Ahmed is available for hire

Ahmed Alamir

Verified Expert in Engineering

Architecture Developer

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Toptal member since June 11, 2014

Expertise

Android C++Android SDK Java Kotlin C Agile Development GraphQL Software Development MacOS Parse

Bio

Ahmed is a veteran developer who has been writing code for about two decades. His experience with Android started with Android's first release. He is a big-picture thinker whose experience transcends mobile development into the entire software delivery pipeline. His experience working with a wide variety of clients, from startups testing the waters to Australia's largest bank, reflects Ahmed's leadership skills, collaborative nature, and solid work ethic that doesn't compromise on quality.

Portfolio

Self-employed

Android, Agile Software Development, REST, JSON, Room, Flow, Coroutines...

Arq Group

Firebase, REST, Git, Kotlin, Java, Android, Agile Software Development...

Kasra.co

Deep Linking, REST, Android, Android Development, Android SDK...

Experience

Android - 14 years
Android SDK - 14 years
Java - 14 years
Architecture - 10 years
Agile Software Development - 10 years
Test-driven Development (TDD) - 10 years
Leadership - 6 years
Kotlin - 3 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

ITerm, Git, Android Studio, MacOS

The most amazing...

...things I've coded are algorithms for indexing 16GB of plain text, keeping overhead less than 20%, and search time under 300 milliseconds on a mainstream PC.

Work Experience

Senior Android Developer

2021 - PRESENT

Self-employed

Uplifted the new joiner experience for a mobile banking app, resulting in users 100% onboarding via the app without the need to visit a branch.
Led a mobile team to Bootstrap a custom payment app for an independent Verifone terminal, overseeing the entire project from conception to 1st market release.
Collaborated with back-end and security teams to fortify the payment app running on an independent payment terminal to achieve the required UX without compromising data security and PCI standards.
Helped one of Australia's largest supermarkets, Coles, introduce their 1st digital wallet into their mobile app.
Managed Android app release cycle with staged roll-outs while monitoring app health and employing BigQuery to analyze and track production issues.
Interviewed possible candidates for various clients and helped the successful ones with onboarding and mentoring.
Heaps of refactoring legacy code, convincing Compose and Flows to tango without stepping on each other's foot, and increasing unit test coverage for existing and new code.

Technologies: Android, Agile Software Development, REST, JSON, Room, Flow, Coroutines, Android Architecture Components, Kotlin, Android SDK, Android Development, Graph Query Language (GQL), Git, GitFlow, Sentry, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Dagger, Large-scale Projects, Scalability, B2C, Business to Consumer (B2C), GraphQL, Jetpack Compose

Senior Software Engineer

2015 - 2021

Arq Group

Explored the possible solutions to tackle the client's business aspirations and described the structure and behavior of the proposed software solution to project stakeholders.
Wrote and reviewed code that closely maintains banking regulations and security practices.
Participated in refactoring legacy code to fit into MVVM architecture and allow for better unit test coverage.
Worked with the client's back-end team to fine-tune their structure to serve mobile apps better.
Hosted knowledge-sharing sessions and encouraged team members to engage in presentations and activities.
Mentored developers and provided technical guidance for solving difficult and illusive bugs.

Technologies: Firebase, REST, Git, Kotlin, Java, Android, Agile Software Development, Android Architecture Components, Model View ViewModel (MVVM), Model View Presenter (MVP), Android Development, Android SDK, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Dagger, Large-scale Projects, Scalability, B2C, Business to Consumer (B2C)

Android Developer

2015 - 2016

Kasra.co

Designed and implemented the app from the ground up, making ends meet between the existing back end and the desired UI.
Worked closely with the UX team to meet design specifications and ensure comparability with various Android device sizes.
Added background loading and caching to enable users to consume content offline.
Implemented syncing for user settings (favorites, bookmarks, etc.) between different user devices.
Integrated the app with social media services, e.g., branch.io for deep linking and Facebook/X (formerly Twitter) for logging in and sharing content.

Technologies: Deep Linking, REST, Android, Android Development, Android SDK, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Dagger

Android Developer

2015 - 2015

Fatsack Outdoors

Ported an existing iOS app to Android, making the necessary UI changes to match the Android experience and design guidelines.
Created Android UI from provided Photoshop templates.
Employed a mix of local and in-the-cloud strategy for data storage and caching.

Technologies: JSON, Parse SDK, Android, Android Development, Android SDK, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Dagger

Freelance Android Developer

2014 - 2015

Rolltech, Inc. (via Toptal)

Developed the Android version of a Rolltech bowling score tracking app.
Converted iOS app screens to Android ones.
Implemented the app to consume a real-time API and maintained a responsive user-friendly UI.

Technologies: JSON, Retrofit, Android, Android Development, Android SDK, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Dagger

Freelance Developer

2014 - 2014

Terminal.com (via Toptal)

Created reusable Linux-based snapshots. Each snapshot contained popular open source software installed, configured, and ready to use.

Technologies: Linux

Development Lead

2014 - 2014

Inmobly

Led a team of six developers, making design decisions and enforcing code quality practices.
Used adaptive algorithms in the software to predict user future content consumption based on previous behavior.
Achieved goals of lowering network congestion and decreasing internet bills.

Technologies: Python, Android, Android Development, Android SDK, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Scalability

System Designer

2012 - 2013

CGI

Redesigned SQL queries, significantly cutting execution time from five hours to 15 minutes.
Redesigned C-based administration software for power plants into a server/client architecture.
Ensured full backward compatibility for the new design.

Technologies: SQL, C#, JavaScript, Scalability

Senior Developer

2011 - 2011

CIT MobiDiv

Wrote a lossless algorithm to compress images in as few SMS packets as possible.
Integrated the application with the messaging system on various mobile platforms.
Used Facebook/Twitter API to publish images from the application.

Technologies: J2ME, Android, Windows Mobile, Android Development, Android SDK, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI)

Developer

2007 - 2011

Harf IT

Designed and implemented algorithms for indexing both plain text and XML, with the ability to execute XPath queries on indexed data.
Kept search and retrieval performance under 300ms for 16GB of data on a single mainstream PC, with index storage overhead of 15%.
Wrote COM wrappers to provide search functionality to other platforms.
Wrote a plugin to provide advanced Arabic support for SQL Server full text search.

Technologies: Win32 API, C++

Experience

ANZ Mobile App

https://www.anz.com.au/ways-to-bank/mobile-banking-apps/

The ANZ App makes daily life easier with great banking and payment features to manage your money.

I participated in refactoring the old design to fit into MVVM architecture and allow for better unit test coverage. I also rewrote parts of the Java codebase into Kotlin, removing redundancies and code smells by taking advantage of Kotlin language features.

NAB Mobile App

https://www.nab.com.au/personal/online-banking/mobile-banking-app

A mobile banking app for the National Australian Bank.

I integrated NPP, the Australian industry-wide payment platform, into an existing codebase with a variation of clean architecture. I implemented Tap & Pay and Instant Card features, handling NFC payments and incorporating an SDK provided by VISA. I worked with legal and security teams to enforce the bank's non-functional requirements.

Rolltech Bowling — Android

Rolltech is a bowling score tracker wherein users can automatically track scores and statistics in real time, share bowling experiences with friends, and compete globally without ever leaving their favorite bowling center.

Fatsack Outdoors — Android

Fatsack Outdoors is the most user-friendly all-inclusive fishing app for the novice and professional angler. Join or administer a tournament, log your catches, organize your fishing tackle, then connect with millions of anglers and brands around the world all in one fishing app.

Kasra: News and More

Kasra delivers buzzing social articles about celebrities, lifehacks, recipes, and quizzes to the Arab youth.

Kasra enables readers to follow their favorite writers, bookmark the articles they like, share them over social networks, and sync it all across all their devices.

ANZ Plus

https://www.anz.com.au/plus/

This is ANZ's way of revolutionizing how banking works. The app was built from the bottom up to be a reactive app, using Kotlin flows and gRPC. The data on the screen is always up-to-date, no matter how many devices you use.

I worked in the JOIN space, uplifting the onboarding experience for new customers. I also interviewed new candidates for ANZ.

Coles Mobile App

Coles is a major Australian supermarket, retail, and consumer services chain. They recently undertook a major mobile app overhaul, and I joined their Android team.

I mainly implemented the "Multiple shopping lists" feature in the Android app, which involved uplifting existing features and adding new interactions with back-end APIs. I also performed mini refactoring and convincing Compose and Flows to tango without stepping on each other's feet.

Smart Hospitality

An Android app running on a Verifone payment terminal that allows connecting the terminal to existing POS machines, keeping customers' orders up to date. It also provides sought-after features like allowing a group member to pay their share and leave, split the bill evenly, or split by individual items.

I was in charge of the front-end architecture of the project, kicking off the development and leading the team until the app's first release.

Skills

Libraries/APIs

Android Architecture Components, Butterknife, Google Gson, Retrofit 2, Google Maps, Win32 API, Retrofit, Parse SDK

Tools

SourceTree, Android Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio, Git, ITerm, Flow, Sentry

Languages

Kotlin, Java, C++, C, Python, GraphQL, JavaScript, C#, SQL

Frameworks

Dagger 2, Mockito, Espresso, Android SDK, Dagger, gRPC

Paradigms

Model View ViewModel (MVVM), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), B2C, Test-driven Development (TDD), Agile Software Development, REST, Model View Presenter (MVP)

Platforms

MacOS, Android, Windows, Symbian, Linux, Windows Mobile, J2ME, Firebase

Storage

SQLite, MySQL, JSON, Compose.io

Other

Mobile Banking, Leadership, Architecture, Android Architecture, GitFlow, Software Development, Android Development, Large-scale Projects, Scalability, Business to Consumer (B2C), Jetpack Compose, OkHttp, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Deep Linking, Room, Coroutines, Graph Query Language (GQL)

Collaboration That Works

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