Xuan Tang
Full-Stack Engineer
Summary
Full-stack engineer with 7+ years of experience spanning iOS (Swift/Objective-C), modern web development (SvelteKit, React, TypeScript), and AI/ML integration (LLM, NLP, TTS). Proven ability to architect and ship end-to-end products as a solo or small-team developer — from frontend through backend (Hono, Cloudflare Workers, Azure Functions) to infrastructure (Docker, NixOS, CI/CD). Fast learner who transitioned across mobile, web, and AI domains.
Skills
Experience
Full-Stack Engineer
Gengram · Ottawa, ON
- • Sole developer (2-person team) who designed and built a full-stack PTE exam practice platform from zero — TypeScript frontend + backend, Python AI pipeline, and Azure Functions microservices, covering 20+ question types with end-to-end AI-driven scoring.
- • Developed the backend on Hono / Cloudflare Workers with Cloudflare Queues for async tasks, Azure Service Bus to trigger Azure Functions workers for AI-driven scoring and content generation.
- • Built the SvelteKit 5 frontend with dedicated practice UIs for Speaking, Writing, Reading, and Listening, supporting 20+ question types.
- • Implemented browser-based audio recording with Azure Speech SDK (ASR) for real-time pronunciation assessment and scoring on speaking tasks.
- • Created a Python AI content pipeline (uv workspace, OpenAI, spaCy) with 8 domain modules for question generation, audio synthesis (Azure TTS), dictionary crawling, NLP-based text processing, and LLM-powered explanation generation.
- • Managed a multi-schema Azure PostgreSQL database (Prisma ORM) with separate schemas for content, auth, and lexicon.
- • Adopted TypeSpec for cross-language API contracts, ensuring type safety between the TypeScript backend and Python services.
Software Engineer
Podoteng (JV of Tencent & Kakao) · Chengdu, China
- • Owned core feature development (Swift) for the PODO Comics iOS app serving 200K+ daily active users — delivered homepage, search, and community modules across 12+ iterative releases.
- • Established a Git-based CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins, shortening release cycles and accelerating bug-to-fix turnaround.
- • Architected a decoupled analytics framework that separated event tracking from UI code, reducing maintenance overhead and enabling rapid A/B experimentation.
- • Built a SwiftUI Mac utility for bulk log analysis, cutting debugging time for complex cross-module issues.
- • Set up enterprise infrastructure — OpenVPN for secure remote access and Nextcloud for internal file collaboration.
Software Engineer
Next Engine Intelligence · Chengdu, China
- • Led an iOS team on the BAIC Off-Road social app (Objective-C, IGListKit) — optimized feed rendering and video thumbnail loading for a measurably smoother user experience.
- • Designed a dynamic form-generation framework that eliminated repetitive UI code, accelerating new module delivery.
- • Shipped a real-time navigation feature with voice control (Swift + WebSocket), increasing user engagement with map-based activities.
Software Engineer
Handjoy Global Technology · Chengdu, China
- • Core developer of the HJCenter gaming platform (500K+ DAU) — built game library, download management, social sharing (WeChat/QQ/Weibo), and multi-channel distribution across 5 build targets.
- • Reverse-engineered iOS input frameworks in a sandboxed R&D environment to enable non-MFI game controller support, extending hardware compatibility without compromising system stability.
- • Developed a public SDK for external controllers (gamepads, drone controllers), adopted by partner companies for secondary development including UAV control applications.
- • Integrated the company's proprietary mouse and keyboard peripherals with iOS games via IOKit, delivering a desktop-like gameplay experience on mobile.
Projects
YuYan Reader
2025 – PresentA multi-format e-book reader web app with a custom IR-based content pipeline, plugin architecture, and cloud-native backend — supporting EPUB, MOBI/KF8, FB2, CBZ, and TXT formats.
PTE Practice Platform
2024 – PresentA full-stack AI-powered PTE exam preparation platform built from scratch — covering 20+ question types across Speaking, Writing, Reading, and Listening with real-time AI assessment, automated content generation, and a built-in dictionary system.
Atlassian MCP Server
2025An MCP server for Atlassian Confluence and Jira Cloud, providing 51 tools for managing pages, issues, sprints, boards, and backlogs.
AI Chatbot for Ottawa Police Service
2024Designed and developed an AI-driven chatbot using Python, integrating LangChain and Ollama to enable intelligent querying of public police data.
PODO Comics
Feb 2021 – Feb 2023Led iOS development (Swift) for a webtoon reading platform — a joint venture between Tencent and Kakao. Built the homepage, search, community, and reader modules through multiple iterations.
BAIC Off-Road Social App (YueYeQuan)
Nov 2019 – Feb 2021Managed an iOS team building a social outdoor activity app with Objective-C and IGListKit, featuring IM chat, video feeds, e-commerce, and map-based activities.
Real-Time Navigation & Social App (SmartDrive)
Nov 2019 – Feb 2021Built a cross-platform real-time navigation system (iOS + Android) with voice control, team communication, AI robot assistant, and a companion community app.
iOS Jailbreak R&D Toolchain
2017 – 2019Built a dual-process injection system for iOS 10/11 that injects custom dylibs into backboardd and SpringBoard, enabling system-level touch simulation and controller input mapping.
iOS Simulated Touch Library (PTFakeTouch)
2016An open-source framework to simulate user interactions on iOS at the system level using IOKit private APIs. 680+ GitHub stars.
External Controller SDK (HJHelper)
Jun 2015 – Mar 2019Led the development of a SDK for external controllers (gamepads, drone controllers, mouse/keyboard), enabling partner companies to perform secondary development for use cases like UAV control.
iOS Gaming Platform (HJCenter)
Jun 2015 – Mar 2019Developed an iOS-based gaming platform integrating with multiple emulators for large-scale game distribution, with advanced reverse-engineering for non-MFI controller support.
Education
AI Software Development
Algonquin College
GPA: 3.96/4.0.
MS in Computer Science
University of Colorado, Boulder
GPA: 4.0/4.0. Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Data Science.
BA in Business Administration
University of Maine at Presque Isle
GPA: 4.0/4.0. Focus: Project Management, Information Systems.
BE in Software Engineering
Chengdu Jincheng College
Focus: C++, iOS Development.