Mobile Engineer Tech Lead (React Native)

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

Angel is changing the future of American entertainment and is one of the fastest-growing Distributors in America. Our rapidly expanding library of light-amplifying stories has grown 10x in under 2 years. Gone is the old model where the deepest pockets pick the stories we share. Angel restores choice to our 1.5+ million guild members and growing who decide what we produce, what we take to theaters, and most importantly what parents bring to their homes. Check out angel.com/watch

Opportunity

Our engineering teams are revolutionizing what it means to be a part of inspirational entertainment. From building an army of voters weighing-in on short concept videos, expanding a membership-driven community with viewing perks both online and at the big screen, and innovating encoding tools that empower next-level parental guardrails, we’re bringing the world the next wave of entertainment powered directly by the people who want it.

You’ll have the opportunity to take ownership in areas that are sure to shore-up our streaming experiences and capabilities. We have a lot of features that have quickly taken to the market that we need to add structure and scalability to. We also have a broad vision of new innovative projects to take the Angel experience to new heights.

This is a high-ownership, high-impact opportunity where you’ll add vision, strategy, and execution for how millions of fans discover, watch, and engage with Angel’s ever growing library of stories.

Why Join Angel?

• High-Growth Company: Angel is one of the fastest-growing media companies, with record-breaking independent theatrical releases and millions of streaming users worldwide. See our recent interview with Evan Shapiro

• Massive Impact: Your work will shape how audiences experience the stories they love—and help amplify light around the globe.

• Extreme Ownership: We are a team of owners and entrepreneurs. This is your chance to operate like a startup founder inside a fast-scaling media company.

• Mission-Driven Culture: We strive to amplify light in everything we do. Join a team that deeply cares about the impact of the stories we tell.

• Future of Streaming: Help build a streaming platform that competes with giants—without playing by their rules.

What You’ll Do

Own and elevate the Angel Studios mobile app experience end-to-end—and push it beyond what streaming apps do today.

As the lead React Native Engineer, you will be the technical and product-driving force behind our iOS and Android apps. You’ll lead from the front—spending ~80% of your time building and shipping experiences, and ~20% guiding the team, shaping team direction, and ensuring excellence.

You will:

• Own the mobile experience end-to-end – Take full ownership of the Angel Studios mobile app, ensuring a world-class streaming experience across discovery, playback, and user engagement.
• Drive streaming excellence at scale – Deliver a seamless, high-quality playback experience with fast startup times, minimal buffering, adaptive streaming, and resilient offline playback.
• Build a best-in-class discovery and engagement platform – Design and implement intuitive browsing, search, recommendations, and personalized content experiences that rival top-tier streaming platforms.
• Architect for performance and reliability – Design scalable, maintainable React Native (Expo + TypeScript) architecture that performs across a wide range of devices and network conditions.
• Leverage modern mobile delivery systems – Own and optimize Expo-based workflows, including over-the-air (OTA) updates, CI/CD pipelines, and release strategies to ship quickly and safely.
• Ship fast and iterate constantly – Design and build features like downloads, offline mode, notifications, and membership flows through rapid experimentation and continuous iteration.
• Solve complex mobile challenges – Tackle issues across video playback, background downloads, offline sync, push notifications, and app lifecycle management.
• Measure and improve what matters
  Define and track key metrics (startup time, buffering rate, crash-free sessions, engagement, retention) and use data to drive decisions.
• Lead through code and influence – Provide architectural direction, conduct high-quality code reviews, and actively mentor engineers while remaining deeply hands-on.
• Multiply team effectiveness – Improve developer experience through better tooling, testing, CI/CD, and shared patterns.

What Success Looks Like

• The Angel Studios mobile app is recognized as a top-tier streaming experience—fast, reliable, and delightful.
• Streaming playback is smooth, resilient, and high quality across devices and network conditions.
• Discovery and recommendations feel personalized, intuitive, and engaging.
• Offline viewing and downloads are seamless and dependable.
• Your architecture enables rapid feature development without sacrificing quality.
• The team ships frequently and confidently using OTA updates and modern CI/CD workflows.
• Engineers are more productive because of the systems, patterns, and guidance you provide.
• You are seen as the clear technical owner of the mobile platform, with strong trust across product and leadership.

Requirements:

What You’ll Need

• Builder mindset with product ownership – You think like an owner, not just an implementer—driving both technical and product outcomes.
• Deep React Native expertise – Strong experience building and scaling production mobile apps using React Native and TypeScript.
• Strong mobile architecture skills – Ability to design systems that balance performance, scalability, and developer experience.
• Hands-on leadership – Comfort leading while staying deeply involved in the code (80% IC, 20% leadership).
• Experience with modern mobile tooling – Familiarity with Expo, OTA updates, mobile CI/CD pipelines, and release strategies.
• Streaming/media experience (or similar complexity) – Understanding of video playback, buffering, caching, or other performance-critical systems is highly valuable.
• Performance and reliability focus – You care deeply about app responsiveness, crash rates, and user experience details.
• Experiment-driven mindset – Experience defining and using AB Tests and metrics to guide product and engineering decisions.
• Strong collaboration and communication – Ability to align cross-functional teams and clearly communicate tradeoffs and direction.
• Ownership and initiative – You proactively identify problems and drive solutions end-to-end.
• Adaptability and speed – Comfort working in fast-moving environments with evolving priorities.
• Mentorship and team development – You elevate others through feedback, coaching, and shared standards.

Required Experience

• 10–15+ years of software engineering experience (Staff+ level experience)
• 5–8+ years building mobile applications
• 4+ years of React Native experience in production environments
• Strong experience with TypeScript and modern frontend architecture
• Proven track record of owning and shipping complex consumer-facing apps
• Experience working on apps with real users at scale

Preferred Experience

• Experience with Expo and OTA update systems
• Experience building streaming or media-heavy applications
• Experience implementing push notifications and engagement systems
• Familiarity with recommendation systems or personalization
• Experience with subscription/membership flows (in-app purchases, payments, auth)
• Experience with analytics, observability, and performance monitoring tools
• Background in high-performance or resource-constrained environments

What To Know

Work environment

Remote team members must have a private and quiet area for working hours in their location. When in the main office, expect a comfortable, air-conditioned work environment. Team members are issued their own desks, but the office is an open, shared space and can be fast-paced and occasionally noisy.

Physical demands

Will need to be able to sit or stand at a desk for extended periods of time.

Position type and expected hours of work

Regular full-time, 40 hours per week.

Travel required

2-4 onsite events in Utah each year. There may be other opportunities to travel, but no other significant out-of-state travel is anticipated

Work authorization

Must be authorized to work in the United States.

EEO statement

At Angel Studios, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates.

Other duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the team member for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.