Senior Android Engineer at Medium - Remote USA — Columbus
Traveler-Friendly Insight
Remote-First, But US-Anchored: Medium operates as a fully distributed team, which is promising for location-flexible workers. However, the job is scoped to the US (salary in USD, US-based offsites, US legal notices), meaning international remote work or working from abroad long-term may require careful consideration of tax and employment law.
Schedule & Async Potential: With teammates in both the US and France, the team is accustomed to spanning multiple time zones — a positive signal for async-friendly workflows. No fixed hours are explicitly mentioned, but the twice-yearly in-person offsites do require travel within the US, so you'll need availability for those trips.
Salary vs. Nomad Cost of Living: At $165K–$215K USD annually, this salary goes extremely far in popular nomad hubs:
- Lisbon, Portugal: Comfortable monthly budget ~$2,500–$3,500; this salary leaves significant savings headroom.
- Bangkok, Thailand: Comfortable monthly budget ~$1,500–$2,500; exceptional purchasing power.
- Medellín, Colombia: Comfortable monthly budget ~$1,500–$2,000; digital nomad visa available for stays up to 2 years.
Relevant Perks for Nomads: The co-working space stipend and WiFi stipend are directly useful for those working from cafés or co-working spaces abroad. The one-time home office bonus can help set up a solid travel-friendly workstation.
If you're a US-based nomad traveling domestically, this role is an excellent fit. For international travel, consult a tax advisor — prolonged stays abroad may complicate your employment arrangement.
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
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