Currently building at CFM Materials

Ali Hilal

Software Developer with 3+ years of professional experience building production systems across .NET, Python, TypeScript, and Azure. Currently shipping enterprise automation and AI/OCR pipelines at CFM Materials in Dallas, and independently designing the CRM, marketing site, and iPad POS behind a live DFW business.

  • 3+ Years professional
  • 3 Products shipped
  • 5 Languages in production
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01

About me

Hey there! My name is Ali Hilal and I build production software — automation pipelines, internal tools, and full-stack products that people depend on day to day. It all started during an internship back in 2021 when I found myself on a debugging mission between a website and a HelloSign API. Once I cracked the code and saw how my problem-solving skills made a real difference in the product, I was completely hooked on software development.

These days I'm a Software Developer at CFM Materials, where I've shipped an OCR-driven document automation system, a .NET MAUI checklist app, and an Azure AI chat-bot. Outside of work I design and run the software behind Hilal Coffee — a CRM, a marketing site, and an iPad point-of-sale, all built and deployed by me. Here is what I work with:

Languages
C#, Python, TypeScript, SQL (MS SQL, PostgreSQL), Swift
Frameworks
ASP.NET, .NET MAUI, WPF, Next.js, React, SwiftUI, SwiftData
Cloud & DevOps
Azure, AWS, Vercel, Supabase, Git, Azure DevOps, GitHub
Architecture
REST APIs, MVVM, MVC, distributed systems, Agile and Scrum
Libraries & Tools
Anthropic, Quo, Square and Google APIs/webhooks, PyTesseract, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion
02

Work Experience

Software Developer

CFM Materials · October 2023 – Present · Dallas, TX

  • Engineered an automated document management system using Python, OpenCV, and PyTesseract, reducing document processing time by 80% and streamlining daily workflows for multiple teams
  • Developed a digital forklift checklist app with a RESTful .NET MAUI/MVVM backend, automating document generation and SharePoint reporting to replace manual processes and improve compliance tracking
  • Built an AI-powered chat-bot using Azure AI and NLP to translate proprietary company terminology into plain-language responses, reducing support ticket volume and onboarding friction for new hires
  • Collaborated with operations and IT teams to modernize ERP label printing from COM to USB, improving reliability and reducing manual error rates by 60%
  • Authored and optimized complex MS SQL queries powering real-time inventory dashboards, supporting daily sales operations across multiple teams
  • Partnered with cross-functional teams across the full SDLC — gathering requirements, conducting code reviews, managing version control via Git and Azure DevOps, and deploying through CI/CD pipelines to ensure reliable, production-ready releases

Front-End Software Developer (Intern)

LinedanceAI · August 2022 – May 2023 · Dallas, TX

  • Joined pre-product as a founding engineer on the V1 build of an analytics platform, contributing to system architecture, application flow, and UX decisions alongside senior engineers and product leadership
  • Built the WPF/C# desktop application from scratch, shipping 5+ views, 8+ reusable components, and a custom data visualization suite (3D models, line/bar/pie charts) without relying on third-party charting libraries
  • Owned end-to-end delivery of core features including the home page, user dashboard, and metric visualization, translating Figma designs into production UI and collaborating with backend engineers on API contracts
  • Presented product demos to investors during funding meetings, communicating technical capabilities and product vision to non-technical stakeholders

LinedanceAI

Algorithm Testing Internship · July 2022 – August 2022

  • Analyzed and documented results of smoothing and movement evaluation algorithms from uploaded movement video
  • Improved the video uploading process by writing Python scripts that automated video selection and conversion to JPEG, tripling the testing efficiency of the team
  • Studied source code and algorithms to engage with the technical team on possible improvements to calculation speed

Shifamed

Fullstack Development Internship · May 2021 – August 2021

  • Built and improved user-interface functionality allowing medical documents to be attached and auto-integrated into final medical reports and legally binding contracts
  • Analyzed and debugged a HelloSign API integration bug that prevented customer variable fields created on our website from appearing in the HelloSign service
  • Presented product design and application to the CEO and business clients, facilitating the closure of multiple business deals
  • Collaborated with a team of developers in Ukraine to enhance the user experience of customers

Sapphire Fitness

Software Development Internship · January 2021 – August 2021

  • Integrated an Intel RealSense D455 camera to use its depth-capturing software on the Raspberry Pi, opening doors to features such as repetition counting and exercise form correction
  • Supported the development team responsible for reproducing existing software on a Raspberry Pi for commercial use
03

Projects

Hilal Coffee CRM

June 2025 – Present

A full-stack operator CRM covering lead pipeline, event lifecycle, SMS automation, and team management. Includes a cron-driven cold-messaging engine, idempotent webhook ingestion from Quo, Square, and Google, web push notifications, and Postgres tuning that yielded 10–100x query speedups through partial indexes.

  • Next.js 15
  • TypeScript
  • Supabase
  • Postgres
  • Vercel

Private repository

Hilal Coffee Marketing Website

November 2024 – Present

A production e-commerce and service site for a DFW mobile coffee bar, with 4 transactional API routes, server-side email through Resend, programmatic SEO across 11 city-specific landing pages, Cal.com booking integration, and Vercel Analytics monitoring.

  • Next.js 15
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Framer Motion
Visit hilalcoffee.com

Hilal Coffee POS

March 2026 – Present

An iPad point-of-sale built from scratch, with thermal label printing over atomic TCP using exponential backoff and a persistent retry queue, cascade-safe SwiftData migrations, a configurable modifier system, multi-event merge with de-duplication, and a background printer health monitor. Used reliably at 5+ hour, high-traffic events.

  • Swift
  • SwiftUI
  • SwiftData
  • iOS 17
  • StarXpand SDK

Private repository

University Projects

  • Eliminating Business Impact of Software Issues in Production

    Automated the detection of production software issues using the open-source Pixie observability tool. My role was collecting stack traces from program execution and visualizing them to surface failures before they reached production.

    Pixie · Python · Google Cloud · Jupyter

    View repository

  • Multithreading Movie Theater Simulation

    An exploration of concurrency versus parallelism, thread states, and synchronization, modelled as a movie theater simulator handling the ticket counter, snack bar, and screening times as concurrent tasks.

    Java · VS Code

    View repository

  • Exploring Regression and Classification

    Applied linear regression, k-Nearest-Neighbor, SVM, and decision trees to the WHO Suicide Statistics and Stellar Classification (SDSS17) datasets, with a focus on data cleaning and presentation.

    R · R Studio

    View repository
04

Contact Me