Apr 13 2016

Moving Fast: Mobile Engineer, Adam E, on Building News Feed for iPhone

By Meta Careers
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What do you do at Facebook?

I work on iOS Feed Platform from our New York office. Our team is unique in that we support all kinds of other teams like Reactions, Groups and Videos. We build News Feed for iPhone, but we also support other teams working on Feed by solving any problems they encounter and building the tools they need.

How long have you been working at Facebook?

I started in 2012 at our headquarters in Menlo Park, California but I've been in New York for the last 3 years. When I first joined, mobile was a separate organization inside Facebook; the company was transitioning from web to native app development, and the entire iOS team sat together in one room re-writing the iPhone app from scratch. Since then mobile developers have been distributed to work directly with product teams, and I’ve transitioned to focus on iOS News Feed. To me, News Feed is the heart of Facebook—and a non-stop source of fun technical challenges.

Can you tell us about a mobile project that’s really challenged you and pushed you to be a better engineer?

In 2014 we decided to rewrite iOS Feed from scratch—but we had to do it incrementally. This was a tremendous challenge and there was so much to consider while building it: for example, balancing maintainability and extensibility. The experience pushed my boundaries as an engineer.

How are we evolving mobile engineering at Facebook?

I’m particularly excited about our open source projects like React Native and ComponentKit. No other company is building projects like this—they completely rethink the mental model for building apps.
 Adam and members of his team.
Adam and members of his team.

If there was one word or phrase that describes your team culture, what would it be and why?

“Firehose.” Our team has a reputation for taking on challenging projects and moving at a very rapid pace. You have to be on your toes and be ready for many unexpected twists and turns. But this is all part of the fun! For example, we recently had a new member join the team and his first task was to add Apple's Live Photos feature to iOS feed. We wanted the Live Photos feature delivered and implemented very quickly, so he learned about our feed architecture as he implemented it.

Of Facebook's core values (Move Fast, Focus on Impact, Build Social Value, Be Open, Be Bold), which really resonates with your team?

The phrase that resonates most with my team would definitely be “Move Fast.” The best thing about our team is that the products we build enable other teams within Facebook to move fast as well.

What makes mobile engineering at Facebook unique?

Although we have many iOS developers at Facebook, our teams are small—so you're able to provide a ton of impact that ultimately reaches over a billion people who use Facebook. And because our culture is so open, you have the ability to learn from developers from all parts of the company, not just the teammates you sit next to.
We're looking for iOS and Android Engineers to join our team. Learn more about Mobile Engineering at Facebook.

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