
Ben Gottlieb
Verified Expert in Engineering
iPhone Developer
Ben has been an iOS developer for the entire life of the platform and has worked on mobile devices for more than 20 years. He designed, built, and has maintained the most popular Crosswords app in Apple's AppStore for the last 10 years. He's done work on Apple's foundation OS code, designed Salesforce's internal REST framework, and written large-scale deployed apps for companies like Home Depot and Zimmer.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Xcode
The most amazing...
...project I got to work on was with Roger Ebert on his iOS Movie Guide. We were able to distill decades of film criticism down to an iPhone sized package.
Work Experience
Lead iOS Engineer
Stand Alone, Inc.
- Built and maintained the first and most popular crosswords app in the store, with over 3 million downloads.
- Managed the relationship with Apple's App Store team to get Crosswords into the store on day 1.
- Maintained Crosswords through 10 iOS versions.
- Released Crosswords as the Apple & Starbuck's app of the week in 2012.
- Oversaw a transition from Objective-C to Swift as our primary iOS language.
- Developed numerous internal tools and libraries to assist in iOS development.
Lead iOS Developer
Real Talk LLC
- Built a back-office app for Speech Pathologists to manage both their clients and sessions with those clients.
- Collaborated with the rest of the team to create and evolve the server API that talks to an iOS app.
- Created a minimum viable product (MVP) that met or exceeded all initial requirements in time for the client to use it in a trade show presentation.
Lead iOS Engineer
Coinlytics
- Built an iPhone, iPad, and watchOS app from zero to shipping.
- Integrated with a custom API to provide up-to-date cryptocurrency information to the user's home screen using widgets.
- Developed a complex widget customization framework with dozens of themes and an enormous amount of customization, which supports thousands of currencies.
Mobile Developer
Lavngarde PBC
- Took over the development of a POC that had already been started and built it into a shipping product.
- Interfaced with various third-party APIs to build a powerful background checking system.
- Integrated with Firebase to store user information and make simple and easily accomplishable admin tasks without having to access the code.
Lead iOS Developer
Strongest AI
- Designed and built a detailed CrossFit application for iPhone and Apple Watch using SwiftUI, Core Data, Combine, and numerous other Apple and third-party technologies.
- Created a flexible data model to encompass the breadth of CrossFit exercise programs and workouts.
- Implemented a detailed phone and watch UI that allows athletes to easily monitor their workout and keep them motivated and informed.
Senior iOS Developer
Nomadic Tribe
- Built out the Nomadic Tribe mobile application, designing much of the app's architecture and implementation.
- Created a flexible and lightweight internal networking stack using protocols for easy extension.
- Designed an application architecture with minimal reliance on outside code, enabling short build times and fast iteration (all dependencies were managed using the Swift Package Manager).
iOS Developer Volunteer
5calls.org
- Designed and developed the 5calls app iPad interface.
- Redesigned the iPhone UI for use on larger screens.
- Coded and built out the entire iPad interface.
iOS Contract Developer
PG&E/Leviathan
- Built an iPad app to showcase PG&E's Zero-Net-Energy house.
- Architected and coded the iPad app, integrating augmented reality, location-awareness, and 3D imaging components.
- Implemented a pre-ARKit Augmented Reality experience using the iPad as a virtual window.
iOS Contract Developer
Salesforce
- Built the first mass-deployed iPad marketing tool at Zimmer (at the time of its release, it was the largest deployed iPad app in the world).
- Designed and coded Salesforce's initial REST toolkit for implementing iOS apps based on their platform.
- Built The Home Depot's paint color simulation tool, Color My World, a tap app in the App Store.
- Created the Monsanto Seedsman Digital Sales Assistant iPad app.
- Developed the Allergan, Kimberly Clark, Abbot Vascular, and Diageo DSA iPad apps.
iOS Contract Developer
Roger Ebert
- Built Roger's iOS Great Movies app.
iOS Contract Developer
LaPresse
- Built the crosswords playing component for the LaPresse newspaper app.
- Converted our existing Crosswords app into an embeddable library.
- Worked with the LaPresse team to embed the crossword functionality into their existing app.
iOS & Palm OS Contract Developer
Handmark
- Built Handmark's Express software client for both Palm and iOS.
- Owned the development of one of the keynote iPhone apps (Handmark was brought on stage for the initial iPhone SDK introduction for this app).
- Built up the Palm client as the initial client for Handmark's Express news service.
- Transitioned the client to iOS after the release of the iPhone.
- Oversaw Palm and iOS development until Handmark's acquisition by Sprint in 2013.
iOS Contract Developer
Apple, Inc.
- Architected and coded a discussion board component for Apple's internal Apple Store sales tool, Retail Me.
- Took existing designs and translated them into working application features.
Experience
Crosswords
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crosswords/id688876601?mt=8Nomadic Tribe
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nomadic-tribe/id1457846011The Home Depot | Project Color
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/project-color-the-home-depot/id1002417141?mt=8Ukrainian Poetry | Аркуші—українська поезія
USAToday Crosswords
Twitter + OAuth
https://github.com/bengottlieb/Twitter-OAuth-iPhoneASDetect Autism Detection App
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asdetect/id1058669141?mt=8Skills
Languages
Objective-C, C, Swift, JavaScript, XML, C++, Swift 5
Frameworks
SwiftUI, Core Data, Cocoa, UIKit, iOS Frameworks, iOS SDK, Vapor, ARKit, StoreKit
Libraries/APIs
iOS Native Libraries, Intercom API, Mixpanel API
Tools
Xcode, Interface Builder, Jira, Bitbucket, Git
Paradigms
Agile, Prototype-based OOP, MVC Design, UI Design, Mobile Development, Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), REST
Platforms
WatchOS, iOS, MacOS, Apple, Mobile, Firebase, Salesforce, Apple Watch
Other
User Interface (UI), iPhone, iPad, Bluetooth, Networking, Architecture, API Integration, Mobile App Development, Mobile UX, Palm OS, Augmented Reality (AR), WatchOS UI, Mobile UI, APIs, App UX, User Experience (UX), Widgets
Storage
SQLite
Education
Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Troy, New York