Christian Niles

I'm an experienced technical leader who's built iOS and mobile apps since 2010. I'm known for developing early-stage products from 0->1, building great team culture, and shipping high-quality software quickly.

I'm a Lead Software Engineer at Apple working on UI Frameworks for visionOS. I focus on the experience of using your eyes and hands to interact with spatial UI. I designed, developed and presented the CustomHoverEffect API which allows UI to respond when looked at. I continue to lead projects which I look forward to sharing in the future.

Previously I was a Staff Software Engineer at Twitter where I led the development of Twitter Communities. After bootstrapping the product on Twitter iOS I became a technical lead guiding all client-side development. I worked closely with other leads to define the product roadmap and ensure it was delivered across all client platforms.

I also founded the Twitter iOS Community Managers -- a group that built a fun, diverse, and inclusive community of iOS engineers at Twitter. As co-chair I worked to define the community culture, onboard new team members, and improve the effectiveness of iOS teams across Twitter.

Before Twitter Communities I was Tech Lead for Periscope iOS, and also an interim engineering manager. During that time I managed 10 engineers through regular 1:1s, comp and performance reviews, and played a key role in eventually shutting down the Periscope app and integrating features into the main Twitter app. I also contributed to key features such as Guest Broadcasting, which later formed the basis for Twitter Spaces.

Prior to Twitter I built the iOS and Android apps at Cotap, a mobile messaging app for business. I was part of the founding team and went on to become an Engineering Director for the Android team, and also spent time as a Product Manager.

My first iOS app was TrackerBot, an iPhone and iPad app for Pivotal Tracker that I developed independently. It quickly became the most popular Pivotal Tracker app on the App Store, and was acquired by Pivotal Labs. TrackerBot then became the official Pivotal Tracker app.

Before falling in love with iOS development I worked as a full-stack backend and web developer at companies like LinkedIn and GetSatisfaction. Check out my LinkedIn profile for my full resume.