If you want to hire a Xamarin developer in 2025 for iOS and Android cross-platform development or a Mac desktop application, you need to look for talent with strong expertise in C# and .NET, that has cross-platform experience and understands mobile UI best practices. Apart from the skills, you need to realize many of the best Xamarin developers are not in your local marketplaces and you need to know where and how to recruit them—such as specialized job boards or developer communities—and that offering flexible work ensures you attract the ideal Xamarin professional.
Xamarin is still in demand because it’s a great tool for building, testing, and distributing apps with both Android and iOS while being full.NET. However, the growth in popularity does not change the fact that it will not be easy or cheap to hire a skilled Xamarin developer locally in the US. The most talented individuals are often already working on projects or are hired very quickly, and the cost of such skills is often quite high.
This article will provide a practical, hands-on guide to how a US manager can find, test, and hire the right Xamarin developer.
What Skills to Look for in Xamarin Developers?
Knowledge of C# and ASP.Net
Xamarin enables developers, through C#, to build apps for Android, IOS, and Windows. So, when interviewing candidates, one of the essential skills they should have is regarding C#.
You can also filter candidates by asking them about Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM). Cross-platform app development frameworks are based on MVVM, a software design pattern, so all Xamarin developers should have a solid understanding of this.
API and Third Party Libraries
Xamarin provides extensive support to APIs and third-party libraries. You could ask candidates about previous projects to understand their familiarity with these help options.
Reusability of Code on Across Platforms
As explained, Xamarin can create apps for both Android and IOs platforms. Skilled Xamarin developers would have no trouble describing how they reutilize the code set from one platform to another.
Previous Work
One of the best ways to understand how a candidate works and their level of knowledge is through their previous work and learning experience. And we don’t necessarily mean that they must have graduated from top colleges and taken expert-level courses. But a successful developer never stops learning. Ask them about what resources they seek when getting stuck, or which are their favorite websites to learn about something in particular. Also ask about their previous work and see what they have created in the past.
6 Tips for Hiring a Xamarin Developer
The process of hiring developers skilled in Xamarin language is a bit different than following a traditional recruiting process if you want to hire a candidate who fits your culture and is within the budget. Here’s how:
1. Become a Headhunter or Hire One
The first step is to take on the role of a headhunter, or at least act like one. This is the exact opposite of posting a job ad and waiting for people to apply. This is a process where you manually search for passive candidates, those candidates who are not looking for a job but might be open to an offer. They usually are the best option.
You can find them through professional networks such as LinkedIn, or through places where developers hang out, such as GitHub. For passive candidates, you need to approach them directly.
Why you should approach them? The reality is the best ones are usually already hired and they are not interviewing with many companies, like typical candidates who are searching for a job.
If it’s too much of a hassle for you, use a recruitment service. Some even specialize in technology and some even specialize in Xamarin!!! (Yes, they do exist). Check their background, make sure they have a good reputation, and let them do their job. (I heard these DistantJob guys are pretty good ☺. They understand the market, they create the right connections, and help you save a lot of time and aggravation. They handle all the payroll and legal issues, and offer you peace of mind.)
2. Stop Chasing Unicorns
Even when you are recruiting for a senior-level position, waiting for a full-stack developer who has ten years of Xamarin experience and is willing to work for less, is not reasonable. What you should ask for is a successful track record, strong C# knowledge, and adaptability. Xamarin is a specialized technology, but let’s be honest, it’s built on .NET, which means a good senior-level .NET developer can ramp up quickly.
Rather than delaying the hiring process with impossible requirements, look for a developer with strong domain expertise, true problem-solving capabilities, and a great attitude with a hunger to learn. These three elements are what make a real senior developer, not a résumé filled with all the matching skills.
3. Create a Friendly Recruitment Process
Act fast. Great Xamarin developers don’t stay on the market for long. If you find someone you want, don’t wait. Don’t sound corporate. Be honest and straightforward in the way you communicate with the developer.
Show that you care and make the communication personal. Tell the developer that you appreciate their experience or skills.
4. Promote Your Company
Do your best to sell your company.
Think of your company as an assest that you want to sell. You need a developer to buy into your company, so why would they want to do that? What makes your company unique, and how can they benefit from working for you?
■ Do you have a great mission where the developer can feel like they are making a difference in this world?
■ Do you have an amazing company culture?
■ Do you offer professional growth?
■ Do you pay well?
5. Remow Work is Here to Help
If you are still asking people to come to your office five days a week, you are living in the stone age.
Remote work creates work-life balance; it’s a huge selling point. Great developers in any specialized technology, including Xamarin, want to work remotely. They want to work near home, sometimes from home, and sometimes from the beach while traveling.
Get over your control freakishness and let people work remotely. You will have access to a much larger pool of candidates and can afford to hire those skilled Xamarin experts you needed.
And if the fear of productivity comes to your mind, you can always implement a time-tracking solution (although we are against it). Give it a chance and soon you will learn that remote workers are just as productive, if not more productive, than on-site workers.
6. Consider DistantJob Services
There are plenty of options to hire a Xamarin developer. The service can be flexible to your needs and to your budget. Websites such as Upwork and Fiverr have pre-vetted freelancers that can be employed by your company, but rest assured, they will work on multiple projects. For big companies this might work, but if your resources are limited then you might want to consider other options such as DistantJob remote staffing services.
The huge advantage of working with an international remote placement service is that we have access to a much larger pool of candidates, and we provide a much more streamlined service that saves you time and allows you to focus on what you do best. That’s why DistantJob has been doing this for more than 10 years, finding superstar remote Xamarin experts that are great from day one.
Interview questions to ask your new Xamarin candidate
You know the steps you need to take to find the Xamarin Expert you need in your company. Now you need to make sure you hire an expert. If you want a guaranteed, vetted expert, we can find the perfect developer for your needs.
But if you want to stick with the long recruiting process, we set up a couple of questions to help you ace your interviews and hire a talented Xamarin developer.
- What are the different ways of creating a Xamarin application?
Xamarin gives developers two ways of creating native apps. First, there’s the traditional Xamarin approach that can provide direct access to platform-specific APIs. This method is used to create apps specific to certain platforms by using Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android for creating iOS and Android applications, respectively.
The other option is through Xamarin.forms. This option is “the same as that of traditional cross-platform apps.” The typical method to do this is by implementing either Portable Libraries or Shared Projects in order to save the shared code. From here, you can create applications for each particular platform that will utilize the shared code.
Photo credit: Xamarin
You should use Xamarin.Forms for applications that need less functionality specific to its platform and when code sharing is more important than a particular UI.
Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android, instead, should be utilized with apps that need a highly particular UI or design, require specialized interactions, or use many APIs that are platform-specific.
- Explain Xamarin.form’s lifecycle
The life cycle is important for anyone developing mobile applications, particularly to hire a Xamarin developer. The life cycle details the application’s sequence from the start to the end of the application.
The most important calls include:
- OnStart, which, as its name implies, is called when the application starts.
- OnSleep, which gets called when the application is in the background but still active.
- OnResume, which once again follows what the name implies and is called once the application is resumed after it returns from the OnSleep call.
With Xamarin, there’s no termination method. Instead, Xamarin will terminate after a certain amount of time that it’s in the OnSleep state without the need for additional code (unless, of course, there is a problem with the app and it crashes while in an active state).
- Explain Jagged Arrays in C# and give an example of how to initialize it
Your Xamarin developer for hire needs to be an expert in both the Xamarin platform and C#, as this is the language that they’ll be coding with.
In C#, a jagged array is the term for an array of arrays. In C#, here’s an example of how to initialize a jagged array:
int[][] scores = new int[2][]{new int[]{92,93,94},new int[]{85,66,87,88}};
This represents an array of two arrays of integers. As you can see, scores[0] is an array of 3 integers, while scores[1] is an array of 4.
- Explain Boxing and Unboxing
These both are used for type conversion in C#. Boxing is the process of converting a value type data type to the object or to any interface data date which is implemented by the value type.”
This concept highlights how any value type can be treated as an object in C#’s view of the type system.
This explanation sounds a bit confusing, but let’s see an example given by C# corner:
public void Function1()
{
int i = 111;
object o = i; //implicit boxing
Console.WriteLine(o);
}
Unboxing is also a process like this that’s “used to extract the value type from the object or any implemented interface type.” However, the difference is that unboxing must be performed explicitly by code, whereas boxing may
be done implicitly.
Here’s an example:
public void Function1()
{
object o = 111;
int i = (int)o; //explicit unboxing
Console.WriteLine(i);
}
How to Hire a Xamarin Developer at a Reasonable Rate?
Hiring talented developers at a reasonable price sounds utopic.
Unless…you consider hiring a remote Xamarin developer. Think about it this way: Around the world, there are countries where the cost of living is much lower than yours. For example, if you live in The United States, an average developer charges 85K per year. On the other hand, in China, an average salary for a software developer is 26k per year. The only detail is that China, according to Hacker Rank, has the most talented developers.
You can recruit talented Xamarin developers from different countries and see who fits better in your company. It seems like a lot of work, but it’s worth the talent. Although if you want to focus on your business instead of the recruitment process, let us handle it for you.
DistantJob has an expert recruitment team with a unique method to help you say hello to your new Xamarin developer in just two weeks! We know how to spot the best, ask the right questions, and help you hire the best developers around the world.
Want to learn more? Let’s talk.
