Denys Kotelnykov

Senior Native iOS Engineer / AI-Native Developer / Agentic AI Engineer

Contacts

Summary

Product-minded Senior Native iOS Engineer and AI-Native Developer with 6 years of end-to-end delivery (idea → UX → architecture → implementation → release). Shipped 16+ own apps to the App Store and delivered multiple commercial products for iOS/iPadOS/macOS/watchOS. Designs and ships autonomous AI pipelines that dramatically accelerate development and automate business processes — with a focus on ROI and Time-to-Market. Strong in building high-performance, reliable, real-time apps and in AI-driven automation of release, localization, and content workflows.

Core strengths

  • Scale & reliability: high-load products, performance tuning (Instruments), crash-free improvement 80% → 99.9%, clean architecture (SwiftUI/UIKit, Combine/RxSwift).
  • Real-time & integrations: WebSockets, complex networking, external APIs (incl. Binance API / market data), offline-first & sync patterns.
  • Release & growth automation: internal tooling around App Store Connect API (auth, metadata export/import, app/version management, localization + screenshots upload), fastlane workflows.
  • Localization engineering: codebase string search, automated key generation, updates to localization files, refactoring hardcoded strings to localized APIs.
  • Deep platform work: Metal shaders, camera/editing pipelines, .pkpass tooling with on-device signing (OpenSSL in Swift).
  • Leadership: led teams up to 6 engineers, mentoring, cross-functional coordination (iOS / backend / design), delivery ownership.
  • AI & Automation: designed autonomous AI agents on n8n + Claude, cutting internal product Time-to-Market by . Built a Threads social-media scraper (n8n + custom JS) with automated video generation. Uses ComfyUI with fine-tuned models for content-factory video production. Orchestration: n8n, CrewAI. LLM environments: Codex, Claude Code, Antigravity.

Work Experience

Synery — Founding Engineer / Tech Lead

Mar 2026 – Present
  • Built and shipped an AI companion on Telegram from zero: 0 → 2,000+ paying-capable users in 4 months.
  • Architected the backend on .NET 10 / PostgreSQL with an agentic LLM pipeline (Semantic Kernel, tool calling, long-term user memory) and a custom lifecycle-scenario engine.
  • Delivered a React 19 admin panel with a segment query builder and broadcast tooling for targeted campaigns.
  • Owned monetization and ops: Telegram Mini App billing, subscription payments, PostHog analytics, and one-command deploy infrastructure.

SensorCore (Independent) — Founder & Full-Stack Engineer

2024 – Present
  • Built an AI-native logging & analytics platform from scratch (iOS, Android, Web), fully replacing a dedicated data analyst on the team.
  • Engineered an ML-powered data-science engine connected via MCP: error detection, conversion funnels, user-flow analysis, behavior prediction, cohort comparison, anomaly detection, and association-rule mining.
  • Published open-source SDKs: iOS SDK (Swift), npm package (JS), and CrewAI integration (Python).

Timrus Group — Tech Lead / Senior iOS Engineer

Sep 2024 – Present
  • Led cross-functional delivery: orchestrated end-to-end planning, feature decomposition, and delivery across iOS, backend, and design teams.
  • Shipped 4 scalable products under strict business constraints, including Coffee Talk (social network) and CollyHive (content aggregator).
  • Advanced on-device engineering: developed Wallet Creator, an offline .pkpass editor featuring complex on-device signing without backend dependencies.
  • Architected adaptive ecosystems: built Brusher, a digital asset marketplace, implementing adaptive UI, complex backend integrations, subscription models, and analytics tracking.

Triada — iOS Team Lead

Aug 2022 – Aug 2024
  • Scaled high-load architecture: led iOS engineering for an e-commerce platform processing millions of active users.
  • Achieved massive stability growth: boosted crash-free rate from 80% to an industry-leading 99.9%.
  • Drove technical modernization: managed a full legacy migration from Objective-C → Swift, transitioned UI from Storyboards to programmatic UIKit, enabling seamless payment integrations.
  • Team leadership & process optimization: mentored and managed a team of 5 iOS developers.
  • Built internal analytics tools: developed a custom Swift-based KPI tracking system with 2D performance charts, task completion analytics, status-transition reports (In Progress → In Review), significantly improving team delivery workflows.

Siazan — iOS Developer

Jan 2021 – Jul 2022
  • Delivered 3 products from zero to App Store: an AdBlocker, a VPN client, and a TikTok-style short video app.
  • Owned full development lifecycle end-to-end: architecture, implementation, QA, and release.

Midland Retail Group — iOS Developer

Sep 2019 – Dec 2020
  • Developed Numbers, a production VoIP client with Realm-based real-time sync, WebSocket messaging, and native audio/video calling.

GameTrek — Unity3D Developer

Jan 2019 – May 2019
  • Optimized gaming services for telecom operator TELE2, improving load handling and player experience.
  • Designed and implemented RTS mechanics, quest systems, and game logic for Walk the Talk and Secret Government.

Projects

  • NAGORI — PS1/PSP Emulator — shipped solo to the App Store: ~12k lines of Swift/SwiftUI, Metal renderer, gamepad-adaptive UI, StoreKit subscriptions, 6 localizations. Optimized two C/C++ emulation cores at source level — 1,217 lines of ARM64/NEON across 30 files (SIMD interpreter paths, hand-written vertex decoders, restructured instruction dispatch) — cutting CPU cost of demanding PSP scenes from 50–70% down to 27–39% of a core, measured on device with Instruments incl. thermal-state tracking. Diagnosed and fixed upstream open-source defects (init crash, cache-invalidation bug); patches prepared for contribution. Links: App Store
  • Synery — AI companion on Telegram (Founding Engineer / Tech Lead), 0 → 2,000+ paying-capable users in 4 months. .NET 10 / PostgreSQL backend with an agentic LLM pipeline (Semantic Kernel, tool calling, long-term user memory) and a custom lifecycle-scenario engine; React 19 admin panel with segment query builder and broadcasts; Telegram Mini App billing, subscription payments, PostHog analytics, one-command deploy infrastructure.
  • Kinovecher — Telegram bot + Mini App + web video streaming platform (Python/FastAPI, aiogram 3, PostgreSQL, React 19 + TS; solo, in production). Reverse-engineered a closed AJAX API and defeated three layers of bot protection: ASN-level banning (403 for every datacenter network — mapped clean vs. banned ASNs, migrated hosts, kept a proxy path behind an env flag), an Anubis proof-of-work gateway (<2 ms), and obfuscated stream URLs with IP-bound tokens expiring daily — resolved server-side at playback time, with parallel Range probes filtering out dead CDN edges. Series with voiceover/season/episode selection and cross-device resume (HMAC-validated Telegram initData / Login Widget). Links: Website
  • SensorCore — AI-native logging & analytics platform (iOS, Android, Web). ML-powered data-science engine connected via MCP: error detection, conversion funnels, user-flow analysis, behavior prediction, cohort comparison, anomaly detection, and association-rule mining — fully replaces a dedicated analyst on the team. Includes an iOS SDK, npm package, and CrewAI integration. Links: WebsiteiOS SDKJS SDKCrewAI
  • OverCam — camera with ghost overlays, manual controls, on-device AI editing (relighting, background changes, retouching). Links: App StoreWebsite
  • EasyWallet — standalone .pkpass generator/editor with on-device signing (OpenSSL in Swift, no backend). Links: App Store
  • Lapy — high-load e-commerce (Tech Lead), 5,000 users/hour, dynamic product lists, complex checkout, 20+ person team. Links: App Store
  • NanoApps — generates mini apps from a prompt; runs locally via custom JS interpreter + native UI. Links: App Store
  • WatchFace Notes — Apple Watch notes with seamless iOS/iPadOS/macOS sync + watch-face widgets. Links: App Store
  • Xcstringer — macOS .xcstring localization tool with AI-assisted translation workflow. Links: App Store
  • CollyHive — feed UX, caching, smooth rendering, notifications, analytics. Links: WebsiteApp Store
  • Coffee Talk — social network: feed/profile, messaging flows, analytics, backend integration. Links: WebsiteApp Store
  • Brusher — marketplace: subscriptions, analytics, backend integrations, scalable architecture. Links: WebsiteApp Store
  • Order Book Trading — iOS/iPadOS/macOS: real-time crypto tracking, anomaly detection, notifications, charts/indicators, news, heat index. Links: App Store
  • Noomeera — social network + VoIP, WebSocket chat + Realm sync, Texture integration. Links: WebsiteApp Store
  • Winst — habits, performance-first UI, clean architecture, onboarding + analytics. Links: App Store
  • Sleep helper — guided routines, audio flows, responsive UI, analytics iteration. Links: App Store
  • Photo editor — streamlined UX, performance-first editing and export pipeline. Links: App Store
  • FastApp — SwiftUI component library for rapid delivery. Links: GitHub
  • Voice To Note — MIDI — detects vocal pitch and shows notes on a piano roll; save tracks to MIDI for any DAW. Links: App Store
  • Flying monkey - IF — text-based choice-driven interactive fiction game. Links: App Store
  • DrumPad - 2000s DnB — drumpad with minimal latency, 700+ drum and FX samples. Links: App Store
  • Photo to PDF — photo-to-document converter with text recognition and formatted PDF output. Links: App Store
  • Content Wizard — text post manager with AI corrections, translations, drafts, and push reminders. Links: App Store
  • AI Edit Remove BG — AI background removal with clean PNG/SVG export and vectorization. Links: App Store
  • Revivy Photo Enhancer AI — restores old photos, upscales images, brings back color, AI preset library. Links: App Store

Skills

iOS / Apple platforms
  • Swift • SwiftUI • UIKit • Combine • RxSwift • SnapKit • Texture (AsyncDisplayKit) • StoreKit
Data / Networking
  • GRDB • Realm • SwiftData • SQL • REST • WebSocket • Alamofire
Quality / Performance
  • Instruments • Performance monitoring • Memory leak tracking • Architecture design • Clean Architecture • MVVM
  • Metal • C / C++ • ARM64 / NEON SIMD • Low-level profiling & thermal-state tracking
Monetization / Analytics
  • Subscriptions • RevenueCat • Adapty • StoreKit • Telegram Mini App billing • PostHog • Analytics
Backend / Infrastructure
  • .NET 10 (C#) • Python / FastAPI • Vapor (Swift) • NodeJS • PostgreSQL • Firestore • aiogram 3 • Telegram Bot API
Web
  • React 19 • TypeScript • Telegram Mini Apps • JavaScript
Product / Collaboration
  • Team leadership • Mentoring • Hiring • Cross-functional coordination • Jira • Git
AI & Automation
  • n8n • CrewAI • Semantic Kernel • Agentic LLM pipelines • Tool calling • MCP • Claude Code • Codex • Antigravity • ComfyUI • Custom JS automation
Design / Other
  • Figma • Zeplin • UI/UX • Spline • Unity3D

Education

Kharkiv National University of Economics (2018) — Bachelor’s Degree in Economic Informatics and Information Systems