Hi, I'm Romain 👋

Intro

Hi! I'm Romain Boulay 👋

I am currently working as a Senior Software Engineer at Amazon. Originally from southern France, I have been living in Berlin since 2013 with my wife and two daughters.

I'm passionate about building software. After university, I started working as an intern developing iOS apps. This was in 2008, at almost the very beginning of the mobile revolution. I immediately loved building mobile applications.

Over the years, I have nurtured this passion and expanded my expertise in building tools that enhance developer productivity and improve the overall development experience.

In my professional career, I started building iOS apps as a junior developer—sometimes on my own, sometimes in small teams. In my first four years, I worked for two small mobile agencies in southern France. Both companies were relatively small (fewer than 10 people each), which allowed me to work in many different areas and learn a variety of skills. In addition to my development tasks, I was able to experiment with UX design, assess new technologies and prototype ideas, and even meet with some customers to sell them our products. During this period, I participated in the development of 40+ native iOS apps. This environment helped me improve my technical skills.

After this period, my wife and I decided to embark on another adventure... for a year or two. That's how we ended up in Berlin.

During this time, I joined larger companies and discovered a completely different culture. First, I had to overcome some language challenges (I may or may not be that French cliché who speaks English with a strong accent...). Then, I needed to learn new processes and ways of working. Coming from small companies, this was new to me.

In contrast to the first part of my career, where I worked on many applications, I was able to focus on fewer projects and develop different technical skills. I deepened my knowledge of software architecture, system design, and best practices. This period was intense. As I learned and grew, I was given more and more opportunities. Eventually, I led a team of seven people, which was a fantastic experience. These experiences also helped me develop my management and leadership skills.

All of this brought me to SoundCloud, which I joined in April 2016 as a Senior iOS Engineer. Two years later, I was promoted to iOS Platform Lead, a technical leadership role combined with people management tasks. My role was to lead the iOS collective, the group of all 15+ engineers involved in the development of SoundCloud's iOS apps.

I have faced all the challenges that arise at scale. I have learned to define processes and build tools (I am also a member of the tuistcore team) to increase everyone's productivity. In collaboration with the collective, I also designed an architecture and infrastructure to support our needs. While there are always new challenges to solve, it has so far been a pleasant and fulfilling experience.

After spending five years at SoundCloud, I decided to embark on a new challenge and joined Amazon. Since then, I have been fortunate to work on an unconventional system featuring direct communication between mobile devices and hardware. More recently, I have been leading parts of the Project Kuiper initiative, which aims to provide broadband internet via satellites. In this role, I am responsible for designing solutions that streamline the development process through the implementation of code sharing techniques, ultimately reducing lead time.

Alongside all this, my wife and I decided to have children. The "one or two years" Berlin experience turned into a"well, we're pretty happy here" one. These days, my life is balanced between work and family duties—and that's for the best!

To sum up, I'm an experienced, open-minded, and passionate software engineer with solid expertise in technical leadership and iOS app development. I also have a strong desire to boost developer experience and productivity.