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Ahmed Elkady
Verified Expert in Engineering
iOS Developer
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toptal member since January 13, 2021
Bio
Ahmed has been a passionate iOS developer since his internship days in 2014 while studying computer engineering at the University of Waterloo. He has done six internships, most notably at Compass in New York and LinkedIn in San Francisco. After graduating, Ahmed worked at an edtech company called Top Hat for three years, then moved on to Coffee Meets Bagel for two and a half years. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois.
Portfolio
Slatable LLC
AVFoundation, Swift, Git, Realm, Video Codecs, Alamofire, iOS Animations, iOS...
Body Fuel Box LLC
iOS, Swift, Firebase, Google Maps SDK, Xcode, App Store Connect, SwiftUI...
Reddit, Inc.
iOS, Swift, Objective-C, Large-scale Projects, Mobile, Social Networks, Bazel
Experience
- iOS - 9 years
- Agile Software Development - 8 years
- Swift - 8 years
- Git - 8 years
- Objective-C - 6 years
- CocoaPods - 6 years
- Xcode - 6 years
- SwiftUI - 4 years
Preferred Environment
Agile Software Development, Algorithms, Git, Objective-C, Swift, iOS, Xcode
The most amazing...
...project I've built is called RichTextView—an open source iOS project starred at least 1000x that can render HTML, Markdown, LaTeX, and YouTube videos.
Work Experience
iOS Developer
2023 - PRESENT
Slatable LLC
- Facilitated a major database migration from the v2 version of the app (JSON and plist) to v3 (Realm, now Atlas Device SDK), unblocking a major version upgrade.
- Fixed the subscription pricing in the app to be dynamic and introduced the ability for users to restore their purchases.
- Added tracking around video sharing and various other issues around the app to debug and fix those bugs.
- Introduced support for Bluetooth remote control of the iOS app for script-based auditions.
- Debugged missing take videos and AVFoundation errors.
- Revamped the scene audio feature completely, which allows users to record audio that plays as they are recording their audition, including adding AI to convert their audio recordings to different voices using ElevenLabs.
Technologies: AVFoundation, Swift, Git, Realm, Video Codecs, Alamofire, iOS Animations, iOS, APIs, Bluetooth, Audio, iPhone, Mobile Apps, UX Design, iOS UI Design, CloudKit, PHP, Frameworks, Mobile Architecture, Figma, In-app Purchase (IAP), In-app Purchases, Monetization, Mobile App Development, API Integration, Speech-to-Text (STT), Real-time Audio Processing
Full-stack iOS Developer
2026 - 2026
Body Fuel Box LLC
- Built a real estate app from scratch using SwiftUI, Observable, and MVVM, allowing users to post and comment on real estate listings.
- Used the Google Maps SDK to efficiently display real estate listings, being mindful of performance and resource consumption.
- Ensured a seamless iOS App Store release of the app, building features such as blocking/reporting user-generated content to remain compliant and ensure approval.
- Integrated the Google AdMob SDK to ensure revenue at timely moments in the user experience.
Technologies: iOS, Swift, Firebase, Google Maps SDK, Xcode, App Store Connect, SwiftUI, Observable Framework, Google AdMob
iOS Developer
2025 - 2026
Reddit, Inc.
- Worked on the media team as an iOS developer, handling all images, GIFs, and videos consumed in the Reddit iOS app.
- Improved memory management of video players on iOS, improving app responsiveness by 40% and reducing load times by 10%.
- Fixed several issues around audio, specifically background audio conflicts and auto-muting issues by refactoring the iOS Audio architecture to make it easier to understand and fix memory leaks/race conditions.
- Reduced iOS video errors by 6.5% and decreased exits before video start by doing the client-side work needed to migrate content delivery from external sources to an internal back end.
- Centralized video player creation logic into a unified API, reducing code duplication and creating the technical foundation for Q4 2025 performance projects.
- Resolved critical data inaccuracies in Hex/Grafana by overhauling the iOS video telemetry infrastructure, ensuring more accurate observability into iOS video performance metrics.
- Stabilized the iOS video experience by resolving critical playback and audio incidents during the Q1 2025 release cycle (my first weeks in the role).
Technologies: iOS, Swift, Objective-C, Large-scale Projects, Mobile, Social Networks, Bazel
iOS Developer
2024 - 2025
Penta Holdings Inc
- Fixed and properly integrated the Sentry SDK into the app in order to monitor crashes.
- Stabilized the PENTA iOS app right after issues arose during the iOS 18 and iOS 26 releases.
- Fixed edge cases around date parsing from API responses and UI bugs in editing work orders.
Technologies: iOS, Objective-C, Swift
Swift/iOS Engineer
2024 - 2024
Supportive, Inc.
- Worked on an iOS app called Calvin that took pictures of food and used AI to accurately determine the nutritional content of food from a picture (calories, fat, protein, etc) and log it in a daily diary.
- Ensured users could add workouts (in addition to food), as well as automatically syncing to Apple Health workout data.
- Created a widget for the app displaying calorie and workout info using WidgetKit and UserDefaults.
- Allowed users to upload more than one photo at once (including dealing with system photo permissions).
- Added a weight graph in the user's profile page using SwiftUI and Apple's Charts API.
- Refactored back-end integration for chat to move to websockets from REST API in order to improve responsiveness and real-time updates.
- Substantially improved the UI experience, eliminating slowness in scrolling and adding more friendliness to the chat UI, including typing indicators and accurate textview sizing.
- Investigated the ability to use ARKit when taking photos to be able to accurately determine the size/quantity of food in the picture and thus report more accurate nutrition info.
Technologies: iOS, Swift, Xcode, ARKit, Apple HealthKit, Large Language Models (LLMs), Objective-C
iOS Developer
2024 - 2024
Campfire Group Inc.
- Added support for staging environment via the project's Firebase back end.
- Added the ability for users to delete their accounts in order to remain compliant with Apple App Store requirements.
- Created functionality for users to be able to invite others to campfires through push notifications and to create a campfire directly.
- Implemented toasts for various real-time campfire events.
- Built a feature where users could chat to each other within a campfire, with the ability to directly tag other users, see unread chats easily, and send images to each other.
Technologies: Swift, Firebase, Algolia, SwiftUI, iOS
Swift Developer
2024 - 2024
MyCom LLC
- Added reporting and blocking functionality for guides and places in order to remain compliant with Apple's App Store rules.
- Added Sign In with Apple in order to remain compliant with Apple's App Store rules.
- Added the ability to favourite guides and places, and streamlined their creation flow.
Technologies: iOS, UIKit, SwiftUI, Swift, Firebase, Algolia
Swift/Firebase Developer
2023 - 2024
Dusty
- Added support for users to share their roundtables via a share code.
- Enabled the ability for special users to create custom topics with custom color tinting and badging for users that join those topics.
- Fixed general bugs and updated the project to the latest XCode.
Technologies: Swift, Firebase, iOS Animations, iOS, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, UX Design, iOS UI Design, Social Media Apps, Mobile Architecture, Figma, Mobile App Development, API Integration, Algolia
Senior iOS Developer
2021 - 2023
Coffee Meets Bagel
- Delivered the most successful revenue experiment in the company's history by building a new multi-screen upsell flow that increased D7's total revenue per user by 9.5%.
- Integrated Twilio into the app to build a robust video chat experience that more than 15% of our weekly users use.
- Refactored the app's onboarding flow from Objective-C to Swift, making the code more stable and increasing the app's Swift code by 10% relative to Objective-C.
- Worked with a team of five other iOS developers to fix, improve, and build upon the CoffeeMeetsBagel dating app.
- Participated in refactoring various app components, such as the "Me" avatar screen, to move closer to Swift and MVVM/VIPER architecture.
- Implemented better team processes, including a release rotation.
Technologies: VIPER Architecture, Model View ViewModel (MVVM), SDWebImage, CocoaPods, Teamwork, Agile Software Development, Git, Swift, iOS, Xcode, SwiftUI, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, LiveStream, Streaming, iTunes Connect, Alamofire, AVFoundation, Video Codecs, Realm, Video Streaming, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Lottie, Lottie-iOS, Firebase, Figma, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, Subscriptions, Apple Subscriptions, Apple Pay, Core Data, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Architecture, OpenAI GPT-4 API, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Entertainment & Leisure, GitHub, TestFlight, Stripe, PSD to Swift, Swift 4, SDK Development, Scalability, Abstraction, REST APIs, AVPlayer, App Design, iOS Native Libraries, iCloud, iOS Animations, Twilio, Video Livestreaming, TokBox, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, CI/CD Pipelines, Social Media Apps, CallKit, gRPC, Frameworks, Mobile Architecture, In-app Purchase (IAP), In-app Purchases, Monetization, Mobile App Development, API Integration
iOS Developer
2021 - 2021
Liven
- Converted the remainder of the app's Objective-C code to Swift, moving it from 88% Swift (and 10% Objective-C) to 98% Swift (and 1% Objective-C).
- Fixed bugs and crashes, improving general app stability.
- Participated and contributed to long-term discussions about the future of the iOS codebase.
Technologies: Swift, Objective-C, iOS, iPhone, Mobile Apps, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration
Mobile Team Lead
2020 - 2021
Top Hat
- Expanded my responsibilities by taking on a leadership role within the Android and iOS teams, growing the number of direct reports under me to seven in total.
- Responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by rallying the team to build support for our new virtual classroom experience on iOS and Android, enabling professors to continue to deliver lectures to their students remotely.
- Transitioned the mobile team from OKRs as a way to do project planning to the shapeup and cycle process as part of a department-wide effort to transition all the engineering teams.
Technologies: VIPER Architecture, Nimble-Snapshots, SDWebImage, PromiseKit, SnapKit, CocoaPods, Teamwork, Agile Software Development, Git, Swift, Xcode, Team Leadership, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, LiveStream, Streaming, iTunes Connect, Alamofire, AVFoundation, Video Codecs, Realm, Video Streaming, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Firebase, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, App Store, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Architecture, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Sockets, Socket.IO, Networks, GitHub, TestFlight, PSD to Swift, Swift 4, SDK Development, Scalability, REST APIs, AVPlayer, App Design, iOS Native Libraries, Sensor Data, iOS Animations, Video Livestreaming, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, CI/CD Pipelines, CircleCI, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration, iPad
iOS Team Lead
2019 - 2020
Top Hat
- Managed and mentored a mix of junior and senior developers as well as remote contractors in a team of three iOS developers.
- Delivered an all-hands speech in front of the whole company highlighting the progress we made in the iOS app rewrite, specifically the classroom experience.
- Rewrote the entire guidebook experience and analytics architecture on the iOS app, making the code more scalable, maintainable, and stable.
- Created Top Hat's first iOS open source project (Richtextview.com), an iOS UI TextView (UIView) that properly displays LaTeX, HTML, Markdown, and YouTube/Vimeo links, amassing 200 stars and 8 forks within the first week of the first release.
Technologies: Open Source, VIPER Architecture, Nimble-Snapshots, SDWebImage, SnapKit, PromiseKit, CocoaPods, Teamwork, Agile Software Development, Team Leadership, Objective-C, Swift, Git, Xcode, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, iTunes Connect, Alamofire, Realm, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Firebase, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, App Store, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Architecture, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Sockets, Socket.IO, Networks, GitHub, TestFlight, PSD to Swift, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Swift 4, SDK Development, Scalability, REST APIs, App Design, iOS Native Libraries, Sensor Data, iOS Animations, APIs, iOS, iPhone, Mobile Apps, CI/CD Pipelines, CircleCI, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration, iPad, Accessibility
Senior iOS Developer
2018 - 2019
Top Hat
- Participated in an entire iOS app rewrite, moving 30% of the project's code to Swift within the first six months.
- Championed a week-long project to streamline and standardize our dependency management system, moving from a mixture of Carthage and static dependencies to CocoaPods, removing approximately 100,000 lines of code in the process.
- Contributed to the rewrite of the entire question experience on iOS to Swift, improving the app's weekly crash-free rating from an all-time low of 96.5% to 99.5% and the App Store rating from 3.2 to 4.5 stars out of 5.
- Established the team's accessibility standards and Swift code style guides.
Technologies: Carthage, VIPER Architecture, Nimble-Snapshots, SDWebImage, SnapKit, PromiseKit, CocoaPods, Teamwork, Agile Software Development, Objective-C, Swift, Git, Xcode, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, iTunes Connect, Alamofire, Realm, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Firebase, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Architecture, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Sockets, Socket.IO, Game Development, Gamification, Networks, GitHub, TestFlight, PSD to Swift, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Swift 4, SDK Development, Scalability, Abstraction, REST APIs, App Design, iOS Native Libraries, Sensor Data, iOS Animations, iOS, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, CI/CD Pipelines, CircleCI, Frameworks, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration, iPad
iOS Developer
2017 - 2018
Top Hat
- Led the technical planning around re-architecting the entire student classroom experience on iOS.
- Participated in a complete overhaul of our iOS network engine, moving from Objective-C and RestKit to Swift, Codable, and PromiseKit.
- Championed a week-long project to standardize and streamline our UI/UX process on mobile, including colors, font sizes, and images.
- Worked with the rest of the department to bring a vast array of web features to our iOS app, including tournaments, Top Hat Test, and third-party questions.
Technologies: Carthage, VIPER Architecture, Nimble-Snapshots, SDWebImage, SnapKit, PromiseKit, Teamwork, CocoaPods, Agile Software Development, Objective-C, Swift, Xcode, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, Alamofire, Realm, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Firebase, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, Mobile, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Sockets, Socket.IO, Game Development, Gamification, Networks, GitHub, TestFlight, PSD to Swift, Swift 4, SDK Development, Scalability, Abstraction, REST APIs, App Design, iOS Native Libraries, Sensor Data, iOS Animations, iOS, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, CI/CD Pipelines, CircleCI, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration, iPad
iOS Developer
2016 - 2016
Compass
- Worked with a team of three developers to manage five iOS applications for the luxury homes market, developing features that led to an 80% engagement rate on our apps.
- Utilized polygon drawing and correction algorithms to enable users to draw custom boundaries on a map, in order to filter particular regions in a real estate search.
- Architected major portions of the agents app, adding the ability for agents to see and interact with their clients, as well as view their own listing and search history.
- Strengthened the Swift API layer in our apps to better communicate with and translate Thrift data structures coming from our servers.
Technologies: Model View ViewModel (MVVM), Nimble-Snapshots, SDWebImage, SnapKit, Carthage, Teamwork, Agile Software Development, Objective-C, Swift, Xcode, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, Alamofire, Realm, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Google Maps SDK, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, Core Data, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, GitHub, TestFlight, PSD to Swift, Swift 4, SDK Development, REST APIs, iOS, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, CI/CD Pipelines, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration
iOS Developer
2016 - 2016
- Worked on the messaging portion of the flagship iOS app with eight other iOS developers and approximately two dozen other developers, project managers, and designers.
- Developed a feature that allowed LinkedIn employees to message their coworkers and add them to group conversations, working with an Android and back-end developer.
- Enhanced the messaging experience by enabling users to see the content of URLs sent in the app by showing a basic image, title, and description along with inline YouTube videos.
- Enriched the user experience by modernizing the loading animation across messaging.
Technologies: Model View ViewModel (MVVM), Teamwork, Agile Software Development, Objective-C, Swift, Git, Xcode, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, UI Animation, Core Animation, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Apple, Core Data, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Instant Messaging, PSD to Swift, Swift 4, SDK Development, Scalability, REST APIs, iOS Animations, iOS, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, Social Media Apps, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration
Mobile Application Developer
2015 - 2015
Autodesk
- Used iOS Objective-C, Lua, and C++ to develop a contest feature for Sculpt+, a 3D-intensive social media app where users could share self-created 3D models.
- Updated the Android app to be Gradle-based, reducing build speeds by up to 50%.
- Improved the internal Kalpana 3D framework which was used by multiple Autodesk apps.
Technologies: Gradle, C++, Lua, Objective-C, Xcode, Java, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, UIKit, Core Image, iOS Frameworks, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Android, iOS Camera, Camera API, Android SDK, Entertainment & Leisure, Metal, Mobile Apps, Mobile App Development, API Integration, iPad
Software Developer
2014 - 2014
Metroland
- Used the Appcelerator framework to work on the Save.ca hybrid mobile application, part of Canada’s largest online shopping savings and deals ecosystem.
- Used JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Android Java, and jQuery to develop a new method of favouriting flyers and redesign the camera module, increasing the app’s rating by 0.3 stars over the course of my employment.
- Performed routine bug fixes and updated the app to iOS 8 and Android Lollipop.
Technologies: Appcelerator Titanium, Hybrid Apps, Java, Mobile Development, iOS SDK, Apps, Mobile, Android, iOS Camera, Camera API, Android SDK, eCommerce, Mobile Apps, Mobile App Development, API Integration
Experience
RichTextView
This is an iOS open source project that takes any kind of text—HTML, LaTeX, Markdown, and even YouTube/Vimeo links—and turns it into a UIView that can be used to visually display these different kinds of "rich text" properly.
As the sole developer, I was involved on the ground floor of this project, from creation to deployment to maintenance, as well as putting it in the CocoaPods Specs repo so that anyone can integrate it into their projects.
As the sole developer, I was involved on the ground floor of this project, from creation to deployment to maintenance, as well as putting it in the CocoaPods Specs repo so that anyone can integrate it into their projects.
Interactive Computer Graphics Course Project
http://www.ahmedelkady.xyz/uiuc-cs418-aelkady2/This is my end-of-course project for my interactive computer graphics course for my master of computer science degree. It is a WebGL webpage that includes a rendering of a teapot and a plane that uses geometry processing, smooth per-pixel shading, diffuse reflectance, specular highlights, surface texture, reflective surface, procedural texture, and bump mapping.
Personal Website
http://www.ahmedelkady.xyzThis is a website I built using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It showcases both my professional and personal aspects, giving a full picture of who I am. I focused mainly on responsive design to ensure its compatibility across all devices.
Education
2021 - 2022
Master's Degree in Computer Science
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign - Remote
2012 - 2017
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo - Waterloo, Canada
Skills
Libraries/APIs
CocoaPods, PromiseKit, SnapKit, SDWebImage, Alamofire, Core Image, REST APIs, iOS Native Libraries, Nimble-Snapshots, Google Maps SDK, Core Animation, Apple Subscriptions, Camera API, Sockets, Socket.IO, Stripe, WebGL, Lottie-iOS
Tools
Xcode, Git, GitHub, TestFlight, iTunes Connect, Figma, CircleCI, Gradle, Appcelerator Titanium, AVPlayer, TokBox, CallKit, ChatGPT, Apple HealthKit, Bazel
Languages
Swift, Objective-C, Swift 4, Java, Lua, C++, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, SQL, PHP
Frameworks
SwiftUI, iOS SDK, UIKit, iOS Frameworks, Core Data, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, Android SDK, Metal, CloudKit, gRPC, ARKit
Paradigms
VIPER Architecture, Mobile Development, Agile Software Development, Model View ViewModel (MVVM), Gamification, UX Design, iOS UI Design
Platforms
iOS, Firebase, Apple, Mobile, Twilio, Android, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Algolia, iCloud, Observable Framework
Storage
Realm, Database Management Systems (DBMS)
Other
Teamwork, Apps, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), App Store, Mobile Applications, Architecture, SDK Development, Scalability, Abstraction, APIs, iPhone, Mobile Apps, Frameworks, Mobile Architecture, Mobile App Development, API Integration, iPad, Algorithms, Carthage, LiveStream, Streaming, AVFoundation, Video Codecs, Video Streaming, UI Animation, Subscriptions, Apple Pay, iOS Camera, Full-stack, App Design, iOS Animations, Video Livestreaming, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), CI/CD Pipelines, Social Media Apps, In-app Purchase (IAP), In-app Purchases, Monetization, Accessibility, Speech-to-Text (STT), Real-time Audio Processing, Open Source, Team Leadership, Hybrid Apps, Compilers, Computer Graphics, Data Visualization, Data Cleaning, Lottie, OpenAI GPT-4 API, Game Development, Entertainment & Leisure, Networks, Instant Messaging, PSD to Swift, Web UX, Sensor Data, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), eCommerce, Bluetooth, Audio, Large Language Models (LLMs), Large-scale Projects, Social Networks, App Store Connect, Google AdMob
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