Sara Awad, Developer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Sara Awad

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Sara is a highly analytical individual with a robust aptitude for hyper learning and collaborative skills. She joined Toptal to work on projects where her mobile/front-end experience (Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, Angular, TypeScript, C# .NET) and demonstrated history in writing efficient code would be invaluable. She's worked on several international, offshore projects with an in-depth understanding of scripting languages, and she also has experience with big data programming languages (Python, R).

Portfolio

Careem Networks FZ
Swift, SwiftUI, Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform, Bitrise, Firebase, Slack, Jira...
Emirates Group
Jira, Bitbucket, SonarQube, Swift, SwiftUI, AppDynamics, Combine, Jenkins...
Dubizzle
Swift, Firebase, Bitrise, Spinnaker, Fastlane, ClickUp, Atlassian...

Experience

  • Software Deployment - 9 years
  • Git - 9 years
  • Swift - 7 years
  • C# - 7 years
  • iOS - 7 years
  • Python - 7 years
  • Data Science - 4 years
  • Node.js - 3 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Xcode, JetBrains Rider, WebStorm, Jupyter Notebook, DataGrip, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Slack, Zoom, Jira, Confluence

The most amazing...

...things I've designed and developed were several mobile apps like Task Logger and a watch app called 1VALET.

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer

2023 - PRESENT
Careem Networks FZ
  • Worked on various projects, particularly the Hydra design revamp project. As a core team member, I designed and built features for iOS (using Swift and SwiftUI) and Android (using Kotlin and Kotlin Multiplatform).
  • Participated in monthly on-call shifts, during which I updated the on-call documentation, addressed bug fixes, and optimized the Bitrise pipeline by customizing scripts to meet our needs. Additionally, I led the release for groceries.
  • Led weekly catch-ups for the iOS teams to discuss new ideas, review pull requests, address open topics or challenges, ensure that our documentation was up to date, onboard new engineers, and help unblock team members.
Technologies: Swift, SwiftUI, Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform, Bitrise, Firebase, Slack, Jira, Git, Figma

Senior Mobile (iOS) Engineer

2022 - 2023
Emirates Group
  • Designed and developed high-quality and maintainable iOS features.
  • Participated in code reviews and pair programming and engaged in sprint planning by evaluating each task.
  • Enforced unit testing and ensured the code's robustness, usability, and reliability.
Technologies: Jira, Bitbucket, SonarQube, Swift, SwiftUI, AppDynamics, Combine, Jenkins, Fastlane, Firebase, Objective-C, GitHub, Mobile Apps, Core Animation, Core Graphics

Senior iOS Engineer

2021 - 2022
Dubizzle
  • Interviewed possible candidates to identify their problem-solving and technical skills.
  • Engaged in sprint planning, evaluated different tasks, and assigned tickets to each team member.
  • Prepared weekly tech stats for any issues, users, or relevant statistics using Firebase Crashylytics.
  • Created automated CI/CD pipelines for releasing applications to testing (QA) and production environments using Bitrise, Spinnaker, and Fastlane.
  • Delved thoroughly into each feature, handling its implementation all the way to deployment.
  • Assisted the team with emerging issues, pair programming, and code reviews for any PR.
Technologies: Swift, Firebase, Bitrise, Spinnaker, Fastlane, ClickUp, Atlassian, ReactiveSwift, SendBird, Bitbucket, GitHub, Mobile Apps, Core Animation, Core Graphics

Mobile and Front-end Developer

2020 - 2021
1Valet
  • Contributed to developing several apps, including a resident iOS app, a watch app to unlock doors, an entry console system for couriers, and a 1connect portal for managers and staff to manage buildings.
  • Created technical assessments for mobile roles and interviewed possible candidates to evaluate their problem-solving and technical skills.
  • Delved thoroughly into each feature, starting with implementing the UI/UX, front end, and its respective API and service.
  • Built RESTful APIs and added unit tests using C#, LINQ, SQL, and Firebase.
Technologies: Swift, .NET Core, C#, Angular, TypeScript, JavaScript, Razor, Flutter, LINQ, Firebase, HTML, SCSS, CSS, Azure, Bitbucket, Node.js, Mobile Apps, Core Graphics

Machine Learning Developer | Data Scientist

2019 - 2021
American University of Beirut
  • Aggregated data using the following data sources: satellite images (2D), local weather data, and ancillary data.
  • Applied several feature selections, feature engineering techniques, and data studies in terms of different time series components.
  • Developed several machine learning models (pointwise and probabilistic) to implement proper decision-making.
  • Deployed the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to build several compute engines for retrieving satellite images from Google Earth Engine (EEflux).
  • Utilized Jupyter Notebook in an AI platform in GCP to run a script for data wrangling and imputation.
  • Processed terabyte-sized data sets in batches and integrated several independent CSV files (provided intermittently) with several properties data despite data anonymity.
  • Applied different machine learning models, i.e., decision trees, random forests, and neural networks to an unlabeled data set to cluster data based on mobility patterns into several groups.
  • Quantified dates of refugee relocations, event peaks, and congestion areas in base stations (messages versus phone calls) per district and grouping.
Technologies: Python, R, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, Machine Learning, Spark, Matplotlib, Seaborn

iOS Engineer

2019 - 2020
Lixar
  • Adapted easily to working with legacy code and various technical environments.
  • Collaborated with multinational offshore development teams by reviewing code and doing paired programming.
  • Implemented features and bug fixes while deploying a branch on Bitbucket.
  • Collaborated with a team to ensure that the UI/UX and the requirements were feasible and planned a related project schedule for each deliverable, including QA activities.
  • Worked on sales issuing, receipts, POS, tee reservations, and the golf management system.
Technologies: Objective-C, Swift, Jira, Azure, Confluence, Slack, Bitbucket, Model View ViewModel (MVVM), ReactiveCocoa, ReactiveSwift, Mobile Apps, Core Animation, Core Graphics

iOS and Web Developer

2015 - 2019
Scope For IT Services
  • Participated in the development of several apps in various business fields, tackling shopping for food products, scheduling and task logging, educational games, flight reservations, interacting with ERP systems, and so on.
  • Led the mobile team, which included following up, supporting the team, and ensuring that we successfully met all requirements and deadlines.
  • Developed prototypes, mockups, and POCs (proof of concept) using Sketch and Flinto.
  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define, design, and deploy new features and optimize deployment by establishing and maintaining effective communication channels.
  • Delivered and deployed applications to the App Store.
  • Displayed flexibility and agility by switching to other technologies, i.e., Java and Kotlin for Android development from an iOS background.
Technologies: Swift, Objective-C, Git, Trello, C#, PHP, Java, Android, Core Animation, Core Graphics

Microsoft Dynamics Navision Developer

2014 - 2015
Scope for IT Services
  • Developed a Navision mobile app using C# and .NET and SQL Server for a Motorola MC45 handheld device that prepares sales invoices, orders, and receipts for a client to track their inventory and sales.
  • Installed, configured, and maintained Microsoft dynamic Navision applications.
  • Replicated data among several branches and edited reports for existing modules using C/AL (client application language).
Technologies: C#, Windows, Navision, Microsoft Dynamics, SQL, C/AL, Zebra Programming Language (ZPL)

Emirates Application

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/emirates/id935307149
Emirates airline application allows the user to search and book a flight for over
150 destinations worldwide, and complete your entire booking through the app. It also helps manage the trip by choosing the meal and seat preference and downloading the boarding pass directly to Wallet. Moreover, you can get real-time flight updates about check-in, departure gate, boarding time, baggage belt, and more straight to your device.

Dubizzle Tutorial

https://github.com/SaraBasemAwad/DubExercise
A project following the MVVM architecture with unit and integration testing. It shows a simple product list and its details. This project is a direct application of an MVVM architecture while using Moya for networking and reactive Swift for reactive binding

1Valet

https://1valet.com/Platform
I developed a watch application on iOS to unlock remote doors.

Available at the link below:
• https://apps.apple.com/lb/app/1valet/id1488970038

I was responsible for revamping the existing mobile application and migrating it towards an MVVM design pattern and more reactive bindings as well developing features using Swift, Kotlin, Twilio, CallKit, Firebase, Reactive Swift, and so on.

I also developed several features on the community/admin portal of the product using Angular, HTML, SCC, JavaScript, Twilio, and Kibana, and Elasticsearch.

Available here:
• https://my.1valetbas.com/buildings/

In addition to my work on the app and portal, I also developed RESTful APIs following the command design pattern using.NET Core, C#, Razor, Twilio, Elastic Search, and Kibana.

Teesnap

https://www.teesnap.com/
I worked on Teesnap, a golf course management platform deployed on nearly 1,000 gold courses in North America consisting of POS and Facebook services. I worked as part of an iOS team and designed and deployed features using Swift as well as migrating the existing legacy code (Objective-C).

Mobile Phone Records for Exploring Spatio-temporal Refugee Mobility

I participated in the Data4Refugees Challenge at Bogazici University in Istanbul. In that challenge, my teammates and I introduced our research and work on applying data wrangling, imputation, and modeling techniques on mobile records in order to uncover patterns regarding the refugees' mobilities and how they are impacted by events. We used Python, R, GCP to gather data and impute and cluster the data

Task Logger

Task Logger is a B2B application that helps teachers log their daily activities. It covers different features, e.g, scheduling classes, assigning categories (private teaching, non-academic), logging tasks, and so on.

I was responsible for designing the application using Sketch and Flinto along with implementing it as a mobile solution using Swift, and finally deploying it to the App Store.

Manar Al Huda

A magazine application where I designed all the mockup screens using Sketch and Flinto. I also led the mobile team in the design and development of all the features—working on it from the start to deployment to the store.

Meswaq

Meswaq is the easiest way to reach your product suppliers and set orders free of any service charges.

I worked as part of the mobile team and the web team and developed a feature in the mobile part and sits respective feature in the portal. For the mobile, I create a native iOS solution and for the web, I used C#, Razor, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Play My Way: Education in Games

Play My Way is an ad-free app that asks you an educational question that appears every couple of minutes then hides after you answer. It prepares children for exams at school through drills and practice while they are playing their favorite game!.

I was responsible for a team of developers that shipped the Android and iOS versions and was involved in implementing features as well as shipping the product to the store.

Product Accolades:
• Winner of Best App for Children Award 2016
• “Play My Way app aims to turn kids’ love of mobile devices on its head.” —TechCrunch
• “Mobile app that tackles a universal problem.” — IDG Connect
• “The app is a compromise between parents and kids.” —Trendhunter
• “You can now use your child’s phone addiction to make them smarter,” — TechRadar

NavMap

I developed a Navision mobile application using C#, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2012, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 on a Motorola MC45 handheld device. I was responsible for designing the whole application as well as synchronizing the data between the handheld device and an ERP system.
2017 - 2021

Master's Degree in Computer Science (Machine Learning)

American University of Beirut - Beirut, Lebanon

2012 - 2015

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Global University - Beirut, Lebanon

JULY 2014 - PRESENT

Data Mining Project

Hellenic American University (Greece)

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, Core Animation, Core Graphics, LINQ, Matplotlib, SendBird

Tools

Xcode, JetBrains Rider, WebStorm, DataGrip, Slack, Zoom, Jira, Confluence, Weka, GitHub, Bitbucket, Navision, Git, Trello, Seaborn, Sketch, Flinto, Microsoft Dynamics, CallKit, Kibana, Fastlane, Atlassian, SonarQube, AppDynamics, Jenkins, Figma

Languages

Swift, CSS, Python, TypeScript, Kotlin, R, C#, SQL, C/AL, Zebra Programming Language (ZPL), Objective-C, PHP, Java, JavaScript, HTML, SCSS

Platforms

iOS, Firebase, Jupyter Notebook, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Web, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure, RStudio, Windows, Android, Twilio, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bitrise, Spinnaker

Frameworks

.NET Core, Angular, ReactiveCocoa, ReactiveSwift, Razor, Flutter, Spark, SwiftUI, Combine

Paradigms

Agile Software Development, Pair Programming, Model View ViewModel (MVVM), Windows App Development, Agile

Other

Mobile Apps, Software Deployment, Mobile UI, Mobile UX, Machine Learning, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Mining, Teamwork, Pull Requests, Clustering, User Experience (UX), App Store, Team Leadership, Handheld Devices, ClickUp, Kotlin Multiplatform

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