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Alexander Edge, iOS Developer in London, United Kingdom
Alexander Edge

iOS Developer in London, United Kingdom

Member since December 11, 2019
A technical leader with over ten years of experience building apps for Apple platforms, Alexander is used to working with product teams in large and small businesses alike and can explain complex engineering concepts to stakeholders. He has successfully launched multiple apps and written software used by millions of people around the world. Fluent in both Swift and Objective-C, he has worked with a wide range of technologies including SwiftUI and Combine.
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Portfolio

  • The Guardian
    GitHub, TeamCity, Objective-C, Swift, iOS, Mobile Development
  • ustwo
    Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), Prototype Framework, Swift, iOS, RxSwift...
  • Novoda
    Unit Testing, Dependency Injection, MQTT, Internet of Things (IoT), Swift...

Experience

  • Core Data 11 years
  • iOS 11 years
  • Objective-C 11 years
  • Unit Testing 8 years
  • Swift 5 years
  • RxSwift 3 years
  • Model View Viewmodel (MVVM) 3 years
  • SwiftUI 1 year

Location

London, United Kingdom

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Combine, SwiftUI, Xcode, Swift, iOS

The most amazing...

...achievement I've accomplished was leading an engineering team to launch one of the most successful fitness apps on iOS.

Employment

  • Senior iOS Engineer

    2019 - 2020
    The Guardian
    • Worked on the Guardian's flagship app, Guardian Live News.
    • Identified performance bottlenecks and increased scrolling smoothness by over 25%.
    • Developed a strategy for implementing dark mode in a legacy codebase.
    • Contributed to the open-source International Advertising Bureau (IAB) consent management Swift project.
    • Added self-sizing elements to UICollectionView, reducing total lines of code to be maintained in the future.
    • Transformed a Proof of Concept for a WKWebView to native communication bridge using Apache Thrift into production-ready code.
    • Added protocol multiplexing and Swift 5 support to the open-source Apache Thrift project for native-web view communication.
    Technologies: GitHub, TeamCity, Objective-C, Swift, iOS, Mobile Development

  • Senior iOS Engineer

    2019 - 2019
    ustwo
    • Rebuilt an existing health app prototype using a new design direction.
    • Recommended using container view controllers to allow multiple developers to work on the same screens with minimal overhead.
    • Delivered the final prototype ahead of schedule.
    Technologies: Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), Prototype Framework, Swift, iOS, RxSwift, Mobile Development

  • Senior iOS Engineer

    2019 - 2019
    Novoda
    • Worked alongside another engineer (pair-programming) on an Internet of Things (IoT) framework based on MQTT.
    • Increased the unit test coverage and created documentation for framework consumers.
    • Used Reactive programming experience to make the existing codebase more readable, maintainable, and testable.
    Technologies: Unit Testing, Dependency Injection, MQTT, Internet of Things (IoT), Swift, iOS, ReactiveCocoa, Mobile Development

  • Lead iOS Engineer

    2018 - 2018
    New Look
    • Devised a strategy for tackling technical debt while delivering new features and maintaining test coverage in a live app.
    • Reduced total lines of code by 35% and removed multiple external dependencies.
    • Improved the App Store rating from one star to five stars.
    Technologies: Leadership, Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), Dependency Injection, Unit Testing, Bitrise, Xcode, RxSwift, Swift, iOS

  • Co-founder

    2014 - 2018
    Peeps
    • Launched a messaging app based around sending 10-second video clips between groups of users.
    • Designed a custom SMS-based system for verifying users based on Twilio REST API.
    • Implemented high-compression H.264/MPEG-4 AAC video recording using AVFoundation.
    • Wrote server-side business logic in JavaScript for Parse (now Parse-server running on Heroku).
    • Added custom view controller animations using UIViewControllerAnimatedTransitioning APIs.
    • Added a notification extension for viewing video messages on Watch.
    Technologies: JavaScript, Audio, Videos, AVFoundation, Parse, Twilio, UIKit, Objective-C

  • Senior iOS Engineer

    2017 - 2017
    ustwo (Freelance)
    • Developed a connected-car app for Jaguar Land Rover in use worldwide.
    • Used reactive frameworks in conjunction with web sockets to make an instantly-updating UI.
    • Participated in BDD workshops to define scenarios and system behavior.
    Technologies: Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Unit Testing, WebSockets, Xcode, RxSwift, Swift, iOS

  • iOS Engineer

    2014 - 2015
    Curator (freelance)
    • Used the UITraitCollection APIs to add adaptive layouts for portrait and landscape on iPad that paved the way for a launch on iPhone.
    • Added interactive and non-interactive transitions between view controllers.
    • Designed and implemented a syncing Core Data API using Parse as a back end.
    Technologies: JavaScript, Parse, Core Data, UIKit, Objective-C

Experience

  • The Body Coach
    https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/the-body-coach/id1502129212

    I helped lead the engineering effort to build an iOS capable of supporting a large number of users complete with video workouts, tailored meal recipes, live-streaming, and in-app subscriptions. I called on my experience writing readable, maintainable, and testable code to minimize complexity while providing a rich feature-set.

  • Guardian Live News
    https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/the-guardian-live-world-news/id409128287

    I worked alongside the mobile apps team at Guardian News and Media on an award-winning news app. I used my experience as a senior engineer to add features while improving the existing Objective-C and Swift codebase.

  • Jaguar Land Rover – In Control Remote
    https://www.ustwo.com/work/jaguar-land-rover-remote

    An iOS app utilizing WebSockets to communicate with Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. The app features climate control management, journey tracking, status information, and theft notification. The app uses reactive UI frameworks to show the user up-to-date information about their vehicles.

Skills

  • Languages

    Swift, Objective-C, GraphQL

  • Frameworks

    SwiftUI, Core Data

  • Tools

    Xcode, Git, MQTT

  • Paradigms

    Unit Testing, REST, Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), Model View Controller (MVC), Mobile Development, Dependency Injection

  • Platforms

    iOS

  • Other

    Combine, Leadership, APIs, Mobile Apps, Swift Package Manager, WebSockets

  • Libraries/APIs

    RxSwift

Education

  • Master's Degree in Electronic and Communications Engineering
    2004 - 2008
    University of Bristol - Bristol, UK

Certifications

  • Codility Golden Award for the Rhodium 2019 Challenge
    JANUARY 2020 - PRESENT
    Codility

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