About this role
More than 3 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. In India, it is also where a great deal of everyday life gets done — people message businesses, coordinate their families, and increasingly send money as easily as they send a message.
We are building a new team to take WhatsApp further in that direction. The newly established WhatsApp Services team is focused on making WhatsApp more useful for more of what people already use it for, and on building what comes next.
The WhatsApp Services team is treated as a zero-to-one effort so we can move fast, take risks and build as we go — staffed and prioritized, like every other WhatsApp team, from day one. Payments on WhatsApp aren't a bet on paper: live and growing in India, with the existing WhatsApp payments engineering team moving across as the foundation.
As an Android engineer at WhatsApp you will use your start-up mindset and your full range of engineering skills to produce elegantly simple products. You'll be expected to push the boundaries of what's possible in a mobile app, while sharing in our commitment to quality and attention to detail. You will set technical direction across multiple teams, own the architecture for a major area of the product, and shape what WhatsApp Services becomes in India.
Responsibilities
Build and ship client features for WhatsApp on Android, with a focus on performance, reliability and memory footprint on the low- and mid-tier devices that dominate the market.
Own Android client architecture for services surfaces — payments, commerce and the everyday money-centric flows people already come to WhatsApp for.
Work across Kotlin and Java with the Android SDK, and partner with server and platform teams on API design.
Identify and solve the hardest technical problems across the pillar, including finding where new technology can address previously intractable problems.
Set technical direction across multiple teams and own the architecture for a major area of the product.
Lead initiatives of org-wide scope, resolving ambiguity in both product definition and technical approach.
Drive engineering standards, quality and craft across the pillar, and make teams and systems work better to increase their impact.
Mentor senior engineers, influence cross-functional partners in product, design and data science, and act as a credible co-owner of product outcomes.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams in product management, design, data science and operations to build innovative application experiences.
Partner with payments, legal, compliance and local operations partners to ship services that meet the reliability and regulatory bar expected in India.
Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience
12+ years of programming experience in a relevant language OR 8+ years experience with a PhD
Experience communicating and working across functions to drive solutions
Experience utilizing data and analysis to explain technical problems and provide detailed feedback and solutions
Experience driving large cross-functional/industry-wide engineering efforts
Proven track record of planning multi-year roadmap in which short-term projects ladder to the long-term mission
Experience mentoring/influencing executive stakeholders across organizations Experience building Android applications in Java or Kotlin using the Android SDK
Experience with multithreading programming and mobile memory management
Experience optimising for low-end devices, constrained networks and app size
Experience building for the Indian market, including familiarity with UPI and India's digital payments ecosystem
In-market experience in India, or experience at an India-based consumer technology or fintech company operating at scale
Experience designing and operating payment systems at scale, including the reliability, correctness and regulatory requirements they carry
Background in monetization, payments, commerce or AI/ML products
Experience establishing the technical foundations of a 0-to-1 organization or a new product area
Experience setting technical strategy for global, multi-market products, particularly in emerging markets
Experience as a technical leader across distributed teams in multiple sites
Familiarity with messaging platforms or mobile-first consumer products, including super-app or founder-led product experience in market
Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)
Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies