For releases that have to pass review and hold up in the wild
Hire iOS Developers
An iOS app can look flawless in the simulator and still leak memory, stutter on an older device, or get rejected on review for a background mode nobody flagged in testing. These engineers are tested against those exact failure points, then placed to carry your app through the parts of shipping that are easy to miss.
- Profiles typically within two business days
- Replacement Assurance: If an engineer is not the right fit, a replacement from our own team starts within ten business days of your request, at no extra cost
- You interview before placement if you want to
- At least four hours a day inside your core working hours. Two hours plus a daily written handover for the US West Coast
- 14-Day Risk-Free Trial: For your first engineer on a time-and-materials engagement. Up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. End within the trial and pay nothing for trial hours. Continue beyond it and those hours are billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work remains ours if you stop
How we evaluate an iOS engineer
The tasks, the signals and the onboarding, walked through by the people who run them.
90 secSample frame · video pending01Published, not promised
The assessment behind every engineer we send.
The iOS bar is published, not assumed: five competencies, the exact task behind each, and the shortcut that ends a candidacy. Most interviews ask about SwiftUI trivia. This one asks whether the release actually survives contact with a user.
What we listen forWhether they can trace a retain cycle, not just recognise the term.
A view controller never deallocates after being dismissed, and memory climbs a little on every visit to that screen. Diagnose why.
- What strong sounds like
- Traces the specific strong reference cycle, commonly a closure or delegate, and proposes a weak or unowned fix with the reasoning shown.
- What gives us pause
- Suggests calling a manual cleanup method on dismiss instead of finding and breaking the actual retain cycle.
Swift · UIKit · SwiftUI
Combine · Core Data · CloudKit
XCTest · XCUITest · Instruments
Xcode · TestFlight · Fastlane
02Who you actually meet
The bench, priced by seniority.
Three seniority tiers, priced honestly, and the engineers who fill each one today. Real names and photos take their place as soon as we can share them, and the standard stays exactly the same.
Engineer
Features scoped tightly enough to ship inside your review bar, every time.
The right first hire when your seniors already set the standard.
$2,600–3,300per month
Senior
The hard module nobody else wants to own, taken end to end.
Ownership of a surface, without adding a manager to your headcount.
$3,600–4,600per month
Lead
The workstream's decisions, made daily, so nothing waits on a meeting.
One accountable voice for a pod or initiative that can't afford to drift.
$4,900–6,100per month
iOS engineer
3 yrs · US East overlap
Traced a retain cycle that had been quietly growing memory use across three releases
- Swift
- UIKit
- XCTest
Senior iOS engineer
7 yrs · UK + EU hours
Diagnosed and fixed the background-refresh issue behind two consecutive App Store rejections
- Swift
- SwiftUI
- Combine
- Instruments
Lead iOS engineer
11 yrs · EU + US split
Owns the release process across two apps with a clean App Store review record
- Swift
- Architecture
- Fastlane
- CloudKit
Indicative ranges, representative profiles. Exact figures and named engineers arrive with your shortlist.
Weighing this against a freelancer, a direct hire or a marketplace? See the honest comparison
03From stated problem to first change
Four steps, each closing on evidence.
Each step here is built around what a release actually needs to survive, not a list of Apple frameworks. You can stop after any of them owing us nothing at all.
Define the release problem
We map where your app's stability, performance or review readiness is actually at risk. The brief names that gap, not a list of Apple frameworks to know.
A brief your leads signMatch against your app
Candidates are screened against your actual architecture, your minimum iOS version and your review culture. Three engineers who understand your constraints beat thirty who list Swift on a CV.
Three fits, not thirty CVsAssess on the real tasks
Bring your own engineers to the memory-diagnosis and Instruments exercises. Judgement under real release pressure is visible here, not a rehearsed demo.
Evaluation you can watchOnboard inside your process
Access, standards and a first bounded fix shipped to TestFlight. Continuity cover means a departure lands on our desk before it reaches your release date.
A merged change in week one
04Evidence and proof
Engineers who got the release through, clean.
iOS proof is a release that passes review and holds up on real devices, not a simulator demo. Every record here waits for written client approval before production.
Explore case studies
A rejected build that shipped clean on the second review.
Vela Ledger's background-refresh feature was rejected twice in App Store review before an embedded iOS engineer diagnosed the actual policy conflict and rebuilt it to comply.
- App Store rejections
- Zero after fix
- Time to compliant rebuild
- One sprint
He found the retain cycle that had been quietly growing our memory footprint for three releases.
Sample · pending client approval
The App Store rejection that had stumped us twice got fixed and approved on the first resubmission.
Sample · pending client approval
05Three shapes, one standard
Add an engineer, a mobile pod, or a practice.
Most teams begin with a single engineer working inside the existing app. Some need a pod that owns the full release process instead. When shipping matters more than staffing a seat, the practice is the honest answer.
- Team extension
One named engineer
A single iOS specialist inside your direction and your reviews. The smallest commitment, and where most engagements begin.
- Delivery pods
A mobile pod
A pod with its own lead that owns the iOS app end to end, App Store submissions included. You set priorities while the pod carries delivery.
- Mobile app development
The practice, not the person
If what you need is an app delivered end to end rather than a seat filled, mobile app development carries that accountability instead.
06Straight answers
Asked before an iOS hire is signed.
01What does an iOS engineer actually do day to day?
Manages view controller lifecycle and memory correctness, keeps background behaviour inside App Store policy, and profiles performance on devices older than the newest iPhone. The unglamorous majority of the work is the release process itself, not new feature code.
02Do you hire for SwiftUI or UIKit specifically?
Matched to your actual codebase. Lifecycle and memory judgement transfers across both, then the evaluation confirms familiarity with whichever your app runs.
03Can we run our own interviews as well?
Yes, the published tasks are built to be reused directly. Several clients now run the Instruments-profiling exercise themselves in later hiring rounds.
04How fast can an iOS engineer start?
A shortlist arrives within days from a bench evaluated continuously. Real start speed after that tracks your own repository and App Store Connect access process.
05Who manages the engineer day to day?
Your leads set the release calendar and hold the review bar. We carry what sits underneath: continuity, payroll, replacement risk and the handoff work when something has to change.
06What if the engineer is not the right fit?
Say so within the first weeks and the replacement is our cost. The next candidate is briefed on exactly what went wrong, so a second miss is rare.
07Do your iOS developers use AI coding tools?
Yes, openly. AI drafts boilerplate views and test scaffolding quickly; the engineer stays accountable for every memory decision, lifecycle boundary and merge that reaches your app.
08How does pricing work for a hired iOS engineer?
Pricing follows the tier bands above, confirmed exactly once the shortlist arrives. No placement fee, monthly billing per engineer, and a notice period instead of a contract term.