Ty is a Principal Engineer at Uber where he leads the Mobile Platform group and is the chairman of Uber’s Open-Source program. He has a passion for tools, frameworks, and open-source to help developers make great mobile apps. He is a Google Developer Expert for Android and Kotlin, engaging regularly with the community through conferences, open-source, and writing, as well as an organizer for conferences and meetups. He is an angel investor and tech advisor, as well as a member in multiple venture capital advisory syndicates. Ty has been at Uber for 6 years and prior to that he worked at Twitter on the Fabric developer tools, Evernote, and a variety of smaller startups and consulting firms
Ty Smith
Principal Engineer at Uber, Mobile Platform
Balancing Speed and Reliability: The Double-Edged Sword of Third-Party Libraries
Using third-party libraries in your apps can be a great way to save engineering time and move faster, but can also bring significant risk. If a library malfunctions and causes an outage, it may take days or weeks to get it solved for all your users. Apps have long update cycles and don’t have the luxury of hotfixes when something goes wrong. At Uber, as an app that people rely upon for making their income, getting to the doctor, or commuting to work, reliability in our app is the top priority. Learn how Uber decides when mobile libraries are safe to include and when they should be avoided.
We’ll review how Uber analyzes external libraries to reduce risk, walk through some horror stories when things went wrong, and discover some techniques that can help keep reliability for your user when the worst does happen. You’ll walk away with a tactical framework for evaluating libraries in your own apps.
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Advancing Beyond Staff: A Mobile Engineer’s Journey in Big Tech
Achieving promotion as a software engineer in big tech is a rare feat, with ascension to staff level and beyond being even more elusive. While many engineers aspire to reach these higher echelons, few truly understand the profound shift in responsibilities that accompany such roles. Misalignment in expectations can lead to significant struggles in these new positions, especially for specialists like mobile engineers, who face unique hurdles when advancing beyond senior roles without broadening their expertise.
In this talk, we will demystify the path to post-terminal levels, using Uber as a case study. We will outline what it takes to operate at these advanced stages, setting realistic expectations, and providing actionable examples and recommendations for those aiming to climb the career ladder. The discussion will also address the specific challenges faced by specialized engineers and propose strategies to overcome them.
Attendees will leave equipped with practical tools to steer their career growth, a clearer understanding of the dynamics at higher levels, and a refined perspective on their long-term career objectives.