Zain Abotiheen

Android Engineer, Writer, Community Builder

A software engineer with passion for learning

Where I worked

Chapter II: The Junior

Junior Android Engineer at Miswag

Jul 2024 — Jun 2026 · 1 yr 11 mos · Baghdad, Iraq

An e-commerce platform with over 100k monthly active users, serving customers all over Iraq. This was where I began my apprenticeship in Android development. I built my skills from being an intern to becoming a mid-level Android developer.

Migrated the entire app from XML to Jetpack Compose.
Introduced various new screens and features.
The entire app uses Server-Driven UI, which added a lot of complexity and fun to the work.
Helped in automating the CI/CD pipline through Bitrise.

Cross-team communication between the product, backend, and iOS teams to ensure features were successfully delivered.
Working with Server-Driven UI presented many challenges in how the UI is built and how state is managed.
Migrating XML-based layouts to Compose presented a major challenge in transforming monolithic screens into a cleaner architecture with better state management and separation of concerns.

Gained extensive experience with Jetpack Compose.
Developed a better understanding of state management.
Improved my ability to work with animations.
Introduced lazily loaded components with business logic to handle lazy loading throughout the app.

Chapter I.5: The Side Quest

Training Coordinator at AL-Khana

Jul 2024 — Jan 2025 · 6 mos · Baghdad, Iraq

Al-Khana is a small startup in Iraq. It helps students and fresh graduates find employment by offering courses, workshops, training, and internships. This was a short stop in my career that allowed me to gain experience working with people and get to know the world outside of development.

Organized and managed several courses.
Participated in many events covering various topics.
Coordinated with instructors and negotiated course details.
Built a Flutter development bootcamp. I was responsible for the syllabus, course timeline, instructor selection, and overall course management.

Gained experience working outside of software development.
Developed strong people skills through interacting with students and event attendees.

Chapter I: The Student

Computer Science Student at American University in Iraq - Baghdad

Feb 2021 — May 2025 · 4 yrs 3 mos · Baghdad, Iraq

Rooted in deep traditions of knowledge and human understanding, yet thoroughly grounded in the contemporary intellectual landscape, American University of Iraq – Baghdad offers well-rounded liberal education within a multitude of disciplines.

Helped establish the Google Developer Student Club at AUIB.
Presented sessions, workshops, and courses to dozens of students.
Organized the MegaTech Summit, a tech event that brought together around 300 students from across Iraq.
Graduated with a 3.7 GPA at the top of my college.

Managed my time and effort between working full-time as a developer and being a student.
Got to know professors across the university and established good relationships with them.
Served as the Master of Ceremonies for new student orientation, presenting for over four hours in front of 220 students.
Communicated across university departments to organize events.

Acquired a passion for computer science.
Studied a wide variety of disciplines, including History, Political Science, and Public Speaking, through the university's Liberal Arts program.
Gained extensive public speaking experience through courses, university events, and workshops that I had the opportunity to present throughout my journey.

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Selected work

All projects

Magic Lens

After Apple launched their liquid glass, I wondered if it possible for me to achieve the same thing on android. I took a deep dive and got to learn that a similar effect can be achieved through shaders. This was a fun projects for me to explore shaders, how they work, and apply image processing techniques I learned in university. All effects are processed in real time on the pixel values of the screen and not the image that is uploaded.

Key concepts

Shaders
Image Processing
Animations

Writing

Latest entry
July 27, 2026

Books

On what made Abraham Lincoln special

Recently, I finished the book Team of Rivals. It is a remarkable book that goes in depth about the political life of Abraham Lincoln and his colleagues and rivals. I got to know more about him, life i

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Other explorations

All writing