Founder shipped Android apps when "Android" still meant Eclair

    Hire Android developers expertly trained on AI and product thinking

    Hire dedicated Android developers from a staffing partner whose founder has been shipping mobile apps for two decades. We have placed hundreds of senior Kotlin and Android engineers in the Philippines, including the Android teams behind production apps at fast-growing SaaS companies and Fortune 500s. Every engineer on the bench is pre-vetted, full-time, and ready to start in 7 days.

    20+ yrs
    Founder-led mobile expertise
    100s
    of Android engineers hired
    7 days
    to your first hire
    OrderListScreen.kt
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      vm: OrdersVM = hiltViewModel()
    ) {
      val orders by vm.orders
        .collectAsStateWithLifecycle()
    
      LazyColumn {
        items(orders) { order ->
          OrderRow(order)
        }
      }
    
      LaunchedEffect(Unit) { vm.load() }
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    Hire in 7 days
    93%+ retention

    Android teams trusted by enterprises, scale-ups, and Fortune 500s

    AMC Theatres
    Facility Ally
    Real Quantum
    PMI Rate Pro
    LendingStandard
    Insight Voice
    Stackify
    VinSolutions
    Apartment Lines
    WaitTime
    Bonfyre
    Skuid
    BetterCloud
    ProductionLink
    AMC Theatres
    Facility Ally
    Real Quantum
    PMI Rate Pro
    LendingStandard
    Insight Voice
    Stackify
    VinSolutions
    Apartment Lines
    WaitTime
    Bonfyre
    Skuid
    BetterCloud
    ProductionLink
    Matt Watson, Full Scale CEO and four-time tech founder who has been an Android user and Android builder since the VinSolutions days
    Matt Watson
    Founder & CEO, Full Scale
    Previously founded VinSolutions ($150M+ exit) and Stackify
    A note from our founder

    I've been an Android user since before I founded Full Scale

    I've been an Android user for as long as I can remember. Part of that is preference, part of it is principle. I want a phone where I can install any app I want, sideload whatever tool I'm trying out, and pick the launcher and keyboard I actually like. iOS does not give you that. Android does, and after twenty years in software I still think that openness matters.

    My first Android development work goes back to my VinSolutions days, when we had to build tools for car salespeople to track their customer engagements out on the lot. Most of our salespeople were on Android, so most of that work shipped on Android, and the platform has held up in production ever since. There is a reason Android is the number one phone OS in the world by a wide margin. It is rock solid, the install base is enormous, and for most of our clients an Android build is the first thing that ships, not the second.

    We do a lot of Android development at Full Scale. The Android specialists on our bench are fluent in Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Hilt, Coroutines, and the full Android Jetpack stack. We test them on real architecture problems rather than Kotlin syntax quizzes, and we have built dedicated Android teams for fast-growing SaaS companies and Fortune 500s. If you are serious about hiring offshore Android developers who can actually ship and maintain a production app on the Play Store, you are in the right place.

    4x
    Tech founder
    20+
    Years building mobile apps
    Built different

    AI-powered Android engineers, trained on Product Driven principles

    Most Android teams adopting AI are shipping more code without shipping better apps. The slop volume climbs, Play Store reviews get worse, and engineers whose only skill is typing faster end up costing more in cleanup than they save in keystrokes.

    Full Scale Android developers are trained on something different: the Product Driven approach from Matt's book, combined with the full modern AI toolkit ( GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, and the AI features baked into Android Studio including Gemini in Android Studio). They think first, type second, and use AI for the parts where judgment doesn't add value. That combination is rare, and it is what Android teams should actually be hiring for in 2026.

    Pillar 1

    Product Driven engineering

    Our Android engineers are trained on the five pillars from Matt's book: Vision, Focus, Clarity, Ownership, and Courage. The result is Android developers who push back on bad product decisions, ask whether a feature should ship before building it, and own what users see on the Play Store. They are not order takers.

    Read Product Driven, the book
    Pillar 2

    AI as a thinking partner

    Every Android engineer on our bench works with GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, and the AI features built into Android Studio every day. They use AI to explore options, scaffold the boring parts of a Compose screen, generate test suites, and review their own pull requests before a human ever sees them. Judgment stays with the engineer, the grunt work moves to the machine.

    An Android engineer who reaches for Copilot before thinking about the user is going to ship a worse app, faster. The Android developers I want on my team reason about the screen and the tap flow before they reach for AI, and they use AI for the parts where judgment doesn't matter. That is who we hire and train at Full Scale.

    Matt Watson, Founder & CEO, Full Scale
    Featured case study

    The engineering team behind AMC Theatres

    AMC Theatres
    Fortune 500 client
    Industry
    Media & Entertainment
    Engagement
    Fully integrated team
    Footprint
    900+ theatres worldwide

    It's a fully integrated team. It's just some of the people happen to be living in the Philippines.

    Derrick Leggett, CIO, AMC Theatres
    Pricing

    Dedicated Android developers, starting at $35 an hour

    That rate is fully loaded. A senior Android engineer in the Philippines, working full-time on your project, with payroll, benefits, HR, and equipment all handled by Full Scale. The same role hired locally in the US costs $150K to $200K a year. The math is what drives most of our clients to call.

    Starting at
    $35/ hour
    Per dedicated Android developer, fully loaded
    Compared to US based hires
    Roughly 40-50% of an equivalent US hire

    Final rate depends on seniority and skill specialty.

    What you get for that rate
    • Full-time, dedicated Android engineer
    • Pre-vetted by senior Android reviewers
    • Works your hours, your tools, your codebase
    • Payroll, HR, equipment, benefits handled by us
    • US-based account manager you can escalate to
    • 30-day replacement guarantee if it isn't a fit
    Trusted operator

    Full Scale has made the Inc. 5000 four years in a row and is Great Place to Work certified. We have been doing this since 2018, and pricing isn't the only reason clients stay with our Android app development company, it's the easiest reason to call.

    Why the Philippines

    The reason offshore Android development works here

    You can also hire dedicated developers in the Philippines across every other stack we staff, with the same vetting bar, retention numbers, and engagement model that Android clients get.

    English-fluent by default

    The Philippines is the third-largest English-speaking country in the world. Standups, code reviews, and product calls work the way they do with any US team member.

    Real time-zone overlap

    Most of our Android engineers work US business hours with 4-8 hours of real-time overlap with East and West Coast teams, so decisions happen live during shared hours rather than crawling through 24-hour async handoffs.

    Deep Android talent pool

    Cebu and Manila produce tens of thousands of CS and IT graduates a year, and a substantial share of them go straight into Kotlin and Android work. The Philippines has been a serious Android development hub for over a decade.

    Cultural alignment with US teams

    Filipino engineers grow up on US business norms, US TV, and US tech culture, so agile rituals, direct feedback, and collaborative workflows feel familiar from day one. These teams integrate fast rather than needing constant management.

    Why most offshore Android teams fail

    Writing Kotlin is not the same as knowing Android

    Anyone who passed a Jetpack Compose tutorial can ship a screen. Building an Android app that holds up in production across Pixels, Samsungs, low-end devices, and a thousand OEM customizations requires a different bench entirely. When you hire dedicated Android developers offshore or work with an Android app development agency, this is the gap that decides whether the app ships and survives Play Store review. Here is what we test for, and what most offshore staffing companies skip.

    Architecture knowledge, not just Kotlin syntax

    Junior Android developers ship screens. Senior Android engineers reason about MVVM and MVI, unidirectional data flow with StateFlow, Hilt-based dependency injection, and when a Clean Architecture module split actually earns its complexity in a Kotlin codebase.

    Platform-native instincts on Android

    We test for engineers who understand Material 3 and Android navigation patterns in their bones, not just Compose syntax. An Android app that copies iOS conventions or ignores back-stack semantics, edge-to-edge insets, and predictive back is the single most common reason an app feels off on a Pixel.

    Mobile backend and API design for Android

    Real Android work covers pagination with Paging 3, offline caching with Room, conflict resolution, push pipelines through FCM, and API contracts that survive Play Store review cycles. We staff engineers who think about flaky networks as a feature, not an assumption.

    Java-to-Kotlin migration without the breakage

    Moving a Java codebase to Kotlin, retiring RxJava in favor of Coroutines and Flow, or migrating from XML views to Compose is more than a find-and-replace. We have done full migrations for production Android apps with millions of installs, so we know where the landmines are before we start.

    Android security and privacy done right

    Real security work on Android covers Keystore, certificate pinning, BiometricPrompt, Play Integrity, OWASP MASVS, runtime permissions, Photo Picker, and the Data Safety disclosures Google now requires. It isn't a checklist exercise, and we test for engineers who understand the actual attack surface of a production Android app.

    Production debugging skills

    A senior Android engineer should be able to read a Crashlytics stack trace, profile a slow scroll in Android Profiler, run a heap dump through Memory Profiler, and reason about why an app is killed by the OS in the background. Most offshore Android developers have never touched these tools.

    Android app development services we deliver

    Hire dedicated Android developers for the work that actually matters

    Most Android hiring conversations skip past the actual project. What kind of Android work do you need done? A greenfield Compose build, an enterprise Android app behind an MDM, a Java-to-Kotlin migration, a performance fix that has been open for six months? As an Android app development company that bills for engineering hours rather than fixed-bid projects, our developers ship across all of it. Here are the Android development services we get hired for most often.

    Custom Android app development

    Custom Android development means greenfield builds in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose with Hilt for DI, Coroutines and Flow for async work, and Room for persistence. We start with a real product model rather than a screen scaffold, so the resulting app survives the first 18 months without a rewrite.

    Read our mobile development guide

    Enterprise Android development

    Multi-tenant Android apps with role-based access, SSO, MDM and Android Enterprise enrollment, audit logging, and the security posture that enterprise IT actually reviews. We staff engineers who have shipped Android apps inside Fortune 500 deployment fleets.

    Android API and backend integration

    We build the mobile-friendly APIs and BFFs that real Android apps need. REST with Retrofit, GraphQL with Apollo Kotlin, FCM push pipelines, offline sync with Room, and contract testing in CI. Third-party integrations get circuit breakers, retry logic, and idempotency keys.

    Android DevOps and release engineering

    Fastlane for Android, Gradle Play Publisher, Android App Bundle builds, Play App Signing, internal testing tracks, closed and open testing, and staged rollouts. We make Play Store releases boring in the good way, with no surprise rejections on the morning of a launch.

    Legacy Android modernization and Kotlin migration

    We run production Android migration projects from Java to Kotlin, RxJava to Coroutines and Flow, and XML views to Jetpack Compose. We know which third-party SDKs break in a migration, where the deprecated APIs sneak in, and how to stage the cutover without losing users. This is Android modernization work we have done for apps with millions of installs.

    Read about Kotlin vs Java for Android

    Android performance and debugging

    Our Android performance work covers Android Profiler for CPU and memory, Macrobenchmark and Baseline Profiles for startup and scrolling, Firebase Performance for production traces, Crashlytics deep dives, and ANR investigations. These are skills most offshore Android shops have never developed, so hire us when your app is slow and nobody knows why.

    Hire Kotlin engineers, Compose specialists, Android security and DevOps

    Eight Android specializations, one staffing partner

    Most Android teams need more than one role. Hire dedicated Kotlin engineers, Jetpack Compose specialists, Java-to-Kotlin migration leads, Android DevOps, and mobile backend engineers from a single vetted bench. Mix and match seniorities as the project requires.

    Senior Kotlin Engineers

    Senior Kotlin developers handle the modern Android stack end to end: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Coroutines, Flow, Room, Hilt, and WorkManager. They build apps that feel native because they think native.

    Mid to Staff

    Jetpack Compose Specialists

    Compose specialists who know state hoisting, recomposition performance, side-effect APIs, and how to keep a complex screen out of the slow-recomposition trap. They migrate XML layouts to Compose without regression.

    Mid to Senior

    Java to Kotlin Migration Leads

    Engineers who have run production Java-to-Kotlin migrations, including the RxJava-to-Coroutines work that comes with it. They know which third-party SDKs break and how to phase the cutover.

    Senior to Staff

    Android Security Engineers

    Android security specialists who work with Keystore, BiometricPrompt, certificate pinning, Play Integrity, and OWASP MASVS. They handle Data Safety disclosures and runtime permission flows that survive Play review.

    Senior

    Mobile Backend Engineers

    Backend engineers who build the APIs and BFFs that Android clients actually need: pagination, offline sync, FCM pipelines, and contracts that survive Play Store review.

    Senior
    Hire dedicated backend developers

    Android DevOps Engineers

    DevOps work on Android teams covers Gradle and the Android Gradle Plugin, Fastlane for Android, Gradle Play Publisher, App Bundle builds, Play App Signing, and staged rollouts. They make releases boring in the good way.

    Mid to Senior

    Android QA and SDET

    Automation engineers who write tests in Espresso, Compose UI Test, JUnit5, Robolectric, MockK, Appium, and Maestro. They build the test pyramid you wish you had, and they know which device farms to trust.

    Mid to Senior
    Hire dedicated QA engineers

    Mobile UI and UX Designers

    Android-focused product designers who work in Figma and understand Material 3 and Android navigation patterns at the level of constraint, not just convention. They pair tightly with engineers.

    Mid to Senior
    Hire dedicated UX designers
    Android app development services by industry

    Android expertise tuned to your industry

    As an Android app development company that has been around for over a decade, we have placed dedicated Android developers into nearly every industry that ships an app. Domain knowledge cuts onboarding time in half, so we match developers to projects where they have already shipped real code.

    Media & Entertainment

    Media and entertainment Android apps are high-traffic, customer-facing, and unforgiving of bad releases. We staff Android teams behind ticketing apps, streaming clients, loyalty apps, and second-screen experiences, where a one-star Play Store review on launch day is a real business problem.

    TicketingLoyaltyStreamingCast & Android TV
    Android app development services across the full Android stack

    From Jetpack Compose to Kotlin Multiplatform to Wear OS and Android TV

    Whether you want to hire Kotlin engineers for a greenfield Compose build, hire an Android specialist for a Java-to-Kotlin rewrite, or outsource Android development on a legacy XML and RxJava codebase, the bench covers every layer of the Android stack. Pick what you need. We will match an Android developer fluent in it.

    Languages
    KotlinJavaC++ (NDK)Dart (KMP interop)
    UI & UX
    Jetpack ComposeMaterial 3View System (XML)Compose NavigationPredictive backEdge-to-edge
    Architecture
    MVVMMVIClean ArchitectureUnidirectional Data FlowModularization
    Jetpack & Async
    CoroutinesFlowStateFlowHiltRoomDataStoreWorkManagerPaging 3
    Networking & Backend
    RetrofitOkHttpKtorGraphQL (Apollo Kotlin)FirebaseFCMSupabase
    Cross-Platform
    Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP)Compose MultiplatformFlutterReact Native
    Build & DevOps
    GradleKSPVersion CatalogsR8 / ProGuardFastlane (Android)Gradle Play PublisherGitHub Actions
    Testing & Quality
    JUnit5Compose UI TestEspressoRobolectricMockKMaestroAppium
    Observability
    CrashlyticsFirebase PerformanceSentryOpenTelemetryAndroid ProfilerMacrobenchmark
    How to hire dedicated Android developers

    Hire dedicated Android developers, two ways

    Most clients start with a single dedicated Android developer and grow into a full team. Either way, you get full-time engineers who sit on your standups, work your hours, and ship code against your roadmap. Both options are staff augmentation at the core: dedicated, long-term engineers embedded in your team rather than freelancers, shared resources, or a project shop on the side.

    Dedicated developer

    Full-time, exclusive, sits on your standups.

    Best for
    Long-running Android products with a real roadmap.
    What's included
    • Full-time Android engineer assigned only to your project
    • Works your hours, your tools, your codebase
    • Joins your standups, reports to your tech lead
    • We handle payroll, HR, equipment, retention
    • Replace within 30 days if it isn't a fit
    From first call to first commit in 7 days

    How to hire a dedicated Android developer from Full Scale

    We skip the 3-6 week recruitment cycle and the cold sourcing entirely. Our bench of remote dedicated developers in the Philippines is already built and vetted across Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, the Android Jetpack stack, and Android DevOps, and every step below has a named owner on our side.

    01

    Discovery call

    Day 1

    30 minutes with our team. We learn your stack, your roadmap, the seniority level you need, and what kind of Android work is on the table (greenfield Compose, Java-to-Kotlin migration, an enterprise MDM app, a Wear OS or Android TV companion). We don't pitch on the call, we walk through what you actually need from a hire.

    02

    Engineer match

    Days 2-3

    We pull 1-3 pre-vetted Android engineers from the bench whose skills, seniority, and prior app experience line up with what you described. You see their full profile and their actual project history.

    03

    Technical interview

    Days 3-5

    You interview the candidates the way you would interview any senior hire: live Kotlin coding, system design, Android architecture reviews, and platform-specific gotchas. Pass anyone you don't believe in.

    04

    Contract & onboarding

    Days 5-6

    Sign once. We handle every contract, payroll, equipment, and HR detail in the Philippines so you don't have an offshore entity to manage. You just get a developer.

    05

    First commit

    Day 7

    Your developer joins your standups, gets repo and Play Console access, signing-key handoff, and ships code in their first week. Our delivery managers stay involved to make sure ramp-up doesn't stall.

    How we compare

    Full Scale vs the other ways to hire an Android developer

    Every hiring path has trade-offs. Here is how a dedicated Android engineer on dedicated staff augmentation from our Android app development company compares against the alternatives most teams consider first when they want to hire Android developers.

    FeatureFull ScaleFreelancer / UpworkTraditional offshore agencyUS recruiter / FTE hire
    Pre-vetted senior Android bench
    Time to first hire7 days1-3 days3-6 weeks6-12 weeks
    Dedicated full-time, not shared
    Founder-led mobile expertise
    Sits on your standups, your tools
    Long-term retention93%+lowvariesvaries
    Replace within 30 days if it's not a fit
    Handles payroll, HR, equipment
    US-based account management
    n/a
    Typical fully-loaded cost vs US~40-50%varies~50-65%100%
    The bench

    Real Android engineers, named and vetted

    A sample of the Android engineers we are currently staffing. You'll see real names and real backgrounds during your interview round.

    Senior Android Engineer
    Senior Android Engineer
    Cebu, Philippines 9 years

    Backend-to-frontend Android delivery on Compose and MVVM. Has shipped end-to-end on three production B2C apps with millions of installs, including offline-first sync and BiometricPrompt auth.

    KotlinJetpack ComposeCoroutinesHiltRoom
    Google Associate Android Developer
    Senior Kotlin Engineer
    Senior Kotlin Engineer
    Cebu, Philippines 8 years

    Migrated a legacy Java/RxJava codebase to Kotlin and Coroutines without taking the app offline. Strong on modularization and Gradle build performance.

    KotlinCoroutinesFlowRetrofitRoom
    Production Java-to-Kotlin migration lead
    Staff Android Engineer (Compose + KMP)
    Staff Android Engineer (Compose + KMP)
    Cebu, Philippines 12 years

    Android architecture lead who has run XML-to-Compose migrations and shared business logic via Kotlin Multiplatform across iOS and Android in a Fortune 500 retail app.

    KotlinJetpack ComposeKMPGraphQLFastlane
    Led Compose migrations for retail and fintech clients
    Android Security & Payments Engineer
    Android Security & Payments Engineer
    Cebu, Philippines 7 years

    Specialist in Android security and payments: Keystore-backed key handling, Play Integrity attestation, certificate pinning, and Data Safety disclosures that survive Play review.

    KotlinKeystoreBiometricPromptPlay IntegrityOWASP MASVS
    OWASP MASVS reviewer on fintech apps
    Android DevOps Engineer
    Android DevOps Engineer
    Cebu, Philippines 9 years

    Owns Android build and release pipelines end to end. App Bundles, Play App Signing, internal and closed testing tracks, staged rollouts, and Android Gradle Plugin upgrades.

    GradleFastlaneGradle Play PublisherGitHub ActionsPlay Console
    Built Play Console release pipelines for B2C and enterprise apps
    Android QA Automation Lead
    Android QA Automation Lead
    Cebu, Philippines 9 years

    Builds out Android test pyramids and device-farm gates on Firebase Test Lab and BrowserStack. Strong on contract testing, screenshot testing, and scenario coverage.

    EspressoCompose UI TestJUnit5MockKMaestro
    ISTQB Advanced

    Engineer names are anonymized on this page. You'll see real candidates during your interview round.

    Why top US engineering teams pick Full Scale

    The numbers behind an Android staffing partner that actually works

    300+
    Engineers on staff
    in Cebu, Philippines
    93%+
    Annual retention
    your Android team stays your team
    7 days
    To first commit
    from discovery call to shipping
    70+
    US tech companies
    trust us with their Android work
    20+ yrs
    Founder-led mobile expertise
    shipping mobile since before the iPhone or Android existed
    100s
    Of Android engineers hired
    remote, dedicated, in the Philippines
    What clients say

    From the people we actually staff teams for

    Full Scale's development team was pivotal in elevating our facility management software. Their expertise turned complex challenges into seamless functionalities, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.

    Luke Wade
    Facility Ally
    Read the Facility Ally case study

    With Full Scale's developers, we transformed the commercial real estate landscape. Their team's proficiency in agile development and proactive communication accelerated our product release.

    Jeff Weiner
    Real Quantum
    Read the Real Quantum case study

    The team at Full Scale brought our vision to life with their development skills. They helped us navigate technical requirements with ease, resulting in a robust platform our users trust.

    Nomi Smith
    PMI Rate Pro
    Read the PMI Rate Pro case study
    Frequently asked

    Everything you wanted to know about hiring Android developers

    Hire dedicated Android developers this week

    Hire a dedicated Android developer who has actually shipped apps before

    30-minute discovery call with the Android app development company that supplies dedicated developers and custom Android development services from the Philippines. We'll learn what you're building, walk you through which Kotlin and Compose engineers are on the bench, and you'll meet candidates within a week. You won't get pressure or a sales pitch on the call.

    First commit in 7 days
    30-day replacement guarantee
    Full-time dedicated