Pouya Heydari
Senior Android Engineer
Currently at SumUp — Berlin, Germany
About Me
Hi, I'm Pouya
A senior Android engineer with 13+ years of experience, looking to move into engineering management full-time. Having led teams of up to 8 engineers, hired and grown engineering teams, mentored 50+ developers into their careers, and designed curricula for 3 Android courses, I combine deep technical expertise with hands-on leadership experience. Currently at SumUp, previously at FREE NOW and Tapsi. Certified by JetBrains and Android ATC, with 10+ published apps and 6+ open-source libraries. Now focused on making the move into full-time engineering management, where I can multiply impact through people, not just code.
Pouya Heydari
Berlin, Germany
Engineering Management
English, Persian
Skills & Expertise
Leadership & Management
8 skillsStrategy & Process
7 skillsMobile Engineering
8 skillsArchitecture & Technical
7 skillsDevOps & Tooling
6 skillsLeadership Philosophy
"I believe the best engineering managers are multipliers -- they make everyone around them more effective. My approach to leadership is shaped by years of building teams, mentoring developers, and teaching. Here’s how I think about it:"
Growth Through Ownership
I give engineers real ownership over features and decisions, then support them through the process. People grow fastest when they’re trusted with meaningful work, not shielded from it. My role is to provide context, remove blockers, and create a safety net for learning.
Technical Depth Enables Better Leadership
Having shipped 10+ apps and led architecture decisions at scale means I can have credible technical conversations with my team. I don’t believe in managers who can’t review a pull request or reason about trade-offs. Staying technical helps me earn trust and make better resourcing decisions.
Teaching Is a Core Management Skill
Designing 3 courses and mentoring 50+ engineers into their first jobs taught me that everyone learns differently. Some people need pairing sessions, others need written docs, and some just need space. I adapt my approach to the individual, not the other way around.
Process Should Serve People
I’ve seen teams suffocated by process and teams that ship chaos. The right balance depends on the team’s maturity and the stakes. I introduce structure incrementally, measure whether it helps, and remove what doesn’t. Retros and 1:1s are non-negotiable; everything else is up for debate.
What I Deliver
Team Elevation
Mentoring engineers through code reviews, pair programming, 1:1s, and knowledge sharing. Helped 50+ developers land their first engineering roles and grow their careers.
Cross-team Impact
Bridging product, design, backend, and hardware teams to align on technical decisions. Experienced in stakeholder management and driving consensus across organizations.
Reliable Delivery
Building robust CI/CD pipelines, feature flag systems, and release processes that ship with confidence. Owned end-to-end delivery of major features across multiple teams.
Scalable Architecture
Designing modular, multi-module Android codebases with clean architecture that scale with the team and product. Technical decisions grounded in team growth, not just code elegance.
Performance at Scale
Optimizing apps serving millions of users -- from startup time and memory usage to network efficiency and crash-free rates across 36+ markets.
Modern Android
Driving adoption of Jetpack Compose, Kotlin Coroutines, and the latest Android best practices in production codebases through RFCs, demos, and team buy-in.
Experience
Leadership Impact
Engineers Mentored
Students and junior engineers helped land jobs and grow their careers
Team Capacity Growth
Hired and scaled teams, enabling companies to take on additional projects
Engineers Managed
Led cross-functional Android teams at scale, delivering major features on schedule
Apps Shipped as PM
Managed end-to-end delivery lifecycle across multiple mobile products
Senior Android Engineer
SumUp
Driving cross-team technical initiatives for SumUp’s merchant payment products across 36 markets. Led architecture decisions for Offline SDK improvements (batch upload, encrypted storage), coordinating across mobile, backend, and product teams to boost offline transaction success by 5%. Mentored junior engineers through code reviews and pair programming, using reviews as a growth tool rather than a gate. Redesigned Secure Pairing for Solo Lite, aligning with product and hardware teams to increase pairing success from 79% to 91%. Proactively identified and resolved a crash affecting 7,000+ users, eliminating 16,000+ crashes in 90 days. Influenced process improvements in release management and testing strategy.
Android Software Engineer
FREE NOW
Worked on Payment & Core for Europe’s mobility super-app, available in 150+ cities. Designed and implemented modular, reusable payment APIs across 15+ modules, serving as the go-to person for cross-team integration and onboarding other engineers onto the payment platform. Initiated and led 3 major features end-to-end, coordinating with product managers, designers, and backend engineers to drive a 20% boost in user engagement. Resolved 200+ bug tickets, improving crash-free user experience by 10%. Integrated 3 new payment providers, collaborating with external vendor teams on technical requirements and API contracts.
Android Team Lead
Tapsi
Managed a team of 8 Android engineers at Iran’s largest ride-hailing platform, running regular 1:1s and leading weekly knowledge-sharing sessions to grow the team’s technical depth. Facilitated sprint planning and retrospectives, helping the team improve velocity and communication. Proposed new technologies and architectural approaches through RFCs, building consensus across the team. Pair-coded with new joiners to accelerate onboarding and reduce ramp-up time. Owned and successfully delivered 3 major features by coordinating across product, backend, and QA.
Senior Android Developer
Soshyant
Architected, developed, and distributed a full e-trading and cryptocurrency platform in 6 months, meeting all project deadlines. Achieved 80% code coverage by writing unit tests for 100% of ViewModels and Repositories. Automated all deployment phases by configuring Gradle and GitLab CI, eliminating manual deployment. Actively involved in UI/UX design, providing feedback that resulted in a more user-friendly app.
Android Instructor & Mentor
Sematec
Designed 3 Android development courses and their curricula from scratch, tailoring content to different skill levels and learning styles. Mentored 50+ students into their first engineering roles at tech companies, providing career guidance, resume reviews, and mock interviews alongside technical instruction. Created supplementary video courses to improve student progress and accessibility. Adapted all instruction to online platforms during COVID-19 while maintaining the same quality and student outcomes.
Android Team Lead
KIT (Keyvan IT)
Built and managed the Android team from scratch, hiring 5 developers through structured interviews and growing team capacity by 50%, enabling the company to take on 2 additional projects. Established code quality standards by introducing ktlint and SonarLint, and set up code review practices that raised the team’s baseline. Mentored junior developers through pair programming and regular feedback sessions. Made the application 100% crash-free, resulting in a 50% increase in positive reviews. Shortened the test phase from 2 days to 1 hour by writing unit tests for ViewModels and Repositories.
Android Instructor
MFT (Tehran Institute of Technology)
Taught Android development at Iran’s largest IT institute with 60+ branches nationwide. Delivered two courses: Introduction to Programming (diagrams, conditions, loops) and Android Pack (Java fundamentals + Android development).
Android Developer
Fatech Co. (dbee)
Enabled the startup to enter the market faster by releasing the first version of the apartment rental platform in 4 months. Influenced the app’s design by working closely with designers for a more intuitive experience. Architected the application with MVP, improving performance and scalability. Actively collaborated with backend developers on API design.
Android Developer
Eligasht
Improved maintainability at one of Iran’s most famous travel agencies by refactoring legacy code and introducing MVVM architecture. Facilitated team collaboration by adding Kotlin DSLs to core modules. Accelerated user acquisition by reducing APK size by 50%.
Android Developer
Yaico
Built package delivery features for a logistics company operating since 2000. Adopted Jira, Trello, and Agile practices, improving team productivity. Enhanced the codebase using MVC architecture and Android Annotations. Applied SOLID principles to reduce complexity and improve maintainability. Participated in UI/UX meetings to advise designers from a technical perspective.
Project Manager
Yara Mobile
Helped develop and ship over 5 mobile applications at a company behind several well-known apps in Iran. Actively engaged in agile software development processes. Gained deep understanding of the end-to-end software delivery lifecycle.
Portfolio
FREE NOW Customer
Customer super app for Europe’s leading mobility platform, available in 150+ cities across 10 markets.
FREE NOW Customer
Kotlin, Clean Architecture, Coroutines
FREE NOW Driver
Driver app for Europe’s mobility super-app, powering ride operations and payments for thousands of drivers.
FREE NOW Driver
Kotlin, MVVM, Modularization
Tapsi Driver
Driver-side app for Iran’s largest ride-hailing platform, serving millions of daily trips.
Tapsi Driver
Kotlin, MVVM, Coroutines
Tapsi Passenger
Passenger app with real-time ride tracking, payments, and multi-modal transportation.
Tapsi Passenger
Kotlin, Clean Architecture, Dagger
Mango
Feature-rich mobile application with modern UI patterns and offline-first architecture.
Mango
Kotlin, Jetpack, Room
CallLocator
Utility app for identifying and locating incoming call origins with real-time lookup.
CallLocator
Java, SQLite, Background Services
Kaleskeh Driver
Driver management app for a transportation platform with route optimization.
Kaleskeh Driver
Kotlin, Google Maps SDK, MVP
Kaleskeh Passenger
Passenger booking app with live vehicle tracking and fare estimation.
Kaleskeh Passenger
Kotlin, Retrofit, RxJava
KBK Driver
Logistics driver app for package delivery and real-time dispatch management.
KBK Driver
Kotlin, MVVM, Firebase
KBK Passenger
Customer-facing app for package tracking and delivery scheduling.
KBK Passenger
Kotlin, Clean Architecture
dbee
Apartment rental platform built from scratch, launched to market in 4 months.
dbee
Kotlin, MVP, Retrofit
Eligasht
Travel booking app for one of Iran’s top travel agencies. Reduced APK size by 50%.
Eligasht
Kotlin, MVVM, Kotlin DSL
Shahrdaad
Urban delivery platform connecting customers with local courier services.
Shahrdaad
Kotlin, Google Maps, MVP
StarWars
Sample app showcasing clean architecture with Star Wars API integration.
StarWars
Kotlin, Compose, Hilt, Coroutines
MusicManager
Music library manager demonstrating MVVM architecture and media playback.
MusicManager
Kotlin, MVVM, MediaPlayer API
Case Studies
Building an Android Team from Zero
KIT (Keyvan IT)
The Situation
KIT needed to scale its mobile capabilities but had no dedicated Android team. The company was running a single project with limited mobile expertise and couldn’t take on new work.
What I Did
- Designed a structured hiring process and personally interviewed and hired 5 Android developers over 18 months
- Established code review practices, introduced ktlint and SonarLint, and created quality standards that the team could maintain independently
- Mentored junior developers through pair programming sessions and regular feedback, building their confidence to own features end-to-end
- Set up CI/CD pipelines and automated testing to reduce the team’s reliance on manual QA
Results
Mentoring 50+ Engineers Into Their First Jobs
Sematec & MFT
The Situation
IT institutes in Iran were producing graduates who had theoretical knowledge but struggled to land engineering jobs. Students needed practical skills, portfolio projects, and career guidance that the standard curriculum didn’t provide.
What I Did
- Designed 3 Android development courses from scratch, tailoring content to different skill levels from complete beginners to advanced developers
- Created supplementary video content and hands-on projects that mirrored real-world engineering work, not textbook exercises
- Provided individual career coaching including resume reviews, mock interviews, and introductions to hiring managers at tech companies
- Pivoted all instruction to online platforms during COVID-19, redesigning the interactive format to maintain engagement and outcomes remotely
Results
Leading 8 Engineers at Iran’s Largest Ride-Hailing Platform
Tapsi
The Situation
Tapsi’s Android team of 8 engineers needed stronger technical leadership and better processes to deliver features reliably for millions of daily users across Iran’s most-used ride-hailing app.
What I Did
- Ran regular 1:1s with all 8 direct reports, focusing on career growth, technical development, and removing blockers
- Introduced structured sprint planning and retrospectives, giving the team a feedback loop to continuously improve how they worked
- Proposed new technologies and architectural approaches through RFCs, building consensus across the team rather than dictating decisions
- Pair-coded with new joiners to compress onboarding time and helped them ship their first features within weeks
Results
Testimonials
“Pouya’s mentorship was instrumental in my growth as an Android developer. His deep technical knowledge and patience in explaining complex concepts helped me land my first engineering role.”
Reza Zavare
Software Engineer
“Working with Pouya taught me what clean architecture really means in practice. He doesn’t just review code -- he teaches you to think about why certain patterns work better at scale.”
Omid Soleiman
Android Developer
“Pouya’s Android courses were the most practical training I’ve ever taken. Instead of textbook exercises, we built real apps with real-world constraints. That hands-on approach made all the difference.”
Roxana Teymouri
Mobile Engineer
“As a team lead, Pouya created an environment where junior developers felt safe to take ownership. He gave us meaningful work, supported us through challenges, and celebrated our wins.”
Mehrdad Goodarzi
Software Engineer
“Pouya’s code reviews were the best learning tool on the team. He always explained the reasoning behind suggestions, turning every review into a mini teaching moment.”
Farhad Davarpanah
Android Developer
“Pouya helped me transition from backend to mobile development. His structured approach to onboarding and pair programming made what could have been overwhelming feel completely manageable.”
Amirhossein Teymouri
Mobile Developer
Companies I've Worked With
Certificates
Android Certified Trainer
Android ATC
Android Certified Application Engineer
Android ATC
Android Certified Application Developer
Android ATC
Kotlin for Java Developers
JetBrains
Libraries
Get in Touch
Currently exploring Engineering Manager roles in mobile, based in Berlin. Open to hybrid and remote opportunities. Have something in mind? I’d love to hear from you.