Principal Engineer - Mobile

Join to apply for the Principal Engineer - Mobile role at Costco Wholesale

Join to apply for the Principal Engineer - Mobile role at Costco Wholesale

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Costco IT is responsible for the technical future of Costco Wholesale , the third largest retailer in the world with wholesale operations in fourteen countries. Despite our size and explosive international expansion, we continue to provide a family, employee centric atmosphere in which our employees thrive and succeed.
This is an environment unlike anything in the high-tech world and the secret of Costco’s success is its culture. The value Costco puts on its employees is well documented in articles from a variety of publishers including Bloomberg and Forbes. Our employees and our members come FIRST. Costco is well known for its generosity and community service and has won many awards for its philanthropy. The company joins with its employees to take an active role in volunteering by sponsoring many opportunities to help others.
Come join the Costco Wholesale IT family . Costco IT is a dynamic, fast-paced environment, working through exciting transformation efforts. We are building the next generation retail environment where you will be surrounded by dedicated and highly professional employees.
The Principal Engineer in Digital Ecommerce at Costco holds a pivotal leadership role, steering the strategic vision, design, development and architecture of high performance native mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms. This role will be instrumental in shaping the long-term technical strategy, embracing innovation, and providing hands-on experience as a technical leader for the teams supporting these platforms; conducting research for emerging industry trends and providing ongoing guidance to bring that to fruition. This role demands a dynamic approach, blending direct technical guidance, mentorship, and active participation in risk and growth management. Collaboration with the Central Engineering leadership team is integral, fostering a hands-on and collective effort towards achieving organizational goals.
As a Principal Engineer, you will be instrumental in ensuring that our mobile solutions seamlessly integrate with microservices architectures and ContentStack for dynamic content management. In this role, you'll work with cross-functional teams to build scalable, secure, and innovative mobile solutions while driving technical excellence within the team. You’ll be responsible for optimizing mobile app performance, implementing CI/CD processes, and ensuring the scalability of mobile systems.

• This position will be filled onsite in Issaquah, WA or Dallas, TX.
  

• Leads the architecture and development of native mobile applications for iOS (Swift/Objective-C) and Android (Kotlin/Java).
• Designs efficient and scalable mobile app architectures that integrate seamlessly with microservices and backend systems (RESTful APIs, GraphQL, etc.).
• Focuses on optimizing networking, memory management, and UI responsiveness for both platforms to ensure high performance and low latency.
• Works with microservices architecture to build mobile solutions that communicate with backend services through REST, gRPC, or GraphQL APIs.
• Collaborates with backend teams to design API contracts and ensure mobile apps are optimized for asynchronous communication and real-time data sync.
• Architects and implements mobile applications that integrate with ContentStack (or similar headless CMS platforms) to manage content dynamically.
• Ensures that content delivery from ContentStack is seamless, responsive, and optimally synchronized with mobile devices.
• Establishes and enforces high standards for clean code, modular architecture, and best practices in mobile development.
• Leads code reviews, provide feedback, and mentor other engineers to improve technical skills and maintain consistent coding standards.
• Oversees the use of automated testing, including unit tests (JUnit/XCTest), integration tests, and UI automation to ensure mobile apps are robust and reliable.
• Profiles and optimizes mobile apps for speed, memory efficiency, and battery consumption.
• Uses mobile-specific profiling tools such as Xcode Instruments, Android Profiler, and network monitoring tools to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks.
• Designs, implements, and optimizes CI/CD pipelines for mobile applications using tools.
• Automates the build, test, and release processes to ensure apps are always production-ready and updates are delivered efficiently.
• Provides leadership to mobile engineers, guiding them in best practices and advanced development techniques.
• Sets the technical direction for the mobile team, ensuring alignment with overall company goals and architectural standards.
• Mentors junior and senior engineers, providing them with opportunities to grow and improve their technical skills.
  

• 15+ years of experience in native mobile development (iOS: Swift/Objective-C, Android: Kotlin/Java) with a deep understanding of mobile architecture.
• 10+ years’ experience in leadership or senior roles; demonstrating the ability to guide and lead a team effectively.
• 15+ years of experience working with microservices architectures, RESTful APIs, gRPC, and integrating mobile applications with backend services.
• Strong expertise with headless CMS platforms like ContentStack, including API integrations, content delivery, and synchronization.
• Expertise in mobile app optimization techniques, including memory management, UI responsiveness, and network efficiency.
• Proficient in designing and managing CI/CD pipelines for mobile apps using tools such as
• Solid experience with unit testing (JUnit/XCTest), integration testing, and UI automation for mobile apps.
• Proven experience leading technical teams, influencing architectural decisions, and mentoring engineers.
• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in API management tools, API development, platform and services security (e.g., Apigee,DataPower, Springboot, SQL, Java, C#)
• Proven expertise in working with cloud platforms, such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, to architect and implement scalable and efficient platforms and services.
• Experience dealing with high-volume and high-velocity platforms and services, and designing systems that can handle the demands of real-time or near-real-time operations.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership and responsibility of critical issues and conclude them to resolution.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
  

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science, Informatics, Data science or related technical discipline.
• Cross-Platform Development: Experience with Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) or other cross-platform frameworks for mobile app development.
• Cloud & Serverless: Familiarity with cloud-native mobile development, serverless architectures, and using AWS, GCP, or Azure for backend integration.
• Real-Time Communication: Knowledge of WebSockets or MQTT for implementing real-time data synchronization between mobile apps and backend services.
• Security: Familiarity with OAuth 2.0, JWT, encryption, and other mobile security best practices to ensure data protection.
• Open Source Contributions: Contributions to open-source projects related to mobile development or ContentStack integrations.
• Relevant industry certifications are a plus.
• Experience in retail, manufacturing, ecommerce, supply chain.
• Proficient in Google Workspace applications, including Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Gmail.
  

• Cover Letter
• Resume