Lead Software Engineer · Android

Balaji Manikandan

9+ years building Android apps that millions love — from payment flows and smart-device integrations to on-device LLMs and GPT-powered features.

📍 Bengaluru, KA ✉️ prakashbala.b24@gmail.com 📞 +91-9677330606

About

Self curiosity-driven software engineer with around 9+ years of experience writing quality clean code for high-paced businesses. Created multiple successful Android applications and features — including work on a 30+ million user base, Editor's Choice app.

9+

Years experience

30M+

Users reached

3

Companies

1

Meta bug bounty

Skills

Core Android

Jetpack Compose, MVVM, Java, Kotlin and other latest frameworks.

Libraries

Mediapipe, ExoPlayer, Retrofit, Room DB and more.

AI / ML

GPT Vision, OpenAI Live Voice, Google ML Kit (Barcode, OCR), on-device LLMs like Gemma.

Delivery

Play Store publishing, CI/CD pipelines, third-party SDK integration.

Smart Devices

Smart scale, CGM, BLE Beacons and connected hardware.

Cross-platform

Hands-on with KMP, Flutter and SwiftUI for iOS apps.

Automation & Tooling

LLM-powered app testing with Maestro, workflow automation via Android CLI, and authored custom Claude skills for organization-wide use.

Experience

Lead Software Engineer · HealthifyMe

04/2019 — Present

Bangalore, India · App: Healthify (3M+ downloads, Editor's Choice)

Senior Android Developer across Growth, User Engagement and Pro verticals. Integrated payments, A/B experiments, smart devices and more — features that directly impact company revenue.

Core features I contributed

  • Snap feature powered by GPT Vision — collaborated directly with OpenAI.
  • On-device LLMs (Gemma) for offline features.
  • Local TensorFlow ML models for food detection, OCR.
  • GPT-based chat with SSE (Server-Sent Events).
  • Full payment flow with multiple gateways.
  • Business revenue impact A/B experiments.
  • Order management with address collection.
  • Smart devices — Smart Scale and CGM.
  • Trackers — Medicine, Water and more.

Beyond programming

  • Partner with PMs and design to translate business needs into tech.
  • Lead juniors and interns on technical and product development.
  • Explore and onboard new tools into team workflows.
  • Negotiate with third-party SDK and tooling vendors.
  • Application publishing and maintenance.

Senior Android Developer · SchoolCom

07/2017 — 04/2019

Bangalore, India

Sole Android developer — built and shipped 2 core business apps to the Play Store from scratch.

  • Live vehicle tracking system.
  • Chat with multimedia support.
  • News feed (post, comment, like).
  • Full offline support.

Android Developer · Hyperkonnect Technologies

06/2016 — 06/2017

Bangalore, India

Built and published 2 core business Android apps from scratch.

  • Location-based store locator.
  • Bluetooth Beacon based points system.
  • User finance verification with Bank APIs and Aadhaar.

Highlights & Hobbies

🏆 Meta Bug Bounty

Rewarded for discovering a vulnerability in Instagram's Android app.

🤝 iOS Contribution

Integrated third-party chat support to the iOS app at HealthifyMe.

🧠 LLM R&D

Multiple deep dives into LLMs and on-device LLMs from scratch.

🎨 Gen AI Hobbyist

Built personal assistants with LLaMA, Stability AI and Python.

🍎 SwiftUI

Built basic iOS apps (e.g. News) for learning and personal use.

🌐 Cross-Platform

Hands-on experience with Kotlin Multiplatform and Flutter.

📚 Teaching Site

Ran a website teaching basic Android development from 2016–2018.

🛠️ Hobby Tech

Tried iOS development, web development and self-hosting.

🤖 LLM-powered App Testing

Automated Android app testing using Maestro driven by LLMs for smarter, self-healing flows.

⚙️ Android CLI Automation

Built workflow automation around the Android CLI for builds, installs and routine dev tasks.

✨ Claude Skills

Authored custom Claude skills adopted across the organization to speed up engineering workflows.

Education

Master of Computer Applications

Computer Applications Development

Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore · 2013 – 2016

Bachelor of Science

Physics

Syed Ammal Arts & Science College, Ramanathapuram · 2010 – 2013

Let's talk

Open to interesting Android, AI and product engineering conversations.