Remote Swift Jobs

Yes, it is possible to land an entry-level remote Swift job, but your portfolio must be exceptional. You need to build and publish at least one complete, polished application to the Apple App Store. This is non-negotiable. It demonstrates not only your coding skills in Swift and SwiftUI but also your ability to navigate the entire App Store submission process. A live app is the single most convincing piece of evidence you can provide to a remote hiring manager.

You need to know both, but your focus should be on SwiftUI. While many established companies have large codebases built with UIKit, nearly all new feature development and new projects are being started with SwiftUI. For a remote job, you must be able to work on legacy UIKit code while also being proficient enough to build new features in SwiftUI. A portfolio that showcases a project built with SwiftUI will make you a much more competitive candidate.

The most critical skills are proficiency in Swift, a deep understanding of SwiftUI for building declarative UIs, and knowledge of modern architectural patterns like MVVM. You must be comfortable with asynchronous programming using Swift's async/await or Apple's Combine framework. Experience with Swift Package Manager for dependencies is also standard. A strong portfolio demonstrating these skills is precisely what remote employers are looking for.

For remote Swift roles, expect a take-home project that you'll have a few days to complete. You will likely be asked to build a small app with 2-3 screens that fetches data from a public API, displays it in a list, and has a detail view. They will evaluate your project structure, your architectural choices (MVVM), your use of modern frameworks like SwiftUI and Combine, and your overall code quality.

Remote employers look for a portfolio that showcases your ability to build and ship production-quality apps independently. Your GitHub should feature 1-2 projects built with a modern stack (Swift, SwiftUI, async/await). Most importantly, you must provide a direct link to a live app on the App Store. This proves you can manage the entire development lifecycle, from coding to deployment, which is an invaluable skill for a remote employee.

A remote iOS engineer's day is a mix of focused coding in Xcode and asynchronous collaboration. You will spend a large portion of your time building UI with SwiftUI, writing business logic in Swift, and fixing bugs. You'll work closely with designers to ensure pixel-perfect implementation. The rest of your time is spent on GitHub reviewing pull requests and on Slack discussing features with product managers and backend engineers. It requires strong time management and a keen eye for detail.

Both have strong remote job markets, but they target different types of roles and companies. Native iOS development with Swift is in high demand at companies that require the best possible performance, a polished user experience, and deep integration with Apple's ecosystem. These specialist roles often pay a premium. React Native is popular with startups and companies looking to build for both platforms with a single codebase. If you want to be a master of the Apple ecosystem, native Swift is the superior choice.