Engineer’s Corner: Q&A with Edgar Lopes

Looking for an engineering job? Find out what it’s like on to work on the Web Summit engineering team – straight from one of our iOS developers, Edgar Lopes.

Hi Edgar! Where are you from, and what’s your educational and professional background?

I’m from Portugal, and I have a master’s degree in electrical engineering. I work as a mobile developer on iOS.

Why did you join Web Summit?

What appealed to me about Web Summit was that it’s different from any place I have ever worked. The organisational structure is flat, and there’s no micromanaging. I liked the Web Summit work culture.

How would you describe your role here?

I’m the senior iOS developer of the company’s mobile app. I also know the ins and outs of the app pretty well, and am involved in product discussion.

What tech stack do you work with at Web Summit?

At the front-end, I use Swift, Objective C (legacy), SwiftUI, UIKit, and KMM, which I’m learning at the moment. At the back-end, I use server-side Swift, which is also something new that I’m learning right now.

What are some of the most common challenges that your team has to solve and work on?

The app is very big and has a lot of information, so we need to put ourselves in the attendees’ shoes in order to make the experience smooth for them. The problem is that each attendee – general attendees, investors, speakers, and so on – is different.

To mitigate this, we’ve been working on a ‘dynamic screens’ system that will show the individual attendee a personal, curated experience.

What’s the most challenging project that the team has worked on?

Chat has always been a source of complex work. Since I joined, we’ve had to change providers three times.

We also had the challenge of creating an architecture where we could just plug a new client in and out with less effort and fuss. And working on the livestream feature and PIP work was also quite challenging.

How does the engineering team help other teams in Web Summit?

We have an open channel with the rest of the office, and that’s not only during conferences. Any request sent to us is deemed valid and will be discussed.

Also, during weekly town hall, for example, we ask other Web Summit staff to test our app and send us feedback. And, during events, we debug any issues attendees may have, and usually the feedback is pretty quick.

What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most?

There are a few: I like the flat team structure, working with my teammates, the liberty to try new things and, of course, attending Web Summit events.

What do you do for fun? Do you have any hobbies?

I love to travel and I play volleyball regularly. In terms of outdoor activities, I enjoy hiking, running, and sports in general.

Interested in joining our engineering team? Check out Web Summit’s careers page for more information, and current job opportunities.