About the role
- Build and ship client features for WhatsApp on Android, with a focus on performance, reliability and memory footprint on the low- and mid-tier devices that dominate the market.
- Own Android client architecture for services surfaces — payments, commerce and the everyday money-centric flows people already come to WhatsApp for.
- Work across Kotlin and Java with the Android SDK, and partner with server and platform teams on API design.
- Identify and solve the hardest technical problems across the pillar, including finding where new technology can address previously intractable problems.
- Set technical direction across multiple teams and own the architecture for a major area of the product.
- Lead initiatives of org-wide scope, resolving ambiguity in both product definition and technical approach.
- Drive engineering standards, quality and craft across the pillar, and make teams and systems work better to increase their impact.
- Mentor senior engineers, influence cross-functional partners in product, design and data science, and act as a credible co-owner of product outcomes.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams in product management, design, data science and operations to build innovative application experiences.
- Partner with payments, legal, compliance and local operations partners to ship services that meet the reliability and regulatory bar expected in India.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- 12+ years of programming experience in a relevant language OR 8+ years experience with a PhD
- Experience communicating and working across functions to drive solutions
- Experience utilizing data and analysis to explain technical problems and provide detailed feedback and solutions
- Experience driving large cross-functional/industry-wide engineering efforts
- Proven track record of planning multi-year roadmap in which short-term projects ladder to the long-term mission
- Experience mentoring/influencing executive stakeholders across organizations
- Experience building Android applications in Java or Kotlin using the Android SDK
- Experience with multithreading programming and mobile memory management
- Experience optimising for low-end devices, constrained networks and app size
- Experience building for the Indian market, including familiarity with UPI and India's digital payments ecosystem
- In-market experience in India, or experience at an India-based consumer technology or fintech company operating at scale
- Experience designing and operating payment systems at scale, including the reliability, correctness and regulatory requirements they carry
- Background in monetization, payments, commerce or AI/ML products
- Experience establishing the technical foundations of a 0-to-1 organization or a new product area
- Experience setting technical strategy for global, multi-market products, particularly in emerging markets
- Experience as a technical leader across distributed teams in multiple sites
- Familiarity with messaging platforms or mobile-first consumer products, including super-app or founder-led product experience in market
- Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
- Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
- Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies