Android Developer Career Path in UK

Yes, with the same caveat as iOS. For companies with large Android user bases, native engineers remain essential. The device fragmentation challenge on Android is more complex than on iOS, which creates ongoing demand for engineers who understand the nuances of different Android versions and manufacturer customisations. The KMM opportunity makes native Android expertise more valuable, not less, because KMM builds on top of Android engineering skills.

Senior Android Developers in Ireland typically earn €74 to €100k. This is slightly lower than iOS at the top of the range, reflecting the slightly higher supply of Kotlin engineers relative to Swift engineers. Engineers who add KMM to their profile can command a premium because the talent pool for KMM is still very thin.

Start by running a KMM proof of concept at your current company, even informally. The KMM setup is approachable for experienced Kotlin engineers, and the biggest barrier is organisational, convincing iOS colleagues and product to adopt shared Kotlin for business logic. Engineers who have delivered a working KMM module in a production app are genuinely rare in the Irish market and command strong interest from companies evaluating KMM adoption.

Cross-platform is a genuine long-term trend that will reduce the number of pure Android positions over time, particularly at startups. The mitigation is to specialise in areas where native still wins: complex animations and custom rendering with Compose, camera and sensor integration, offline-first architecture, and Bluetooth or NFC integration. These are areas where cross-platform frameworks consistently struggle, and companies with these needs will always need native engineers.