Senior iOS Engineer

A bit about Cantina:

Cantina, founded by Sean Parker, is an invite only playground that puts AI into the hands of creators and allows them to bring any idea to life as a social bot that can be experienced with friends directly in the Cantina and also shared across the internet.

It's the first place where people can create, explore, and chat live with personality-driven AI bots together with their friends. People can choose from Cantina’s collection of thousands of unique bots, or build awesome AI bots from scratch with just a few prompts.

While a lot of AI focuses on improving productivity and efficiency, we believe our AI bots will drive the future of entertainment on the internet and we’re excited about the creative potential they will unlock for everyone.

Cantina is building a new kind of social AI where people can not only choose their own adventures, but make their own adventures. Create, share, and set AI bots free.

A bit about the role:

As a Senior iOS Engineer at Cantina, you’ll lead the development of innovative, high-performance features — from crafting personalized feeds and immersive custom UIs to empowering bots with AI-driven capabilities like chatting, text-to-speech, voice selection, image creation, and real-time media effects.

Working closely with Product Managers, Designers, and Sean Parker, you’ll influence the direction of a product central to the company’s mission, move quickly to deliver impactful updates, and enjoy the autonomy to bring your ideas to life.

We’re looking for someone who thrives on pushing the limits of iOS development and has a passion for creating visually stunning, high-performance experiences. Your expertise in custom graphics, animation frameworks, and media pipelines will help shape the creative foundation of our flagship app, elevating both user experience and innovation in the social AI space.

A bit about the work:

• Work with frameworks and technologies like UIKit, AVFoundation, Combine, Core Animation, and more.

• Lead development of new AI and media-driven features.

• Build and optimize video/audio pipelines, real-time media effects, and AI-powered visual features.

• Participate in Architecture meetings to help ensure our apps meet the highest quality standards.

• Collaborate with Product, Design, and QA teams to deliver polished, scalable experiences.

• Take ownership of features — be part of a small team that ships an application to a large user base.

• Be part of an incredibly supportive team that values feedback, both positive and career-growth oriented.

A bit about you:

• 8+ years of experience developing iOS applications, or equivalent education.

• Fluency in Swift, UIKit, and Objective-C, with a strong foundation in custom graphics and animation frameworks.

• Ability to write readable, maintainable, documented, and thoroughly tested code.

• Experience developing integrations with RESTful APIs.

• Proficiency with Git and version control workflows.

• Basic understanding of Figma — able to determine spacing and sizing; bonus if you can export icons and understand variables.

• Experience with video editing, real-time media effects, or AI-driven media features is a plus.

• Ability to effectively translate Product, UX, and UI requirements into code.

• Skilled at evaluating and communicating engineering solutions and trade-offs to teammates and potentially non-technical stakeholders.

• Can create scalable and reusable components that are flexible and modular.

• Attention to detail, motion, and animation.

Location:

We have offices located in Sunnyvale, CA, San Francisco, CA and Brooklyn, NY. While we have a strong focus on individuals near our office hubs, we prefer remote and hybrid employment opportunities in the Pacific Time Zone (PT).

Pay Equity: 

In compliance with Pay Transparency Laws, the base salary range for this role is between $180,000-$225,000 for those located in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City and Seattle, WA. When determining compensation, a number of factors will be considered, including skills, experience, job scope, location, and competitive compensation market data.

Benefits:

• Health Care —  99% of premiums for medical, vision, dental are fully paid for by Cantina, plus One Medical membership.

• Monthly Wellness Stipend — $500/month to use on whatever you’d like! 

• Rest and Recharge — 15 PTO days per year, 10 sick days, all Federal holidays, and 2 floating holidays.

• 401(K) — Eligible to participate on day one of employment.

• Parental Leave & Fertility Support 

• Competitive Salary & Equity 

• Lunch and snacks provided for in-office employees. 

• WFH equipment provided for full-time hybrid/remote employees.