Senior macOS Developer
Khaled joined Axle Media as a macOS Developer and rapidly progressed to Senior Developer, tasked with transforming a five-year-old browser-based media management solution into a high-performance native macOS application. Working remotely from Latvia for this US-based company, he completed the rebuild in just six months, achieving dramatic performance improvements that became the company's primary competitive differentiator. The role marked a pivotal career transition from mobile development to enterprise desktop software, requiring rapid mastery of media processing technologies, machine learning integration, and large-scale data management.
Why I Joined
Opportunity to tackle a technically challenging transformation project and expand expertise from mobile to enterprise desktop development
- •Architected and rebuilt the entire media management platform from browser-based to native macOS, establishing a new technical foundation for the company's flagship product
- •Integrated FFMPEG 4.1 with custom Objective-C wrapper and hardware-accelerated encoding using Apple's VideoToolbox for professional video format support (ProRes, DNxHD, XDCAM)
- •Implemented on-device machine learning capabilities using Apple's Core ML framework for intelligent scene detection, object recognition, and face detection in media content
- •Designed and optimized enterprise-scale Core Data architecture handling 10,000+ media assets with compound indexes, full-text search, and denormalized search tables
- •Developed sophisticated concurrency architecture using Grand Central Dispatch with tiered QoS queues, thermal monitoring, and resource contention management for parallel media processing
- •Built SDK and framework for Dropbox cloud integration, contributing to the company's acquisition success
- •Collaborated with product leadership to expand market reach through the standalone Ascribe transcription application
- ✓Achieved 15-20x performance improvement across all media operations by rebuilding browser-based solution as native macOS application, transforming hours-long processing into minutes
- ✓Delivered complete platform rebuild in 6 months against a 5-year legacy codebase, becoming the company's primary competitive differentiator in the enterprise media market
- ✓Enabled major media corporation clients (NBC, CNN, BBC, The Times) to dramatically accelerate their media cataloging and search workflows
- ✓Implemented enterprise-scale database architecture handling 10,000+ media assets with FTS5 full-text search, reducing complex queries from seconds to milliseconds
- ✓Built Dropbox integration SDK that contributed directly to the company's acquisition success, demonstrating both technical excellence and business impact
- ✓Integrated on-device machine learning for automatic content analysis while maintaining enterprise-grade privacy requirements
Technology Stack
Situation
Axle Media had a five-year-old browser-based media management solution serving major media corporations, but the performance limitations were becoming a competitive disadvantage as clients dealt with increasingly large media libraries and complex workflows.
Task
Khaled was brought in to completely rebuild the platform as a native macOS application, with an aggressive six-month deadline to deliver a solution that could process media at professional broadcast standards while serving clients like NBC, CNN, BBC, and The Times.
Action
He architected the application around native macOS technologies, leveraging AppKit for the interface, Core Data for enterprise-scale asset management, and Grand Central Dispatch for sophisticated parallel processing. He built a custom FFMPEG integration with an Objective-C wrapper and VideoToolbox hardware acceleration to handle professional video formats. He implemented Core ML-based machine learning for intelligent content analysis while keeping processing on-device for enterprise privacy requirements. When performance bottlenecks emerged, he designed tiered queue architectures with thermal monitoring and resource contention management to maximize throughput without overwhelming system resources.
Result
The rebuilt platform achieved 15-20x performance improvements, reducing hours-long processing tasks to minutes. This transformation became Axle Media's primary competitive differentiator. The Dropbox integration SDK Khaled built contributed to the company's acquisition success. Beyond the technical achievement, this role marked a pivotal career transition, proving Khaled's ability to rapidly master new domains and deliver transformative results under deadline pressure.
Size: 8 people
Structure: Development team with product management and CEO reporting
Reported to: Project Manager and CEO
0Skills Gained
Skills Deepened
- 💡Desktop applications have fundamentally different performance expectations than mobile - users expect instant responses and parallel processing of heavy workloads
- 💡Media processing requires deep domain knowledge of codecs, containers, and hardware acceleration to achieve professional-grade results
- 💡Enterprise-scale data requires careful architecture with compound indexes, denormalized search tables, and full-text search optimization
- 💡Strategic product thinking under constraints - knowing what to build versus what to defer is critical when rebuilding complex systems
- 💡Remote work across significant time zone differences requires disciplined communication and autonomous problem-solving