# Ankit Patel > Senior Staff Software Engineer at Cantina Labs Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/ankitpatel I am a senior engineering leader with over 15 years of experience building and scaling mobile-first, real-time platforms. I hold a Master’s degree in Computer Science and have led the architecture and delivery of high-impact consumer products across iOS and Android, with a strong focus on social, interactive, and AI-powered experiences. My work centers on platform leadership, real-time systems, and AI-integrated product architectures. I specialize in designing scalable client and backend platforms that support low-latency communication, rapid experimentation, and continuous product evolution. I partner closely with product, design, and executive leadership to translate vision into durable technical strategy—balancing speed, quality, and long-term platform health. I have a proven track record of setting technical direction, mentoring high-performing teams, and establishing engineering standards that improve reliability, performance, and developer velocity. I am known for clear communication of complex technical trade-offs and for building platforms that enable teams to move fast without compromising scalability or operational excellence. Core Technical Expertise Mobile & Client Platforms iOS (Swift, Swift Concurrency), Android, React Native, modern state management, performance optimization, accessibility, client architecture, modularization Real-Time & Platform Architecture Low-latency systems, real-time messaging and streaming, event-driven architectures, distributed systems, API-first design, gRPC, REST, WebSockets Cloud & Infrastructure AWS, cloud-native architectures, scalable backend services, CI/CD pipelines, observability, monitoring, logging, performance tuning AI & Data-Driven Systems AI-integrated product experiences, real-time inference integration, data pipelines, experimentation frameworks, analytics-driven iteration Languages & Frameworks Swift, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, C/C++, Ruby React, Django, Ruby on Rails Engineering Leadership & Delivery Platform strategy, technical roadmapping, system design reviews, Agile execution, design patterns, test-driven development, documentation, cross-functional collaboration ## Work Experience ### Senior Staff Software Engineer, iOS @ Cantina Labs Jan 2022 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Cantina Labs is a social AI company building next-generation real-time AI models that push the boundaries of expression, personality, and realism, bringing characters to life and redefining how people connect and create. As a Senior Staff iOS Engineer, I provide technical leadership for Cantina’s iOS platform, shaping architecture and driving the delivery of core experiences at scale. I lead cross-functional initiatives spanning product, design, and backend systems to enable real-time, AI-driven social interactions with high performance and reliability. I influence long-term technical strategy, raise the bar for engineering excellence across mobile teams, and mentor senior engineers to build resilient, scalable systems that support the company’s evolving AI ecosystem. ### Senior Software Engineer, iOS @ Airtime Jan 2019 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area Worked with iOS core team to build highly performant and complex iOS experience by pushing the limits on real time interactivity at Airtime. We are building a social streaming platform for togetherness that allows user to gather with friends and explore the Internet (music, videos, photos, TV, movies, games and more) together. ### Senior Software Engineer @ Amazon Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | Greater Seattle Area Amazon Prints - Developed prints service and photo builder experience using React Native application (iOS, Android) offering professional photo printing service to create standard and large prints, wall decor, cards, photo books, and canvases right from the mobile app and get it delivered by Amazon. • Work on features such as photo selection, content upload/download, image loading/cropping/editing, cache management, 3d thumbnail preview, and data platform • Develop RESTful APIs for prints service operations • Integrate checkout flow for purchasing products through Amazon • Launch various Amazon Photos products such as prints, wall decor, cards, photo books, and canvases used by millions of active users • Manage release pipelines for multiple production applications for feature updates and bug fixes Amazon Photos - Worked on Photos iOS (Swift, React Native) mobile app offering secure online backup for photos and videos, people recognition, abuse detection, data platform, and more for Amazon Photos, bringing unlimited full- resolution online photo storage to Amazon customers. Amazon Flex - Worked on an iOS (Swift, Objective-C) app for Amazon Flex platform integrating with Amazon Cloud Cam for secure in-home and in-car delivery used by Delivery Partners to provide an efficient, on-time, and reliable delivery service to end customers. • Develop framework Integrating iOS Core Bluetooth that allows interacting with BLE devices either as a central or a peripheral. Amazon Last Mile - Develop service for Amazon Prime Now and Flex applications to ensure delivery confirmation and safe delivery tagging for packages • Develop a paired geo-fence mechanism for two or more electronic devices • Devise proximity detection algorithms using GPS, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Wifi signal strength to track delivery ### Senior Software Engineer @ Playpower LLC Jan 2011 – Jan 2015 | Ahmedabad, India Playpower Labs, a Carnegie Mellon educational research initiative. I've worked as a Lead Game Developer at Playpower for 4 years and most of my time at Playpower has been spent creating games for building core math skills that provide a foundation for success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). I have worked extensively on dozens of games on multiple platforms over 4 years. I don't just believe that fun aids learning—i believe learning is fun. • Learn World, Intelligence-Building App for kids | Oct 2014 – Aug 2015 Lead team of 3 and developed an Intelligence-Building App on iOS (Swift) for kids with HTML5 games, videos, facts, books, and design tools • Math Planet, Math Anchor App, Samsung's Milk platform | May 2011 – Sep 2014 Lead team of 5 developers and published an award-winning platform (iOS and Android) with 100+ game levels and 80+ Common Core State Standards support for grades 1-8 with free games for fractions, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, math facts, and number sense. ### Software Engineer @ Techstars/Kaplan EdTech Accelerator Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | New York City Area • Formalized licensable interactive math learning modules covering over 120 common core standards • Built cognitive skills assessment games based on developmental psychology ### Teaching Assistant @ DAIICT Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | DAIICT Teaching Assistant for Introduction To C Programming Language under Prof. Prasenjit Majumder (Autumn Semester 2011, for the first yearites) ### Research Intern @ Playpower Foundation Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 | DAIICT Created innovative educational games using 6502 assembly for NES based on indian mythology of hanuman with a team in India (and an international open source community) on a MacArthur Foundation funded project for underprivileged kids around the world ### Rural Intern @ Deepak Foundation Jan 2009 – Jan 2009 | Kawant Designed data collection formats for different types of crops, collected data of different crops production and analyzed the data, at the residential Vocational Training Centre, Kawant (a tribal block in Gujarat). On the basis of report findings Deepak Foundation received funds under Kawant Livelihood Programme from the Government of Gujarat for implementation of project. ## Education ### Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Entertainment Technology Carnegie Mellon University Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 ### Bachelor of Technology (BTech) in Computer Science DAIICT Jan 2008 – Jan 2012 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ankitpatelninja - Website: https://www.cantina.com/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/ankitpatel JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ankitpatel/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-22