As a professional Mobile Developer, you can work directly for one company or for an agency. Entering the mobile application development field means that you are setting yourself up for success now and further down the line. As technology inevitably continues to modernise, your role will account for a high percentage of usage in the industry – due to mobile and tablet devices accounting for the majority of internet usage.

Android Development: Your core experience will involve using Java, Android SDK, RESTful API’s, Kotlin, Android UI design principles, patterns and best practices. Generally, you’ll have live apps within the Play store and a natural interest in picking up the latest technologies and development techniques.

You’ll be unit testing and proficient with GIT version control. You’ll be translating designs and wireframes into high-quality interfaces and devising the architecture and best approach for Android app development.

You’ll be designing, building and maintaining high performance, reusable and reliable Java code and identifying and fixing bottlenecks, bugs and reviewing any crashes. In addition, you’ll be called upon to attend client meetings and give regular updates on progress and also any industry events.

iOS Development: You’ll be interacting with teams including product developers, electronics engineers, embedded software engineers and Cloud developers to ensure connected solutions are functional, secure and easy to use.

If experienced, you’ll have apps to show from commercial native iOS app development using Objective-C or Swift. You will be a user of TDD / BDD development methodologies and have some experience of writing automated unit and UI tests (e.g. Catch, XCTest & Calabash). You’ll be familiar with Atlassian tools including JIRA, Bitbucket & Bamboo and have experience/awareness of iOS build tools (e.g., xcodebuild, fastlane & CocoaPods).

iOS Developer
Android Developer
Mobile Application Developer

Lead iOS Developer
Lead Android Developer
Head of Mobile App Development

Here, we aim to provide an overall range of day rates and salaries.

There are always factors to consider when assigning a day rate and salary to a role, such as the skill demand, location, complexity, level of responsibility as well as what other benefits are on offer, such as remote working. It’s also worth noting that the ‘number of years’ of experience is not an ideal measure. However, as a general guide, it should provide some ballparks and pointers…

At an entry level, mobile iOS or Android Developer learning professionals on average will be earning between £25-35k. At the mid-level you’d be looking to earn £35-£50k and seniors would be looking to earn £50k+.

At an entry-level, for a junior/graduate a typical day rate would be around the £300 mark, at the mid-level around the £350 mark and seniors can expect a day rate of £450+ as a benchmark.

Popular skills required for these roles include:

IOS | Swift | Android | Kotlin | Java | Objective-C | Xcode | Core Data | Cocoapods | Hockey | Fastlane
3rd party SDK’s | TDD, Xamarin, RxJava.

There are many courses you can take in mobile development and a qualification/degree in computer science or technical discipline can help with some applications.  Most businesses will prefer to see a portfolio of apps available to download in the App Store or on Google Play.

Salary: £28k – £35k
What They Do:
Assists in the design and development of mobile applications, writing clean code, fixing bugs, and learning platform-specific best practices.

Skills Needed:

• Knowledge of Swift (iOS) or Kotlin/Java (Android)
• Understanding of mobile UI/UX principles
• Basic experience with APIs and RESTful services
• Version control (Git)
• Problem-solving and eagerness to learn

Salary: £35k – £45k
What They Do:
Builds and maintains mobile applications, implements features, and works with designers and backend teams to deliver user-friendly products.

Skills Needed:

• Proficiency in Swift, Kotlin, or React Native/Flutter for cross-platform
• Experience with third-party libraries and APIs
• Understanding of mobile architecture (MVVM, MVP)
• Testing and debugging skills
• Agile development experience

Salary: £45k – £60k
What They Do:
Leads development of mobile applications, mentors junior developers, and contributes to architecture and technology decisions.

Skills Needed:

• Advanced coding skills in native and/or cross-platform frameworks
• App performance optimisation
• Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD)
• Experience with app store submission processes
• Strong collaboration with product managers and designers

Salary: £60k – £75k
What They Do:
Oversees mobile teams, sets coding standards, manages workloads, and ensures high-quality delivery of applications.

Skills Needed:

• Leadership and team management
• Architectural design for mobile solutions
• Budget and project management
• Knowledge of security and data privacy in mobile apps
• Stakeholder communication

Salary: £75k – £95k
What They Do:
Defines the mobile development strategy, aligns technology choices with business goals, and drives innovation in mobile solutions.

Skills Needed:

• Enterprise-level mobile strategy and architecture
• Expertise in both iOS and Android ecosystems
• Vendor and technology partner management
• Financial planning and resource allocation
• Building high-performing development teams

Salary: £100k – £140k+
What They Do:
Sets the overall technology vision, ensuring mobile applications drive customer engagement and business growth.

Skills Needed:

• Executive-level leadership and vision
• Cross-platform product and technical strategy
• Extensive experience in software engineering leadership
• Deep understanding of emerging mobile technologies
• Influencing board-level decisions and investments