Staff Android Systems Engineer

Job Summary

Greenlight is seeking a Staff Android Systems Engineer to lead the development of Android-based products running on custom hardware. This is a hands-on, application-heavy role for someone with deep Android OS knowledge and the instincts to take a young codebase to production maturity.

About the Role

At Greenlight, we believe every child should have the opportunity to become financially healthy and happy. This mission drives our team to innovate and deliver cutting-edge solutions. As a Staff Android Systems Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our technology stack and ensuring our products meet the highest standards of quality and performance.

Responsibilities

• Work on Android apps which need to leverage capabilities offered at the AOSP level, navigate framework code, collaborate directly with ROM and vendor teams, and translate between what the app layer needs and what the platform can change
• Design and expose system services, Binder/IPC interfaces, and AIDL-based APIs that enable secure, reliable inter-process communication across platform components
• Own the permissions, signing, and app identity model with a deep understanding of the difference between standard and privileged/system apps and how platform signing changes what an app can do
• Drive PackageManager and app installation strategy, including silent installs, self-updating apps, rollback, and verification
• Champion WebView as a first-class product surface, owning the native/web boundary, JS bridges, performance, security, and hybrid debugging
• Build and maintain Android CI/CD pipelines including device-in-the-loop testing, self-hosted runners, multi-module builds with multiple signing configurations, and automated deploys to real hardware
• Design, implement and extend device telemetry, health signaling, and heartbeat systems, balancing battery, bandwidth, and privacy tradeoffs
• Harden pilot-quality software into production-grade systems by adding the right observability, closing long-tail failure modes, and raising the reliability bar across the codebase
• Build field debugging infrastructure including log pipelines, crash capture without Firebase, remote bug reports, and on-device diagnostic affordances for devices that aren't on an engineer's desk
• Serve as the technical bridge between platform-level architecture and the day-to-day pain points of product engineers
• Mentor and lead peers in a distributed, cross-geography environment
• Translate technical findings into business-relevant insights for engineering, QA, and leadership
• Apply AI tooling to real engineering problems in development, diagnostics, and platform automation

Requirements

• BS degree in Computer Science or equivalent
• 8 to 12 years of software engineering experience, with significant depth in Android platform or systems engineering rather than app-layer development
• AOSP fluency: you've navigated the source tree, worked with OEM or vendor teams, and can answer questions the documentation doesn't
• Deep understanding of Android's security model including sandboxing, system app privileges, the threat surface of privileged IPC, and how the same APK can behave differently across devices
• Comfort with adb shell as a real debugging environment and experience with system-level diagnostic tools and tracing to diagnose problems that never surface in Android Studio
• Experience shipping products where WebView is the primary UI surface, not a fallback
• Experience designing device telemetry and fleet health systems, especially in constrained environments
• A quality-first mindset and the ability to champion best practices in testing, observability, and release confidence
• Strong communication skills so you can translate deep technical findings for non-technical stakeholders and lead across engineering, QA, and leadership
• Genuine excitement about AI and a habit of applying it to real engineering problems

Qualifications

• BS degree in Computer Science or equivalent
• 8 to 12 years of software engineering experience, with significant depth in Android platform or systems engineering rather than app-layer development
• AOSP fluency: you've navigated the source tree, worked with OEM or vendor teams, and can answer questions the documentation doesn't
• Deep understanding of Android's security model including sandboxing, system app privileges, the threat surface of privileged IPC, and how the same APK can behave differently across devices
• Comfort with adb shell as a real debugging environment and experience with system-level diagnostic tools and tracing to diagnose problems that never surface in Android Studio
• Experience shipping products where WebView is the primary UI surface, not a fallback
• Experience designing device telemetry and fleet health systems, especially in constrained environments
• A quality-first mindset and the ability to champion best practices in testing, observability, and release confidence
• Strong communication skills so you can translate deep technical findings for non-technical stakeholders and lead across engineering, QA, and leadership
• Genuine excitement about AI and a habit of applying it to real engineering problems

Skills

• Kotlin
• Coroutines
• Retrofit
• Bitrise
• Espresso
• Android Jetpack
• Jetpack Compose
• MVVM
• KTOR

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, and HSA match
• Paid life insurance, AD&D, and disability benefits
• Traditional 401k with company match
• Unlimited PTO
• Paid company holidays and pop-up bonus holidays
• Professional development stipends
• Mental health resources
• 1:1 financial planners
• Fertility healthcare
• 100% paid parental and caregiving leave, plus cleaning service and meals during your leave
• Flexible WFH, both remote and in-office opportunities
• Fully stocked kitchen, catered lunches, and occasional in-office happy hours
• Employee resource groups

Pay

The estimated base pay range for this position in NY, CA, WA: $165,000 - 240,000

The estimated base pay range for this position in CO: $165,000 - 195,000

Schedule

Full-time