Hire iOS Developers

Hiring iOS developers through CodigoDelSur means adding senior native engineers, employed by us, to the team that owns your iPhone and iPad app. They work in Swift, SwiftUI and Objective-C, in your repository and your sprints, on the app you already ship, including the older parts nobody wants to touch. CodigoDelSur has been building software from Montevideo, Uruguay since 2007, for companies in the United States and the rest of the world.

It is the right move when the app is native, or has to be, because it depends on the camera, on hardware, on background work or on performance that a cross platform layer makes harder. It is the wrong move when you need the same features on iOS and Android at once and nothing in the app needs native code, because one React Native codebase is usually cheaper. We tell you which one you are on the first call.

Is hiring an iOS developer the right move for you?

It is when the app is native or needs to be, and someone on your side owns the release.

Yes, if:

Your app is written in Swift, in Objective-C or in both, and the backlog is growing faster than your iOS team.
The product depends on the device: camera, Bluetooth accessories, drones, offline work, heavy media.
You need older Objective-C and UIKit code moved toward Swift and SwiftUI without stopping releases.
You have a product owner and someone who reviews pull requests.

No, if:

iOS and Android need the same features on the same cadence and nothing in the app is native. A React Native team is usually the cheaper answer.
The app is slow because of the backend it talks to. A new iOS engineer makes screens faster to build, not responses faster to arrive.
You want an app taken from idea to the App Store with one company accountable for it. That is full-cycle product development.

How it works, from first call to your next App Store release

Five steps, and the native questions come first: which iOS versions you support, how much Objective-C is left, and what hardware the app talks to. Every step ends with a person in your repository or a clear reason not to continue.

Intro call, 30 to 45 minutes. Swift, SwiftUI or UIKit, how much Objective-C remains, the oldest iOS version you support, and any hardware or SDK the app depends on. Who approves a release and what the first month should ship. If the work would be cheaper in React Native, this is where we say so.

Written role brief. One page: the parts of the app the engineer will own, seniority, whether App Store submission is part of the role, overlap and start date. Nothing moves until you sign it off.

Named profiles. Bench first, and we tell you whether the iOS engineer you need is on it today or has to be recruited. Each CV names the apps the person worked on and what they built in them, not an anonymized list of skills.

You run the technical interview. Your process and your bar. For iOS, walking through a real crash or a slow screen from your app tells you more than a generic algorithm test. You can turn down anyone we propose without giving a reason.

First day and first build. One standard services agreement, signed once. We handle equipment, accounts, background checks where required and payroll. The engineer joins your standup on day one, gets the project building and signing on their machine in the first days, and aims for a first merged pull request that same week.

How long it takes to add an iOS developer

Five business days from signed agreement to first day as standard, and as soon as the next business day when the engineer is already on our bench.

Stage	Typical time
Intro call to written role brief	1 business day
Role brief to first profiles, if the profile is on our bench	1 business day
Role brief to first profiles, if we have to recruit	5 business days
Interviews	Your calendar, usually within a week
Signed agreement to the engineer's first day	5 business days as standard, or as soon as the next business day if the engineer is on our bench and you are ready
First day to first merged pull request	3 to 5 business days

On iOS the first week depends on two things on your side: the invitation to your Apple developer account and the signing setup. Both go in the role brief, because an engineer who cannot build the app cannot merge anything.

What our iOS developers work on

Native apps where the device is part of the product, and apps built for users who were already waiting for them.

Work	What it involves	Where it shipped
Drone flight apps	Flight planning, pre-flight and in-flight checks and automated flights through the DJI SDK, in Swift and Objective-C	DroneDeploy, Skippy Scout
Health and tracking apps	A fertility awareness app taken from product discovery to an App Store MVP in four months, then developed for four more years	Kindara
Image processing on the device	Custom compositing that places a character into photos taken in unpredictable home lighting, in an app shipped in seven languages	Tooth Magic
An app for an existing user base	A native iOS app for a cloud storage platform whose users already expected it to work as well as the web product	Onehub
Scanning and cataloguing	Barcode scanning against a product database, on curved glass and in poor light	Vartender

The iOS stack is Swift, SwiftUI, Objective-C, UIKit and Combine, with CoreBluetooth and the DJI SDK where the device calls for them. When the app also needs Android, the same company has Kotlin engineers, and when it needs a backend, Node.js engineers. Seniority runs from mid level to tech lead, and we do not place junior engineers in these roles.

What it costs to hire an iOS developer

What an iOS developer costs depends on seniority and on what the role covers, and you get the number in writing with the role brief, before you commit to anything.

The minimum project size is $10,000, roughly one engineer for one month, and the shortest engagement we sign is two weeks, one sprint. There is no recruiting fee, no placement fee and no management fee, and the project manager on our side is included at no additional cost. Billing is per sprint, Net 14, or monthly if your finance team prefers, with volume discounts of 5 percent from five people and 10 percent from seven.

If you want to see how an engineer handles your codebase before planning a quarter, one engineer for one sprint is a real engagement.

The iOS projects behind this page

Four clients with a published case study, from drone flight control to a health app that reached five million users.

DroneDeploy is a drone mapping and reality capture platform for construction, agriculture, energy and surveying, used on more than three million jobsites. From 2016 to 2018 we built and maintained its iOS and Android flight apps natively, in Swift and Objective-C with the DJI SDK: the planning interface that turns an area into a flight path, the pre-flight and in-flight checks, automated flight execution, in-app map exploration and structured flight logs. What shaped the iOS work was the user: a site foreman on a tablet, outdoors, sometimes wearing gloves, with an unreliable connection, flying a mission whose data may end up in a compliance or insurance file. Standard mapping missions run with no manual piloting: the operator draws an area, and the app plans and flies it.

Skippy Scout automates crop scouting with drones. We built its iOS app directly against the DJI SDK, in Objective-C: field definition, scouting points, automated flight planning and execution, and low altitude image capture at a consistent height and angle, so that photos from different visits can be compared.

Kindara is a fertility awareness app. We ran product discovery with its founders, shipped an iOS MVP to the App Store in four months and kept working on the product for four years, while it reached five million users and held a top 10 position in the App Store's healthcare category for four consecutive years.

Onehub, secure cloud storage for business files, needed a native iOS app for users who were already on its web platform. We started with an internal prototype to test file handling and performance, and then built the MVP in five months.

iOS developers through staff augmentation, a dedicated team or full-cycle product development

Three different products get sold under the same word, "outsourcing". They are not interchangeable and picking the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in this category. For iOS the real choice is often between one senior engineer inside your team and a mobile team that ships both platforms together.

	Staff augmentation	Dedicated team	Full-cycle product development
Who owns the roadmap	You	You	Shared, we run discovery
Who manages day to day	Your engineering manager	You, with a CodigoDelSur project manager coordinating on our side at no extra cost	Our project manager
What you get	Individual engineers inside your team	A team shaped around your product, staffed and coordinated by us	A product, from discovery to store release
You need to have	Technical leadership with spare capacity	A product owner and a clear roadmap	A budget and a problem worth solving
iOS work it fits best	Features, modernisation and releases in an app you already ship	An iOS app owned end to end, usually with Android, design and QA on the same cadence	A new app, from discovery to the App Store
Typical size	1 to 4 people	4 to 12 people	Scoped per project
Minimum commitment	Two weeks, one sprint	Two weeks, one sprint	Quoted per project
Best when	The work is defined and you are short on hands	You own a product area and want it staffed and coordinated as one team	You need the thing to exist and you do not have an engineering org

When this page is not your answer

Do not hire an iOS developer when what you need is the same features on iOS and Android at once and nothing in the app is native. Two native codebases cost more than one React Native codebase for that job, and we would rather tell you before you sign. Do not hire one to fix an app that is slow because of its backend either: the screens will be ready, and they will still wait. And if you need both platforms moving together with design and QA, look at a dedicated team before adding individual engineers.

Where "taking over an iOS app" and "short-term work" fit

Neither is a fourth model. If another supplier built your app, we review the code first, keep what is sound and replace what is not, either with engineers embedded in your team through staff augmentation or with a dedicated team taking the app over. Old Objective-C is not a reason to rewrite: it can move to Swift screen by screen while the app keeps shipping. If the work is short, one engineer for one sprint, for a stuck release or an iOS version update, is a complete engagement.

Frequently asked questions

Do your iOS developers work in SwiftUI or UIKit?

Both, and in Objective-C. SwiftUI is where new screens usually go, UIKit is where most production apps still live, and Objective-C is inside many apps that have been on the App Store for years, like the drone apps we built for DroneDeploy and Skippy Scout. We work in whatever mix your app has and move it forward without stopping releases.

Can your iOS developers work with hardware and external SDKs?

Yes. We built drone flight apps on the DJI SDK for DroneDeploy and Skippy Scout, and our iOS stack includes CoreBluetooth for accessories. Hardware is where native iOS earns its cost and where an engineer without that experience loses the most time, so the role brief says whether the person we propose has done it.

Should we hire an iOS developer or a React Native developer?

Native iOS when the app depends on the device or on performance, React Native when both platforms need the same features and nothing in the app is native. The decision is about the product, not about the team you already have, and we staff both, so we can give you the answer on the first call without an interest in which one you pick.

What time zone do your engineers work in, and how much overlap will I get?

Our engineers work 10:00 to 19:00 Uruguay time, which is UTC minus 3. That covers the entire US East Coast working day, five to six hours of live overlap with the West Coast, and an afternoon overlap with Europe. The schedule is set that way deliberately: shifting the day an hour later widens the Pacific overlap without asking anyone to work nights, and it is the reason this arrangement is still working in month twelve rather than quietly falling apart in month three.

How fast can you actually start?

Five business days from signed agreement to first day is the standard, and if the engineer is already on our bench and your side is ready to receive them, they can start as soon as the next business day. What varies is finding the right person, not starting them: if the profile is on our bench you get CVs one business day after you sign off the role brief, and if the role has to be recruited, first CVs take about five business days. We tell you which of the two you are in on the first call, before you have signed anything, because that is what actually moves your start date.

What happens if the engineer is not working out?

You tell your account manager and we replace the person at our cost. There is no charge for the search and no penalty for asking. The outgoing and incoming engineers overlap for ten business days so that context, access and work in progress transfer inside the engagement instead of landing back on your team, and those ten days are not billed: during the handover you keep paying exactly what you were paying for one engineer. We would rather absorb that than have you carry a bad fit for a quarter, and a company that will not put a replacement policy in writing is telling you something.

Who owns the code and the intellectual property?

You do, exclusively. Everything created for you as part of the work is assigned to you with full title guarantee: source code, application logic, APIs, integrations, data models, configurations, UI and UX designs, documentation and any derivative works. The assignment covers the deliverables as they are created, it is not conditional on final payment, and it is not a licence back to you, it is ownership. We also warrant that what we deliver does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, and where third party material is involved we secure the consents for both sides first. For our own pre existing components that were not written specifically for you, you get a non exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free licence to use, copy and modify them, so nothing we bring with us can be used to lock you in later. Every CodigoDelSur employee signs a non disclosure agreement and an intellectual property assignment as a condition of employment. In practice we also work inside your repositories and your cloud accounts, so in most engagements the code never lives anywhere else to begin with.

Will the engineer work only for us?

A full time engineer works for one client only. If you take someone full time they are on your product and nothing else: your standups, your sprint planning, your Slack, and for practical purposes they are part of your team, with the difference that their employment, payroll and career are our responsibility. If you only need part of a person we do offer part time engineers, and a part time engineer is assigned to a maximum of two projects, never more. We tell you which of the two you are getting before you sign, because "dedicated" is a word this industry uses loosely.

Tell us about your iOS app

Tell us what your app is written in, what the next release needs and who approves it, and we will tell you on the same call whether the engineer is on our bench or has to be recruited, and what that means for your start date.