Principal Engineer (Director) - Mobile Engineering

Marriott Hotels Resorts•Bethesda, MD

About The Position

Serves as the technical leader for integrating AI across native iOS and Android engineering teams. Drives adoption and effective use of AI-enabled capabilities throughout the Agile delivery workflow—enabling engineers to leverage technologies such as Cursor, LLM-based IDE integrations (Xcode, Android Studio), and emerging AI developer tooling across the software development lifecycle. Champions a culture of rapid learning, experimentation, and collaborative engagement, ensuring actionable feedback informs evolving strategies and implementation plans. Partners closely with Principal Engineers, Engineering Directors, Enterprise Architecture, and squad Tech Leads to advise on complex technical challenges—producing high-quality, scalable, and secure solutions. Conducts solution reviews, provides hands-on coaching, and recommends improvements to development patterns, workflows, tools, and standards. Beyond AI initiatives, this role also leads core mobile engineering practices—architecting scalable iOS and Android solutions, optimizing performance, and ensuring code quality and security. Guides teams through complex integrations, modernization initiatives, and platform-specific challenges while partnering with feature teams and UX to deliver intuitive, high-performing experiences. Excels at communicating complex concepts clearly and effectively—both in writing and in presentations tailored to technical and executive audiences. Maintains a strategic mindset that continuously reinforces the broader organizational context, building actionable plans that guide teams toward aligned and measurable outcomes. Stays current with the rapidly evolving AI and Mobile ecosystems to remain a trusted authority on emerging capabilities and industry best practices. Researches new tools, frameworks, and models, assessing them objectively against business goals and constraints. Leads proof-of-concept efforts and educates the broader mobile engineering community internally and externally.

Requirements

10+ years of hands-on native mobile application development (iOS or Android)
Demonstrated experience integrating AI tools (e.g., Cursor or similar, LLMs) into mobile development workflows
Demonstrated ability to rapidly learn and operationalize new technologies
Track record of leading technical teams and delivering results in Agile environments
Strong technical expertise in mobile development and AI-assisted developer tools
Undergraduate or graduate degree in a technical field, or equivalent experience

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated success leading cross-functional and/or transformation initiatives
Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to present to technical and executive audiences
Experience facilitating working groups, community forums, or feedback-driven process evolution

Responsibilities

AI Strategy & Tool Integration Define and drive an evolving strategy for AI adoption within mobile engineering
Lead integration of AI tooling across ideation, coding, testing, and code review
Establish and maintain best practices for AI-assisted development (e.g., “Rules” in Cursor) tailored to iOS and Android
Ensure appropriate code-quality, privacy, and IP safeguards when integrating AI tooling
Leverage MCP Servers to extend AI integration across various tools
Promote spec-driven development to ensure AI-generated code aligns with clearly defined contracts, behaviors, and acceptance criteria; encourage developers to use structured specifications to guide prompt engineering, code generation, and automated validation
Collaboration & Guidance Create and lead a working group to gather input, share learnings, and provide ongoing direction
Foster an inclusive environment that encourages peer contribution to process and tool evolution
Communicate strategy, progress, and outcomes to developers, leaders, and digital executives
Continuous Improvement Monitor, measure, and refine processes to ensure AI enables creativity, innovation, and efficiency
Continuously incorporate feedback and industry trends to keep tooling and approaches current and effective
Objectively assess emerging technologies through prototypes and proof of concepts