Alf Orion Watt
Hands-on leader with experience managing every stage of the software development life cycle.
Architected, designed, developed, and launched multiple apps for iOS and macOS. More than a decade of expertise
in Wireless Networking and User Experience.
Sr. Engineering Manager — Infotainment
February 2021 – May 2023
Lucid Motors is a luxury mobility company that is reimagining what a car can be.
Managed team responsible for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Over the Air update User Experience for Lucid's luxury electric sedan, including certifications and hands on debugging of complex audio and network issues.
Recognized the need to enable developer productivity; organized and planned a Software Developer Tools and Support team to develop easy to use tools to address the challenges of the Autosar software development environment including ARXML, signal simulation and emulation solutions along with demonstrating best practices for CI/CD, unit and integration testing.
Researched customer OTA anomalies utilizing data analytics and reporting tools to review and analyze different data sources to determine root cause of user facing UX issues.
Managed a diverse and accomplished team of Android Automotive engineers working on key shared libraries to support the Lucid Infotainment system; recruited, retained and promoted high performing engineers while providing feedback for continued growth and development.
Designed, managed implementation and delivery of Lucid's in-vehicle user information system which delivers timely, up to date and relevant information to new customers including the owners manual and release notes.
Engineering Manager — Mobile Telemetry
February 2019 – February 2021
Mapbox SDKs collect anonymous data about the map and device location to continuously update
and improve your maps.
The Mapbox Mobile Telemetry team is responsible for development and operational
excellence of the Mobile Events SDKs used in over
45,000 mobile apps for Android and iOS to
collect more than 300 Million miles of anonymized, aggregated road and telemetry data every day. These Open Source
frameworks for collecting anonymous
telemetry
to help improve Mapbox's data products while carefully preserving user privacy.
Led, recruited, hired, and grew the Mobile Telemetry team from two engineers to a total of
six iOS and Android engineers to sustain and improve existing products and quality process.
Researched, designed, specified, and implemented an error containment and reporting system for
iOS SDK to enable all Mapbox Mobile SDKs to send back automated live service error reports along with detailed analytics,
allowing the team to improve the reliability and quality of all products.
Designed and managed implementation of a flexible configuration service, allowing all Mapbox SDKs
to run experiments, manage rollout of new features, and enables a new "High Definition" collection of much higher
resolution sensor data.
Documented and instituted an issue management process modeled on my experience working with
Apple's development process. With goal of improving quality, driving timely resolution of issues and improving team
velocity. This allowed the team to track new features and changes from proposal through implementation, integration
and verification steps in preparation for future ISO 9001 process compliance.
Senior Software Engineering and Leadership Consultant
April 2015 – February 2019
iStumbler Labs designs, produces, and publishes software, offering complete product design
and development services plus a suite of our own products.
Launched
iStumbler as a commercial
product, with an integrated store and more than 100 other new features and enhancements.
Published
localrouter.net which find your
local Wi-Fi routers web interface, as well as local web servers in just seconds.
Implemented the
Voyance
Client Agent for Nyansa Inc. which adds the client view of network performance including configuration details
and multiple performance counters.
Provided iOS Connectivity Engineering at
Automatic
Labs to support a custom in vehicle ODB-II/CAN adapter.
Helped Eva Automation (now
Bowers & Wilkins)
define their in home Wi-Fi media streaming strategy.
Interim CTO for HelloBit, a fin-tech company focused on providing peer-to-peer financial services,
managed online infrastructure along with development and design of the HelloBit app for Android.
Founder, Masu Networks
Masu, San Francisco
April 2014 – April 2016
Masu Networks is a design for a crypto-currency driven Wi-Fi Sharing and Contactless Cash solution for
retailers.
Designed a retail crypto currency exchange system to enable consumers to discover, experiment
and learn by making low cost, high-value transactions for Wi-Fi access and easily adopt digital currencies into
their everyday shopping habits.
Iteratively researched, prototyped, tested, refined and reevaluated dozens of frameworks
for providing low or zero cost ubiquitous Wi-Fi access by creating a sustainable business model based on requirements.
Pitched
Masu as a
solution to providing free universal Wi-Fi and IoT device connectivity, and low cost high-performance Internet
access using a crypto-currency based sharing economy. Presented slides and answered questions at public investor
presentations and private venture offices.
Ruckus Wireless builds high performance Wi-Fi Access Points and management tools for high
capacity deployments.
Grew the Ruckus Mobile Applications suite from a set of small demonstration apps
into a cross platform enterprise wireless management toolset.
Evaluated contract service providers, negotiated contracts for both individual
contributors and multi-year development in excess of $1 million annual value. Recruited, managed and
developed technical staff to design and specify work for offshore team.
Delivered
ZoneDirector Remote Control, an industry leading Mobile app for monitoring & managing the
Ruckus ZoneDirector Controller, on a bi-annual schedule alongside controller updates.
Designed and managed implementation of the
Ruckus SmartWay Bonjour Gateway,
which is integrated into the ZoneDirector Controller.
Worked with newly acquired company to implement their Indoor Location calibration
system in a mobile app:
SPoT which allows installers to quickly and easily setup the system for customers.
Managed development of a rapid Wi-Fi provisioning tool,
Ruckus SWIPE
which integrates into the Ruckus Carrier and Cloud management systems.
Wi-Fi Software Engineer
Apple Inc., Cupertino
April 2007 – July 2012Apple Inc. revolutionized networking with the iBook and AirPort Base Station in 1999.
Responsible for Wi-Fi User Experience on OS X from Snow Leopard (10.6) through
Mountain Lion (10.8). Proposed and prototyped multiple UI updates, including flexible sorting and grouping
of networks to make it easier to choose the correct one.
Dug deep into the user experience and quality of Wi-Fi and networking components with
Apple Care to identify opportunities to improve the connectivity, performance, and reliability of Apple's
wireless networking products.
Worked closely with Wireless Hardware Engineering to improve the test fixtures used to
verify wireless systems in the factory. Designed and implemented an over the air handshake between DUT and
Test Server to improve throughput and increase manufacturing efficiency while allowing for thorough testing
of new Apple hardware.
Radar Component Creator and Component Owner for multiple internal frameworks including:
Wi-Fi Diagnostics, Network Utility & several internal components and frameworks.
Researched Ultra wide-band technology, investigating next generation solutions for providing
optimal networking performance while maintain power and thermal budgets.
Lead Mac Engineer
imeem.com, San Francisco
October 2006 – March 2007imeem.com was a VC backed startup that launched and early social network app and site
focused on media sharing.
Proposed, designed, and developed a desktop media player providing a full screen,
remote driven, presentation of imeem audio, video, and photos content selected for the user.
Led a small team to maintain a hybrid Cocoa/C# messaging and social networking client,
demonstrated the app at MacWorld.
Please see my full
C.V.
for prior experience.
Skills [years]
Wi-Fi [10+], Bluetooth [10+], &
RF Measurement[10+]; UWB [8];
Bonjour Service Discovery [10+];
TCP/IP & Networking [10+];
Blockchain, Distributed Ledgers, and Digital Assets [5];
OS X, BSD, Linux & c.[10+];
User Interface & Usability Design [10+];
Object Oriented Analysis & Design [10+];
Threading, Concurrency, and Performance & Tuning [10+];
XML, CSS, HTML & HTTP [10+];
Tech Writing, Specifications & Design Patterns [10+];
Swift, Objective-C & Cocoa [10+];
C, C++, Java [10+];
Perl, Python, JavaScript, Shell etc. [10+];
Embedded Development [8];
Team building, and leadership [8]