Senior iOS Engineer (Real-Time Messaging)

About the company

Role overview

Responsibilities

• Architect and build high-performance iOS applications using Swift and SwiftUI, with UIKit where needed.
• Build persistent real-time connections, reconnects and heartbeats, message ordering, receipts, typing and presence, and live feed updates.
• Build offline-first storage and synchronization with queued sending and conflict handling.
• Deliver notifications with APNs and Notification Service Extensions, and calls with PushKit and CallKit.
• Implement chunked media transfer, image and video compression, and voice notes.
• Profile performance and tune memory and battery use; target a crash-free rate above 99.5%.
• Apply Keychain, certificate pinning, and end-to-end encryption support.
• Coordinate protocol design with backend engineers and feature parity with Android and QA.
• Own App Store releases, CI/CD, and code reviews.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of professional iOS development and production apps live on the App Store.
• Expertise in Swift, Swift Concurrency, SwiftUI, and UIKit.
• Working knowledge of XMPP or an equivalent real-time protocol such as WebSocket or MQTT.
• Strong background in offline-first data, background execution, and push notifications.
• Experience with MVVM, TCA, or VIPER, unit and UI testing, and Git.
• Hands-on real-time experience is required; instant messaging or chat experience is strongly preferred, and live feeds, social, or live-update apps are also considered.

Additional qualifications

• Messaging backend familiarity such as ejabberd or MongooseIM is a plus; Erlang coding is not required.
• End-to-end encryption, Signal protocol, WebRTC calls, news or social apps, Arabic/RTL UI, and Kotlin or Flutter exposure are nice to have.

Compensation

• Competitive package based on experience, plus a UAE employment visa.
• Applicants are asked to provide expected monthly salary and notice period.

Application

• Apply with a CV, App Store links, and a short description of relevant real-time or messaging features and personal contributions.