Senior Software Development Engineer
Expedia Group
💼 Full-time • September 2020 → Present
🏢 Expedia Group
👥 Marketplace
📍 Rome Area, Italy •
- Spearheaded the Real User Monitoring (RUM) API and Datadog SDK integration, enhancing observability for native apps.
- Led the implementation of Performance Tracker across iOS and Android, enabling user-perceived performance metrics.
- Mentored and onboarded new iOS developers, fostering independent contributions and cross-timezone collaboration.
- Pioneered the Application Hygiene initiative, introducing a scoring system to improve app quality and dependency management.
- Drove GraphQL Gateway unification, contributing to a scalable multi-brand UI platform.
Skills
- Performance monitoring (RUM, TTIL, SLI/SLO)
- Native app development (Swift, SwiftUI, iOS architecture)
- API & microservices (GraphQL, REST)
- Global team collaboration
- Technical leadership & mentoring
-
Incident response & on-call operations
- Architectural and platform evolution (Shared UI, HTTP Context)
- Leading application hygiene and technical debt management
- Native app development (iOS/Android) and upskilling
- Providing technical direction and strategic problem-solving
- Leadership and mentorship for individual and team growth
- Global team collaboration
- Effective communication and influencing (presentations, documentation)
- Cloud infrastructure (AWS migration, configuration frameworks)
- Continuous learning and adaptability to new technologies
Performance Review
Summary: Highly accomplished Senior Software Development Engineer with a strong track record of driving significant platform improvements, fostering innovation and collaboration, and excelling in native application performance and reliability initiatives. Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional projects, mentor junior engineers, and communicate effectively across global teams. Actively engaged in technical conversations through RFCs and presentations.
Key Skills:
- Performance Engineering: Real User Monitoring (RUM) API definition, Performance Tracker implementation to calculate industry standard initial load metrics (e.g. TTIL), Datadog RUM SDK integration, SLI/SLO, Error Budget policy, Application Hygiene, Performance Engineering documentation for developers.
- Native App Development (iOS Focus): Swift, SwiftUI, Xcode & Debugging, Saving/Networking/Concurrency in iOS, iOS Design Patterns (MVC, MVVM, Architecting for SwiftUI, Platform Patterns), Performance Architecture, iOS learning path facilitation, new hire onboarding.
- API & Microservices: GraphQL stack, Apollo GraphQL gateway unification, REST Kernel for traveler experience APIs.
- Cloud & Infrastructure: Cloud migration of two REST services to AWS (e.g. SRLE, SAI), Common configuration framework adoption, Feature Config proposal for configuration management, Hbox linux virtual machine for developer ramp-up.
- Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Formalizing problems/solutions, technical sharing, RFCs (Request for Comments) for consensus building, coaching junior engineers, facilitating learning paths, promoting ownership, technical direction, community evangelism, conflict mediation.
- Collaboration & Communication: Cross-functional collaboration, asynchronous communication, stakeholder management, global team dynamics, technical documentation, clear/concise messaging, influencing strategies.
- Process Improvement & Reliability: Optimizing team processes, reducing cycle time, defining milestones, detailed story creation, automating OpEx reporting, advocating reliability standards, vulnerability remediation.
- Emerging Technologies: AI tools for workflow enhancement (future exploration).
Achieved Results:
- Led the definition and advancement of the Real User Monitoring (RUM) API, a pivotal initiative to enhance observability for native applications and influence the same effort for the Web client, laying the foundation for future app monitoring improvements.
- Successfully integrated Datadog RUM SDK through an initial Proof of Concept (PoC) and subsequent rollout, establishing a crucial performance monitoring solution that directly impacts app performance insights.
- Drove the implementation of Performance Tracker for iOS and Android, implemented the initial-load metric monitoring for the top 7 screens and enabling teams to collect user-perceived performance metrics. Orchestrated workshops to facilitate team adoption.
- Pioneered a strategy to evolve the initial load custom metric to align with industry performance trends (TTIL), leading to agreements on Real User Performance Monitoring on Native and instrumenting the initial iOS screens.
- Played a central role in organizing and delivering in-person iOS development training that accelerated onboarding for new joiners, fostered cross-team knowledge sharing, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
- Mentored and ramped up three new iOS developers, ensuring their independent contribution to native application development through consistent support, code reviews, and a structured onboarding programs that considered the Rome/Chicago timezone difference.
- Pioneered the Application Hygiene initiative, defining its scope, establishing a documentation hub, and introducing the concept of an Application Hygiene Score to drive continuous dependency version updates and improve overall app quality.
- Improved production anomaly detection for legacy nodejs applications through SLI/SLO implementation and actively promoted reliability standards across the organization with documentation and team meetings.
- Achieved fine-grained component performance tracking on Datadog for iOS, including making Container and Shared-UI Components UI Events available and creating flame graphs for performance troubleshooting.
- Led collaboration for GraphQL Gateway unification and its evolution into a managed platform, contributing to the success of a multi-brand UI.
- Chaired recurring meetings between distributed engineering teams, enabling stronger collaboration and facilitating the adoption of new software versions critical for future API strategies with the unified GraphQL Gateway.
- Recruited and grew a team in Rome to support a nodejs service maintenance, evolution, and availability, successfully transitioning PagerDuty responsibilities and improving overall work quality.
- Contributed to the Performance Engineering Documentation for Developers, establishing it as a significant milestone for providing guidance and centralizing performance knowledge.
- Optimized cross-timezone collaboration by scheduling targeted sessions, anticipating doubts for asynchronous communication, and favoring written updates.
- Upskilled significantly in iOS Native App Development, completing coursework in Swift, SwiftUI, Xcode & Debugging, Saving/Networking/Concurrency, and exploring iOS Design Patterns.
Projects
Job Description
Role Summary: Influential individual contributor and mentor, leads complex and ambiguous projects, interfaces with tech leadership, and drives technical excellence.
Role Expectations:
- Lead and mentor junior engineers and peers
- Guide technology choices and advocate for best practices
- Drive operational excellence and quality metrics
- Collaborate across organizations and lead communities of practice
- Report on high-level projects and ensure documentation
Skills:
- Expertise in multiple technologies and languages
- Technical leadership and mentoring
- System and integration design for complex solutions
- Operational excellence (testing, monitoring, SLAs)
- Business acumen and cross-team collaboration