanctioning, and athlete pathways.

As we unify multiple platforms (Uplifter, Interpodia, Curling Club Manager) and build Uplifter 2.0, we are modernizing our engineering organization to deliver scalable, reliable, and intuitive product experiences.

We are seeking a hands-on, architectural-minded Lead Mobile Developer to take ownership of our mobile strategy and deliver a world-class experience for athletes, coaches, and organizers.

Job Summary

The Lead Mobile Developer is responsible for architecting, building, and maintaining our next-generation mobile applications. You will bridge the gap between technical execution and product strategy, ensuring our mobile solutions are performant, scalable, and aligned with the Uplifter 2.0 vision.

This role is hands-on coding and architecture decision making. While you will mentor other mobile developers, you will not be directly managing them. Your role will focus on code quality, best practices, and technical direction. You will work closely with the CPO, Product Managers, and the Staff Engineer to define the mobile roadmap and ensure seamless integration with our evolving backend.

This role is fully on site, in-office 5 days a week at our office in Arlington VA, just outside of Washington D.C.

Key Responsibilities

Mobile Leadership & Architecture

• Own the technical architecture and development of the new Uplifter mobile ecosystem (iOS and Android).
• Lead the creation of a new mobile app using popular frameworks like React Native.
• Make high-level technological decisions affecting architecture and technologies used.

Delivery & Execution

• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient code while delivering key features for our 4 million+ users.
• Collaborate with Product Managers to estimate features, identify technical risks, and maintain predictable delivery cycles.
• Troubleshoot complex issues related to mobile performance.
• Ensure the mobile experience integrates flawlessly with our existing platforms.

Mentorship & Collaboration

• Mentor mid-level and junior engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and ownership.
• Partner with other development teams to design efficient, mobile-optimized APIs.
• Work with the QA team to improve mobile test coverage and release confidence.

Preferred Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of professional mobile development experience, with at least 2+ years in a Lead or Senior capacity.
• Deep expertise in React Native, Swift, and Kotlin.
• Strong understanding of modern SaaS architecture (API-first, microservices) and mobile design patterns.
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS ideal) and integrating mobile apps with complex back-end services.
• Proven ability to lead technical decisions and mentor other engineers.
• Experience publishing and managing apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Nice to Have

• Experience in multi-product or multi-codebase environments.
• Background in sports technology, membership systems, or high-volume transactional SaaS.
• Familiarity with PHP or Python/Django (our backend stack).
• Experience with payment gateway integrations (Stripe, etc.) on mobile.

Why Join Uplifter?

• Compensation: Competitive salary + performance bonus.
• Impact: A chance to directly impact amateur and elite sport across North America and globally.
• Culture: Strong culture of ownership, autonomy, and product innovation.
• Time Off: Unlimited PTO subject to delivery on targets.
• Benefits: Health/dental/vision benefits.
• Work Environment: On site with a small, dedicated, local team for rapid growth.