Staff Android Engineer

Tokyo
Partial Remote
Full-time
January 31, 2025

Our Mission: Smarter, safer, connected driving in any vehicle:

Driving technology always feels old. Not by a little bit. Years and years out of date. Is that really just “the way things are”? We don’t think so and we’re here to fix that. We believe vehicles can be 1000x smarter, safer, and more connected to the world around us. We’ve started on this mission by building a mobile-based connected vehicle platform used by millions of drivers in over 150 countries. In 2019, we joined forces with Honda as their first startup acquisition, and now we’re expanding our vision by bringing together software and hardware to build new products that solve real needs for millions of drivers around the world.

About The Role:

The Staff Android Engineer is responsible for leading technical solutions native to Android Platforms, unleashing the best possible user experience in that environment. You will work directly with product managers, iOS, and Embedded engineers in an integrated approach towards a unified product. A sample challenge you might experience is leading the implementation of custom bluetooth profiles to integrate a user's smartphone with the buttons and screen on a car or motorcycle to create a new connected driving experience.

What You Will Do:

Integrate in-vehicle hardware products
Validate the feasibility of challenging requirements
Research new technologies that the best user experience
Quick development of prototypes and concept apps
Implement high quality, maintainable and test-driven code
Reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix user issues
On the side, play a small role on projects outside of your comfort zone just for fun and for expanding your knowledge
Keep sharpening your expert skills

What We Are Looking For:

5+ years of experience in Android application development together with technical leadership experience.
Strong object-oriented software development experience
Strong coding skills, enabling clean and maintainable code base
Able to fluently utilize and properly decide when to utilize asynchronous programming, multi-threading, dependency injection and reflection capabilities
Experience in writing libraries and tools
Experience in building consumer facing Android apps in Kotlin
Deep understanding of Android frameworks and Jetpack libraries
Business level English
Strong sense of ownership of product features and quality
A flexible attitude and entrepreneurial mindset. Be willing to do what it takes, even if it's outside of your usual responsibility area.
Someone who thinks that cars and motorcycles can be 1000x better than they are today

Nice to have:

Experience in writing libraries and tools
Experience performance verification and optimization
Experience with Android Bluetooth APIs
Experience with IoT or integration with embedded systems
Experience with localization and internationalization of apps
Conversational Japanese

EEOC Statement

Drivemode is proud of a very diverse team with employees coming from 5 continents/11 countries as of today. Diversity in our workplace has played an important part in our success; we recognize each employee’s unique background, knowledge, experiences, ideas, and viewpoints which are all critical in developing a product that has the greatest impacts on drivers all over the world.

Drivemode provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other characteristics that make you unique.

APPLY NOW ➜🇯🇵 Residents Only

About Drivemode

Smarter, Safer, Connected driving in any vehicle.

We were founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs from Zipcar and Tesla Motors and acquired by Honda in 2019. In 2020, we released Honda RoadSync with Honda motorcycle team. In 2023, our CEO Yo Koga was named as Global UX Officer and Drivemode is set to expand further to transform Honda and win in the growing Electric Vehicle market with our expertise in software and user experience.

Our Current Work

Honda motorcycles
We are building a modern software platform for Honda's new electric motorcycles. The platform, including mobile app and infotainment system, will be deployed in many countries. Not only working with Honda's motorcycle engineers as one team, we also do our own in-house hardware prototyping to enable us to learn and move quickly. The goal is to provide seamless motorcycle rider experiences with deeply integrated software and hardware.

Honda/Acura vehicles
We are working on a vehicle companion app & platform for Honda's next generation electric vehicles. The app will be a critical part of connected service offering for any future Honda & Acura vehicles globally. We are working closely with Honda's industry-leading hardware and vehicle experts to design the software and hardware as one experience for users.

Our Future Direction: This is just the beginning for us; we expect to expand our scope into other software driven areas for Automotive while continuing to grow and build on more capabilities

Working at Drivemode
We’re a diverse group of Silicon Valley and Tokyo entrepreneurs who want to make driving better. Our approach focuses on speed, learning, flexibility, and data-driven decision-making. We aren’t just “coders” or “designers;” we are problem solvers who understand that why you do something is just as important as what you do. We love challenges: the bigger, the better.

Our organizational structure is flat and everyone has an opportunity to share ideas, regardless of manager or job title. Openness, transparency, and communication are always priorities. We trust our employees’ abilities to make decisions in the best interest of Drivemode and give them the freedom to do what it takes to bring out the best in themselves and others. We provide support, mentorship, and growth across all positions to help employees identify and reach career and developmental goals.

Japanese Language Policy
Although Drivemode's official language is English, Business level + fluency in Japanese may be required depending on a role that needs communication with Japanese-speaking stakeholders.
Visa Sponsorship
Drivemode provides visa and relocation support for certain positions, and for the roles where they have such support in place, they will clearly state that in the job description.
Paid Leave
- Weekends (Saturday and Sunday), Japanese national holidays, New Year’s holiday
- Annual paid leave (10 days for the 1st year)
- Sick Leave (5 days per year)
- Celebratory/bereavement leave
Benefits
🧡 Brand new office just opened in Nov 2020, 5min walk from Ebisu station!

🏥 Health insurance

🚃 Commuting allowance

👩‍🎓 Language study allowance for non-Japanese employees

🍻 Team lunch party (Every Friday)

🍬 Favorite snack allowance

💜 We also have education support for up to 15,000 JPY a month which are to be used to develop skills and acquire knowledge in the job area.
Engineer Interview Process
Interview process at Drivemode varies from position to position.
Here is an example of a process for our Software Engineer:
- 1st step: Resume screening and Screening online test
- 2nd step: 1st Technical interview with a hiring team
- Further step: 2-3 more interviews with the management
Remote Work
Drivemode was already a “remote team” before COVID-19, and they will continue to be with offices in multiple locations. However, due to the nature of work that happens inside Drivemode, there is a need to be at the office together from time to time when developing new products that involve hardware prototypes.
Work style
- Our standard working hours: 9:00 - 18:00
* We currently do not have flex time set up in our company.
* However we value and respect employees' work-life balance, and we provide an environment where employees feel comfortable enough to discuss his/her schedule with a reportline manager to prioritize a personal life, e.g. taking care of families.
* Also, we offer "holiday swap option" for employees to be able to move holidays to their non-busy time.
Tech Stack
Android: Android SDK, Kotlin, Java, Jetpack, Coroutines/Flow, Dagger/Hilt, Gradle, Android Studio

iOS: iOS SDK, Swift, SwiftUI, Combine (Async/Await), SPM, Xcode

Server/Infrastructure: Rust, PostgreSQL, gRPC, Docker, GCP/Firebase (Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, etc.), Kafka, Terraform

CI/CD: GitHub Actions, DeployGate, Fastlane

IoT: Raspberry Pi, Arduino board, M5Stack, C++/C

Communication: Slack, Google Meet

Project Management: Jira Software, Notion, Miro

Analytics: BigQuery, Firebase Analytics, Jupyter, Pandas, scikit-learn

Others: Google Workspace
Parents and Family
We offer maternity leave and child care leave.
Also, we offer money gift for childbirth.