Development Manager - Air Canada Mobile App

Being part of Air Canada is being part of a Canadian symbol, Air Canada recently elected best airline in North America. Take your career to new heights by joining our innovative and diverse team at the forefront of passenger air transport.

The Development Manager is a seasoned engineering leader who adopts a hands-on approach and takes end-to-end ownership of the Air Canada mobile app: iOS and Android client-facing apps, Backend for Frontend (BFF) and supporting API services, as well as the build, deployment, and operational tools that bring the application to customers. This role combines technical leadership (architecture, technical roadmap, engineering standards, and technical debt strategy for the mobile platform) with execution leadership (code quality, release readiness, and production stability) across all mobile delivery teams.

As the most senior engineer on the mobile app team, the Development Manager serves as both the design authority for the mobile platform and the primary implementation owner, within the constraints of Air Canada enterprise IT architecture. This role keeps the application fast, reliable, secure, and accessible when it matters most to customers, from booking to check-in, boarding, and operational irregularities, while ensuring the codebase remains efficient, up-to-date, and viable for the long term.

Responsibilities:

• Take ownership of the technical vision, architecture, and medium- to long-term technical roadmap of the mobile application for iOS and Android platforms, as well as the backend (BFF, APIs, and integrations), in alignment with corporate, solution, and product architecture strategy.
• Break down complex requirements into clear technical tasks, anticipate risks early, and guide the team through implementation and validation.
• Act as the design authority for the mobile platform and primary implementation owner within enterprise architecture boundaries; define and enforce mobile architecture patterns and standards, and escalate cross-domain or enterprise-wide decisions to Enterprise IT Architecture and management.
• Ensure production-ready releases, including compliance with quality criteria (testing, security checks, performance, accessibility), staged progressive deployments with halt criteria, operational manuals and documentation, observability coverage, and mitigation plans accounting for already deployed mobile binaries that cannot be rolled back.
• Respect and enforce technical standards regarding coding, testing, documentation, security, accessibility, observability, and responsible AI practices across the entire mobile application.
• Foster high-quality peer code reviews, including for AI-generated code, focusing on maintainability, performance, reliability, security, and adherence to approved patterns.
• Lead and support the implementation of complex or high-risk features, balancing delivery timelines, technical quality, and operational risk.
• Take responsibility for the testing strategy (unit, integration, UI, end-to-end, API contracts, performance, and OS/device compatibility), test automation, and AI evaluation coverage to ensure continuous compliance with quality criteria and prevent defects.
• Improve pipeline efficiency for mobile and backend continuous integration and continuous deployment, implement automation, code signing, release creation, and AI-assisted development workflows to increase deployment frequency and developer productivity.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, QA leads, designers, and Delivery Project Managers to ensure clarity, feasibility, testability, and timely decision-making regarding scope changes.
• Take ownership of production issues from specialized teams affecting the mobile app; coordinate triage, restore service, and communicate progress and mitigation steps to stakeholders.
• Conduct root cause analyses for incidents and defects originating from the mobile app and implement corrective and preventive measures; ensure lessons learned translate into product backlog items that get delivered.
• Establish and maintain clear, accurate, and up-to-date technical and operational documentation to facilitate maintenance, onboarding, and operational support.
• Monitor and improve delivery and quality metrics, such as defect rates, pull request turnaround times, deployment frequency, rollback/hotfix frequencies, and reliability metrics (crash-free sessions, ANR rates, API latency, and error rates); leverage data to drive improvements.
• Provide technical guidance and day-to-day mentoring through pair programming, feedback, and advice; foster a culture focused on craftsmanship, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Manage the mobile technical debt register and remediation roadmap: identify, size, and prioritize debt, make its impact visible to product and management teams, and reserve dedicated capacity for its reduction.
• Ensure platform currency: deliver annual iOS and Android OS versions, toolchain updates, and target API and policy requirements for Apple App Store and Google Play ahead of deadlines; maintain the supported OS and device matrix; and remove deprecated code, unused features, and end-of-life dependencies.
• Design and evolve BFF and API contracts adopting a mobile-first approach (payload efficiency, versioning, backward compatibility with older app versions still used by customers), and define strategy regarding feature flags, remote configuration, emergency kill switches, and minimum supported version policy.
• Take ownership of the entire mobile deployment process in collaboration with the product team: release cadence, branching strategy, code freezes, regression testing, and rollouts.
• Integrate mobile security (OWASP MASVS), privacy by design, and accessibility (WCAG AA) into design and implementation, collaborating with Privacy (Legal) and Corporate Security on consent, data minimization, and app store privacy disclosures.
• Remain hands-on: design, develop, test, and debug client and backend code, and analyze and fix defects and production incidents.

Personal Qualities

• Inspire and energize engineering teams by demonstrating high enthusiasm and fostering a culture of excellence and empowerment.
• Demonstrate an innovative and forward-looking mindset, constantly exploring emerging technologies and non-traditional solutions to tackle complex challenges.
• Establish and maintain a culture of trust, transparency, and psychological safety to enable open dialogue that fosters diverse viewpoints.
• Challenge assumptions and the status quo with curiosity and courage to drive continuous improvement and team performance.
• Balance strategic vision with practical technical guidance, ensuring alignment between business goals and technical execution.
• Lead by example with integrity, resilience, and a commitment to mentoring colleagues to reach their full potential.

Qualifications

Mandatory

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field.
• At least five (5) years of software development experience in a production environment, including at least four (4) years of experience building and launching large-scale consumer-facing mobile applications via the Apple App Store or Google Play.
• Proven experience leading project implementation within agile teams, with strong hands-on expertise in native iOS development (Swift), working knowledge of Android (Kotlin), and backend BFF and API services development (e.g., Node.js, NestJS, Java).
• Proven experience managing technical debt, OS upgrades, and the lifecycle of third-party SDKs within a long-running production mobile app.
• Strong experience managing mobile app launches and app store processes, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern DevOps practices.
• Demonstrated ability to enforce engineering standards, ensure code quality, and support sprint-level delivery commitments.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical colleagues.
• Proven punctuality and reliability to drive overall team success in a fast-paced environment.

Assets

• Experience with AI-assisted development tools, prompt engineering, or AI evaluation frameworks.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud-native architectural patterns.
• Knowledge of API platforms, integration technologies, or enterprise systems.
• Experience with mobile observability (crash reporting, real user monitoring) and feature flag or remote configuration management platforms.
• Experience in the airline industry, travel, or other large-scale, regulated, or mission-critical environments.

Employment Conditions

Candidates must be legally eligible to work in the country at the time an offer is made and are responsible for obtaining work permits, visas, or other necessary authorizations. Proof of eligibility must be provided prior to the start date.

Language Requirements

All things being equal, preference will be given to bilingual candidates.

Diversity and Inclusion

Air Canada is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion and aims to create a healthy, accessible, and rewarding workplace that highlights the unique contribution of our employees to our business success.

As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage diverse applications so we can build a varied workforce representative of our customers and the communities where we live and serve.

Air Canada thanks all candidates for their interest, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.