Architecture must earn its keep
A framework is only successful when it makes the product faster to change, easier to understand, or measurably better for customers.
Senior Software Engineer · Picnic Technologies
Masoud Alali
Frontend & mobile architectureplatformsmigrations for products used by millions.
- years building products
- 10+
- engineers led
- 20
- app downloads
- 10M+
- Picnic markets
- 3
React Native ·Server-Driven UI ·React Server Components ·TypeScript ·SSR ·Next.js ·Frontend Architecture ·Large-Scale Migrations ·Design Systems ·Developer Tooling ·
/01
The through-line
The work I enjoy most is a transition — templates to typed components, two apps to one codebase, a product to a platform.
Today I work on Picnic’s React Native customer app, where I designed the TypeScript framework behind its server-driven Page Platform and am evolving it toward server-side rendering with React Server Components.
Earlier, I grew from frontend engineer to tech lead at Digikala, hired and led a 20-person team, and helped modernize web and mobile products used by millions. I later built a five-person frontend team at DFreight before relocating to the Netherlands.
Stay close to the product
I lead through design and code. Working at platform level should sharpen product judgment—not replace it with abstraction.
Make the system teachable
Documentation, workshops, and clear APIs turn individual technical work into capability that a whole team can own.
Off the timeline
Based in Amsterdam. B.S. in Information Technology Engineering from the University of Tehran. Native Persian speaker; professional English. Technical speaker since 2019.
/02
Selected systems
Three systems: the constraint, the architectural move, and the evidence it mattered.
From templates to a typed rendering platform
Picnic’s customer app needed server-driven screens without giving up the composability and developer experience of modern frontend engineering.
01Handlebars
02Async TSX
03RN SSR + RSC
My contribution
I led the architecture and implementation of an async TSX framework with data resolvers, replacing Handlebars templates. I built its local development and testing toolchain, then evolved the platform toward React Native SSR with React Server Components—and taught teams how to extend it.
- ~10%
- faster feedback cycle
- 3
- customer markets
- 2026
- React Amsterdam talk
One mobile architecture instead of two
Separate native applications duplicated delivery effort at one of the Middle East’s largest e-commerce platforms.
01Android + iOS
02Shared RN core
03Unified delivery
My contribution
I architected and contributed hands-on to a ground-up React Native rebuild. The shared codebase aligned Android and iOS delivery while keeping the app ready for a large consumer audience.
- 10M+
- downloads
- >50%
- lower engineering cost
- 2
- platforms, one codebase
Modernizing the storefront while it kept moving
The storefront was rebuilt twice without slowing product delivery: from a legacy stack to Supernova's PHP/Twig frontend, then to Next.js.
01Legacy
02Supernova · PHP/Twig
03Next.js
My contribution
I first helped build Supernova's customer-facing frontend, then oversaw its migration to Next.js after promotion to tech lead. Alongside the architecture, I hired and led the 20-person frontend team responsible for delivering it.
- 20
- engineers led
- ~30%
- faster feature delivery
- 6+
- major initiatives
/03
Career path
Interfaces, then platforms, then the teams that build them.
Picnic Technologies
Amsterdam, NL
Senior Software Engineer
Apr 2025 — presentEvolving the Page Platform toward React Native SSR with React Server Components; driving adoption through workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions, and technical direction.
PromotionSoftware Engineer
Feb 2023 — Apr 2025Designed the async TSX framework and its Vite/Vitest tooling, shipped customer-experience features that reduced demand on customer service, and improved runtime performance through state architecture work.
DFreight
Dubai, UAE · remote
Frontend Tech Lead
Jan 2022 — Jan 2023Built and led a five-person frontend team delivering the Next.js customer portal and operations back office, plus a React Native shipment-tracking app.
Digikala
Tehran, IR
Frontend Tech Lead
Aug 2018 — Dec 2021Hired and led 20 frontend engineers, directed two cross-functional teams, and guided web, mobile, SEO, and advertising-platform initiatives at large consumer scale.
PromotionFrontend Engineer
Jan 2018 — Jul 2018Built Digikala’s customer-facing frontend from the ground up as part of Supernova, establishing reusable components and shared libraries before promotion to Frontend Tech Lead.
Snapp!
Tehran, IR
Frontend Engineer
Feb 2017 — Jan 2018Built the React passenger PWA for roughly 10,000 daily users and migrated snapp.ir to React on a ride-hailing platform handling more than 2M rides per month.
Avaanegar
Tehran, IR
Frontend Developer
Jan 2016 — Feb 2017Built a real-time React messenger with Protobuf and WebSocket, and helped implement the Televizak video-on-demand platform.
/04
Public work
The clearest test of an idea is whether you can explain it. I share the architecture behind the work—not just the polished outcome.
Speaking since 201901
React Native SSR with React Server Components
Picnic’s server-driven Page Platform, why server-side rendering matters in a native app, and where React Server Components take the architecture next.
02
Recurring technical speaker
Talks on React, React Native, and frontend architecture for Iran’s largest React community.
03
Java Meets JavaScript
A co-authored account of moving an application server’s UI layer from Handlebars templates to type-safe asynchronous TypeScript components.
/05
Working depth
Tools change. These are the problems I have repeatedly learned how to solve—and the technologies I know deeply enough to solve them with.
Rendering & platform design
Server-driven UI, SSR, React Server Components, framework APIs, state architecture, and the boundaries between server and client.
Modernization at scale
Incremental migrations, shared mobile architectures, performance work, testing strategy, and developer tooling that supports daily delivery.
Technical direction
Architecture decisions, hiring and mentoring, cross-functional delivery, workshops, and helping engineers become contributors to the platform.