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Hiring Flutter Developers - Best Practices & Job Description Template

by Ian Deed in #allintechstack #flutter

In March this year, Google released the most substantial update of its flagship Flutter platform so far. Flutter 2.0 includes added support for building on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and the web. And as if this ever-expanding ecosystem wasn’t enough, included in the announcement are a wave of exciting new tools to support IDE development and Google Ad support.

With continued forward momentum and strong support from Google, Flutter is a development platform looking to secure a strong future across many industries. Demand for developers familiar with the platform is rapidly increasing over time. Learn about these trends by reading our Glimpse into The Future of Flutter Development.

In this respect, a number of things are working against companies looking to expand their flutter-capable teams. The platform is still a comparatively new technology; few developers have had enough time to build up a large repository of previous Flutter projects. Additionally, as the exciting new technology for building apps today, developers on the market are being headhunted fast.

Hiring the right Flutter developers to build out your projects means positioning your company as an attractive option for highly-valued skill-sets and knowledge. It means showing your innovative side and sharing your plans for the future. Plans which include passion and ambition with a view to finding like-minded Flutter developers.

With a little bit of guidance and a job description that advertises your firm as much as the roles within it, you can land the Flutter development team which will take your firm into its next stage of development. And if you need help finding one, just tell us what you need! Within 72h we will connect you with up to 5 companies that meet your wants—all for free. Once you’ve found that team, check out our article The Do's & Don'ts of Managing an Outsourced Flutter Development Team for more pointers.

Why Choose Flutter

One of the first and most obvious questions to ask is why firms are choosing to migrate to Flutter at all. There are a host of related cross-platform frameworks out there that offer many of their own benefits and rewards. You may already have some of the skills and technologies required to get underway with some of them today.

Firms are choosing Google’s Flutter platform for its extensive support, impressive capabilities, and continued forward development. Some of the benefits advertised by Flutter include:

Near-native application performance
Lower development and maintenance costs through improved architecture and design
Single codebase capable of targeting multiple platforms
Decreased time to market

Flutter claims some 150,000 apps published so far and backs up its claims with continually increasing uptake and popularity. Combined with the platform’s growing ecosystem, the platform shows few signs of slowing soon.

What to Look for in a Prospective Flutter Developer

Aside from a passion for Flutter development and language skills specific to the platform, a high-quality flutter developer requires broad skills and experience in mobile app development. For mobile apps, this is likely to mean experience with native development in at least one of the leading two mobile platforms.

For Linux, Windows, macOS, or the web then extensive experience in each of these disciplines will pay major dividends in the future.

Experience with development methodologies and tools

Application developers at any level will be expected to have extensive experience using methodologies, processes, and tools that are now almost universal throughout the industry. These may be considered fundamental to software engineering and included as standard for any role aside from the most junior levels. These include:

Agile development methodologies—Often SCRUM, occasionally Kanban or related Agile applications
Version control—Most commonly based around GIT or SVN
Experience writing unit tests with one or more unit testing frameworks—Often JUnit, JTest, or XCTest in mobile application development
Experience with continuous integration tools—Commonly Jenkins, TeamCity, or Gitlab but many alternatives exist
Experience with project management tools—Jira, Asana, Redmine, or Trello are commonly employed today

A Portfolio of unique, interesting, and well-built things

The most impressive thing a Flutter developer can bring to the table is a strong portfolio of applications that show impressive knowledge and extensive experience and abilities. A developer looking for a senior role should be able to show some example applications either on the marketplace, or self-hosted to demonstrate what they can do.

At least some of these applications are likely to be outside of the Flutter platform. But these can show extensive skills and experience in related technologies alongside platform-specific knowledge. A wide range of applicable skills is a huge bonus for any engineer and great strength to bring into your team.

If a candidate brings a portfolio of apps to the table, give a lot of time to evaluating what they bring. A good portfolio is the single greatest insight you can get into an applicant’s technical knowledge, design credentials, coding style, and ability to discuss highly-technical topics.

Strong Adherence to Style and Convention

There’s no better way to find out how well a candidate codes than looking at examples ‘in the wild’. Links to Github, Bitbucket, or Gitlab are ideal for exactly this reason.

Looking at how a candidate writes code and what they’ve built is an insight into their level of experience and skill. Are their methods well-documented, clear, and concise? Do they adhere to the style prevalent in the language? Are there instances of trial and error or spaghetti code left in the commit?

Clear and concise code is worth a great deal more than rapid hacking and half-hazard construction. Future maintenance, upgrades, and team-members are reliant on well-documented, commenting, and self-documenting code to continue the forward momentum.

There’s a wealth of great resources and style guidelines for the Dart language to support developing with clean-code. A candidate already sticking to best practices and up-to-the-minute thinking may be ahead above the rest.

How to Find the Ideal Flutter Developer

Flutter developers with experience which extends to the age of the platform are often difficult to find. With the platform only recently maturing into prominence, it’s only now that developers are finding Flutter skill-sets to be in particularly high demand from employers.

Now, finding experienced and capable Flutter developers available for a new role is something of a challenge. It is, however, far from impossible. For instance, you can just tell us what you need and within 72h we will connect you with up to 5 companies that meet your wants—all for free!

To do this, your Flutter developer job description should be advertising your firm as much as it’s advertising the role available. It should talk about the benefits and projects unique to you—the kind of exciting projects or unbeatable environment you won’t find anywhere else.

It may be the cutting-edge nature of the work you undertake. The prototypes and mock-ups you create to test revolutionary new ideas. It may be the laid-back, self-reliant atmosphere that values high-quality input above all else. It should be something that puts your best foot forward and has you stand out amongst a marketplace that is growing ever more crowded by the day.

A Clear and Honest Role Description

A good job advertisement works at its best when it’s honest, straightforward, and designed around the exact developer you’re looking to bring on board. It should contain a clear description of the skills required, technologies currently used, and methodologies employed within the company.

Being honest and forthright about exactly the candidate you plan to bring in will pay dividends in the future when it comes to an interview, evaluation, and hiring.

Included below is a Flutter job description template to get you started on posting your role to the world and landing the Flutter application developers that will complete your team. And once you’ve gotten qualified applicants, take a look at our guide to interviewing for Flutter developers.

Flutter Job Description template

Flutter Developer

[COMPANY] are hiring a senior Flutter developer to engineer applications that will run across Android, iOS, and the web. We are looking for someone passionate about performance, reliability, and design with the experience and credentials to back up that passion. Someone who can take ownership of applications, solve technical challenges and take pride in their solutions and code.

The ideal candidate will have experience building native applications, JavaScript knowledge, and a portfolio of applications already published either in the app store or self-hosted.

You’ll be a key member of the team tasked with contributing to a number of high-value projects within [COMPANY].

Qualifications

Have two or more iOS/Android apps developed with Flutter. Either deployed on the AppStore/Google Play or available on Github;
5+ years in mobile software development;
Over one year’s developing Flutter applications for mobile
Experience with third-party libraries and APIs;
Understanding of the Agile development life-cycle;
Experience with automated testing and building;
Experience with Git, SVN, or other version control tools;
Proven experience in writing readable code, creating extensive documentation for existing code, and refactoring previously written code