Award Winning Android Engineer Mike DiGiovanni

New York, NY | mike@mikedg.com | mikedg.com | linkedin.com/in/themikedg/

SUMMARY

Award-winning Android developer and game creator with a passion for pushing the boundaries of technology. Honored with awards and recognitions from SxSW, Cannes Lions, and Intel for innovation in digital craft and interactive experiences. Multiple Android applications selected as featured in the Play store. Working on Android since day 1.

Open-source contributor to a variety of projects in the Android, iOS, and AI realms, including Pinball Maps, Open Artemis, InvokeAI, and Sidekick, ands various game projects.

Expert in developing software for emerging platforms, including wearables, AR/VR, and large-format touchscreens. Mike made it possible to take a picture with a wink using Google Glass and was featured on CNN, podcasts, and other news media.

As a skilled reverse engineer, established a modding community through tool creation for Fire Pro Wrestling, developed multiplayer for Slime Rancher, and pioneered innovative software for Google Glass.

Excels at problem solving and diving into unfamiliar codebases. Learning new skills to attack a problem that nobody else can solve is fun.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Proficient with

Languages

Kotlin, Java, C#

Other

Android, Compose, Coroutines, Dagger, Reverse Engineering, Jetpack, Mockito/Mockk, Unity, git, REST, JSON, Unit Testing, Integration Testing, AI, LLMs, Open AI, Gemini, Debugging, Pair Programming, Technical Mentoring

Familiar with

Languages

Swift, Javascript, Typescript, HTML, CSS, Python

Other

Robolectric, SwiftUI, Node JS, GraphQL, React Native, iOS development, macOS development, BuildKite, Data Dog

Non-Recent

Languages

Objective-C, C++, C

Other

RXJava, Firebase, Hudson, Jenkins, Circle CI, AWS, Google Cloud Services, Azure

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Staff Engineer - Android

Wayfair, Remote07/2020 – 03/2025

Built the Android app of one of the largest eCommerce platforms in the world. Led feature teams, re-architected core analytics, and optimized AR experiences.
  • Worked on the Wayfair app for Android across the Platform Architects, Shop, Growth, and Mobile Architects Working Group teams. Led teams of 2-5 Android developers while also providing support for other teams.
  • Development effort on the re-platformed Product Details Page boosted conversion rates by nearly 3% and engagement rates by 280%.
  • Revamped our internal analytics SDK, delivering a substantially improved version with architectural enhancements. Replaced manual data input with automated tracking, eliminating developer fatigue and ensuring data accuracy with a single source of truth. Additional architectural improvements resulting in a 90% reduction in time between event generation and sending, as well as a 30% increase in event delivery.
  • Developed a Swift UI desktop app to allow developers to monitor tracking from Android and iOS apps in real-time, saving hundreds of developer hours, decreasing tracking bugs in production, and decreasing time to deploy tracking changes.
  • Discovered, documented, and fixed bugs related to push notification display rate and appearance, resulting in a 45% delivery rate increase, and 20% increase in click-through rates for sent notifications.
  • Re-architected the 'View in Room' AR experience to improve performance, usability, and reduce crashes.
  • Demonstrated expertise in rapidly troubleshooting and debugging issues across unfamiliar modules.
  • Mentored junior developers to improve their skills and knowledge, contributing to their promotions.
  • Collaborated using pair programming on remote teams to complete projects efficiently and effectively.
  • Proposed and implemented interview process improvements to save 30 minutes preparation per interview and provide a standard baseline to apply to each candidate.
  • Proposed and implemented multiple developer experience improvements, addressing pain points that saved hours of developer time per week.

Mobile Architect - Android & iOS

Isobar, NY12/2010 – 12/2014 | 11/2015 – 07/2020

Architected innovative Android and Unity solutions for Fortune 500 companies.
  • Architected and built Android applications with distributed teams, including mobile apps, system-level apps, custom Android operating systems, wearables, and set-top-box hardware. Multiple apps featured in the Play Store.
  • Managed, mentored, and interviewed developers in mobile, Unity, and innovation disciplines.
  • Developed functional prototypes and technical approaches for pitches.
  • Developed for cutting-edge Android devices with limited documentation, including wearables, the Android Things platform, and Google's Project ARA.
  • Created our Unity development practice, delivering Virtual Reality experiences and AR applications. Trained and led other developers and worked with our sister agency to save behind schedule Unity projects.
  • Developed native Android SDKs to allow client developers to interact with Unity engine from their native mobile applications.
  • Developed multiple iOS Objective-C applications.

Wearables Architect - Android

Augmate, NY12/2014 – 11/2015

Pioneered enterprise software for Android wearables.
  • Led a team of Android developers creating wearable device management (WDM) software for smart glasses, smartwatches, and phones.
  • Developed a bespoke Android application for flashing wearable firmware in the field using a standard Android phone.
  • Provided technical guidance to OEMs integrating Augmate's WDM software into Android wearables.
  • Contributed to our backend Java and frontend Angular device management software.

Lead Developer - Android

Barnes & Noble.com, NY03/2010 – 12/2010

Brought NOOK to mobile and delivered the Nook Color eReader.
  • Architected and led the Android development team as part of the greenfield development of the Nook eReader application on cell phones and tablets.
  • Developed a library loading technique to resolve an Android platform bug that prevented updating pre-installed native libraries.
  • Recommended and implemented architectural changes for the Nook Color, improving maintainability, stability, and user experience of the device's core software.

Software Developer

Open Source & Personal Projects, NJAlways – Present

  • Collaborated with developers of various skill levels on multiple game projects over several months. Contributed to game mechanics, UI, and optimization across different projects:
    • Cleansing Roots (Unity platformer): UI scaling, stair collider fixes, skybox improvements, end-game explosion effects, debug cheats, pause functionality, and enemy targeting behavior.
    • Comet Kicker (Javascript arcade shooter): Implemented color selection, high-score freeze fix, device detection improvements, high refresh rate physics adjustments, spawn timer balancing, collectible duration fixes, movement consistency improvements, and spawn frequency tuning.
    • Taikong (Unity on-rails shooter): Provided code optimizations and developed a settings menu.
    • Sokoran (Godot puzzle game): Enhanced cursor interactions and fixed various bugs, including red dice behavior, missed click handling, and character position removal issues.
  • Continuous development of various personal projects with Android, iOS, Web, and Unity, Development across a wide range of technologies including AI, VR, AR, RSS. Projects include a storage management app, a pinball score tracker using AI, a mixed reality fitness game, browser plugins, pinball tournament scoreboard, a gift card management app, and many more that I'm excited to talk about. Check out my website at mikedg.com for more details.
  • Developed Galactic Grab, a Unity game for the Infinity Game Table, a 32" touch screen gaming table.
  • Contributed to Pinball Maps, a React Native project for Android and iOS. Developing new features, refactors to make the app more resilient. Updated documentation for contributors.
  • Contributed to Open Artemis, a Swift project for macOS and iOS, a privacy-focused Reddit client. Implemented bug fixes and features to improve opening links from external sources.
  • Contributed to Sidekick, a Swift/Swift UI project for macOS, a local LLM toolbox. Contributed pull requests to improve developer document, scripts to make developer setup easier, and improve UX.
  • Contributed to Invoke AI, a gen AI tool for generating images, written in React. Developed bug fixes for mobile devices.
  • Developed a mod development framework for the Unity-based game, Fire Pro World – Expanded to support many Unity games, including SUPERHOT and Slime Rancher. Developed numerous match types and extra features as mods for Fire Pro World. Developed a local co-op mod for Slime Rancher.
  • Created VR Lightgun Arcade in Unity, including a custom MAME build and reverse engineering Arcade ROMs to go beyond pure emulation.
  • Wearable computing expert with a focus on at-a-glance information. Has worked on software for Google Glass, Android Wear, Pebble, WimmOne, MetaWatch, and Sony Smart Watch. Google Glass software received a lot of press and recognitions.
  • Independently developed and distributed several Android software apps with over 500,000 combined users. Published applications to the Play Store, Blackberry App World, and Windows Store. Been involved in mobile development for personal usage since 2006, and have worked on personal software for the Sidekick and Windows Mobile devices as well.

ONLINE PRESENCE

Education

M.S. & B.S. Software Engineering from Monmouth University, NJ

Awards & Recognition