Senior Android Engineer at Medium | $165K–$215K in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
High-Ownership, Low-Bureaucracy Role: The explicit absence of a dedicated product team means engineers at Medium carry real product responsibility — a significant career accelerator for those wanting to develop strategic thinking alongside technical skills. You won't just execute tickets; you'll shape roadmaps.
Compensation vs. Market: The $165K–$215K range is competitive for a Senior Android Engineer in the US. Glassdoor and Levels.fyi data puts senior Android engineers at FAANG-adjacent companies at $180K–$250K total comp (including equity). Medium's range lands at the mid-to-high end of the broader market, though likely without the equity upside of a late-stage startup or public tech company — worth clarifying during interviews.
Skills You'll Build:
- Modern Android stack: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, coroutines/Flow — all highly in-demand skills in 2024–2025
- Cross-platform product thinking (web, iOS, backend exposure)
- Product ownership and ambiguity navigation — rare skills that distinguish senior from staff-level engineers
Culture Signals: The emphasis on psychological safety, collaboration, and "Ladder Together" suggests a flat, trust-based culture. Small team size means high visibility but also broad scope — good for generalists who want impact.
Green Flags: Clear operating principles, 100% healthcare coverage, unlimited PTO, and mental health benefits. Watch for: No explicit equity/stock mention — worth asking about during interviews if long-term financial upside matters to you.
About Medium
Medium is one of the world's most influential writing platforms, connecting millions of readers with ideas that matter. We're a small, dedicated team that cares deeply and takes real ownership of the problems we tackle, moving fast while building something that lasts. Our actions and decision-making are guided by four principles: Humans First, Deepen Understanding, Orient for Impact, and Ladder Together.
About the Role
We're looking for a Senior Mobile Engineer to help build and evolve the Android experience that millions of readers and writers rely on every day. You'll own Android features end to end — digging into what users actually need, building it, shipping it, and paying attention to how it actually performs once it's out in the world. You'll work closely with our design team the whole way through.
This is a product engineering role at heart. We don't have a dedicated product team, so you won't be handed a fully-specified ticket and told to go build it. Rather, you'll be the one figuring out what's worth building in the first place, partnering with design and other engineers, and making good calls when the ask is vague or doesn't quite solve the real problem.
Android is where you'll spend most of your time, but we want someone who can also hold their own on at least one other platform — whether that's web, iOS, or backend. That range matters: it means you can see how a feature fits into the bigger picture, make good calls about where logic should live, and work credibly with whoever owns that other platform.
What You'll Do
- Own Android features end to end: understand the problem, build it, ship it, and see how it actually does
- Shape what gets built, not just how it gets built — push back on scope, propose simpler solutions, and raise platform constraints early
- Write idiomatic, well-tested Kotlin and Compose UI that fits naturally into the team's existing architecture
- Work directly with iOS, web, or backend engineers depending on what a feature needs, and help decide where functionality should live
- Partner with our leadership team, design team, and engineers in the US and France to turn a rough idea into something that ships well on Android
- Bring superb judgment to ambiguous requests — ask good questions, spot edge cases early, and propose reasonable first steps when the full scope isn't clear yet
- Own shaping product and feature spaces, maintaining and driving forward momentum even when the final destination isn't fully defined
- Help raise the bar for the mobile team on code quality, testing, and product thinking
- Attend Medium's twice-yearly, in-person offsites (hosted in locations around the U.S.)
What You Have
- Several years of experience building production Android apps; genuinely fluent in Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, coroutines and Flow, and modern Android architecture
- Expert-level Android engineering skills, plus the ability to hold your own on at least one other platform (web, iOS, or backend)
- Product engineering mindset — you understand the problem underneath the request, push back when something doesn't add up, and care about whether it actually worked once it shipped
- Experience working closely with designers and engineers on other platforms; able to explain technical tradeoffs clearly to non-engineers
- Good instincts about systems, adaptability, and a genuine eagerness to learn — able to advocate for an approach while staying open to a better one
- Ability to push forward in ambiguity and make great trade-off decisions to keep a project moving
Nice to Haves
- Experience using AI to improve a team's leverage, reach, output, and impact
- Experience owning product direction yourself, rather than just executing someone else's plan
- You personally use Medium and are genuinely excited to contribute to its mission: empowering humans to write meaningfully for other humans
Benefits
- Fully distributed team — fully remote with teammates across the U.S. and France
- Healthcare benefits covered at 100% for employees and 80% for dependents
- Generous parental leave policy
- Mental health support through Spring Health (or find a provider through Rula or Kaiser Mental Health Network)
- Financial wellness support through Northstar
- Stipends for co-working, professional development, WiFi, and a one-time home office bonus
- Unlimited PTO and standard company holidays
- A discounted Medium membership
Why Medium
We're a small team doing meaningful work. You'll have real influence over engineering strategy, culture, and direction — working alongside people who are genuinely good at what they do and who care about building something worth building.
At Medium, inclusion, diversity, and equity are core to how we work and what we build. We believe a more inclusive team creates a better product — one that's intuitive, thoughtful, and serves a wide range of users. We strive to foster a supportive, fun, and challenging environment where people from all backgrounds can thrive.
We welcome applicants from all walks of life and strongly encourage those from historically underrepresented groups to apply. Even if your experience doesn't match every requirement, we'd still love to hear from you — your perspective and passion matter more than checking every box.
Learn more about our mission, operating principles, and culture:
Read about our story here.
Read our guidance on AI use for candidates.
Salary Range: $165,000 — $215,000 USD
GDPR Notice
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We may retain your information for future job opportunities based on our legitimate interest in building a talent pool. You can object to this at any time by contacting us at [email protected].
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During the hiring process, we may collect personal information such as your name, contact details, resume/CV, employment history, education background, and any information gathered through interviews or assessments. We may share this information with service providers who support our recruitment process, in compliance with CCPA/CPRA. This information is used solely for recruitment and hiring purposes.
We do not sell or share your personal information as defined under CCPA/CPRA. Candidate data is retained for up to 48 months for our legitimate business purposes and in accordance with applicable laws.
To exercise your rights or request more information, please contact us at [email protected]. This notice can also be found on our Privacy Notice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this Senior Android Engineer role fully remote?
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Is there a product manager I'll work with, or do engineers own product decisions?
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