Lead Mobile Developer for AI App

Summary What we're building An iOS health-intelligence app launching in 2026. The product turns a 30-second front-camera video into a daily biometric snapshot — heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, mental stress, body metrics, and a composite wellness score — using remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) on subtle facial skin-color changes. Brand-led, premium, non- clinical. Apple-first launch. Comprehensive product foundations already exist: a 1,500-line product ontology, a 95-row capability tracker, pixel-level screen designs for every V1 screen, a finalized brand system (Playfair Display + DM Sans, warm earth-tone palette), confirmed technology stack, and a paid 6-month free trial business model. The strategic work is done. We need the person who will build it. What you'd do You'd own end-to-end delivery of the V1 iOS app — front-end, native modules, backend, App Store submission — using Anthropic's Claude Code as your primary leverage. You'd run the sprints, write (or direct) the code, ship the TestFlight builds, and lead the engagement to Apple App Store approval. The founder is non-technical and explicitly not building the app himself; he owns brand, copy, voice, scope decisions, and validation, and you own everything else technical. This is not an oversight role. It's a primary-builder role for an engineer whose preferred workflow is AI-augmented. What we need from you 8+ years senior mobile engineering, primarily React Native + iOS native (Swift, AVFoundation, Vision, HealthKit, Keychain) A shipped iOS app you led to App Store approval as the technical owner Demonstrable fluency with Claude Code, Cursor, or comparable agentic AI coding tools as part of your real production workflow (not "I've tried it") Backend competence — Node + TypeScript, Supabase or comparable serverless backend, Postgres, API design App Store submission experience end-to-end (privacy nutrition labels, IAP, account deletion, age rating, ATT) Mobile security fundamentals (Keychain, encryption at rest, JWT) Async-first written communication Engagement Initial 16-week V1 engagement (~4 months) covering Sprints 1–8 through App Store approval, with strong intent to extend into V1.1 (paywall release, ~Months 5–8 post-launch) and ongoing Compensation: Hourly rate or fixed-fee per sprint negotiable US/EU time zones preferred; international considered with overlap You drive the sprints. Founder participates in weekly working sessions, sprint demos, and decision escalations To apply, in your proposal, please include: A short paragraph on a previous build where you owned end-to-end delivery of a consumer iOS app Your AI-assisted workflow today: which tools, what they own in your process, what you still drive yourself Most performance-sensitive native iOS work you've shipped (camera, ML inference, real-time CV, audio) Backend stack you're most fluent in (we've decided on Node + Supabase + AWS but are open to challenge if you have a strong case for an alternative) Link to one or more App-Store-live iOS apps you've led We'll move shortlisted applicants to a 45-minute call and then share the full scope document plus our product ontology. Required legal documents before engagement starts Before any proprietary materials (source code, ontology, brand assets, vendor terms) are shared, you'll need to execute three documents we'll provide: Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (MNDA) — template provided Proprietary Information and Inventions Assignment (PIIA) — template provided Work Product Ownership Agreement — explicit confirmation that all code, designs, documentation, and other deliverables resulting from the engagement are owned exclusively by a named entity. Drafted to be unambiguous because Upwork's default terms are gray on this point.