Portfolio
Vanessa Johnson
Android Engineer
Building mobile experiences at The New York Times. Passionate about clean code, user experience, and the Android ecosystem.
Kotlin Code Quality with Problems API
Google Summer of Code 2025 project integrating the new Problems API in detekt and ktlint plugins to improve code quality tooling and provide better developer experience.
Recent Activity
Current Focus
Utilized Jetpack Compose in Kotlin, deeplinking, graphql, retrofit, practiced MVVM, used repositories & use cases throughout my work at the NYT thus far. I contributed to the big release of the friends tab, tech led adding the ConnectionsBot to the app, owned a new subscribe message in the app, and am currently tech leading a new upcoming feature.
Skills
Interests
More Projects
Speaking Highlights
Open Source
Contributing to detekt and ktlint plugins, improving code quality tooling for the Kotlin ecosystem through Google Summer of Code 2025.
Experience
My journey in software engineering
Android Engineer
The New York Times
Utilized Jetpack Compose in Kotlin, deeplinking, graphql, retrofit, practiced MVVM, used repositories & use cases throughout my work at the NYT thus far. I contributed to the big release of the friends tab, tech led adding the ConnectionsBot to the app, owned a new subscribe message in the app, and am currently tech leading a new upcoming feature.
Android Engineering Intern
The New York Times
Utilized Jetpack Compose in Kotlin and developed a new UI that would encourage more subscription sign ups in the consumer facing games app based on Figma designs. Implemented a post login/ post registration offer that pulled data from firebase to populate the information on the card to increase the subscription sign ups which is at 100% roll out that improved conversion in the app by 31%.
Software Engineering Intern
Zocdoc
Developed and integrated new product features in the existing android mobile application using Kotlin that are were released into production that affected over 200,000 users. Enhanced the Zocdoc application by implementing an act fast banner with XML, fragments, and activities that used a lottie animation to alert the user that the appointments were limited for that current day or the following day.
Speaking
Sharing knowledge at conferences & in workshops
TBA - APIDays Paris
APIDays Paris 2025
Speaking at APIDays Paris - The APIs meet AI conference: Innovation, Security, Sovereignty, Sustainability.
Building Inclusive Jetpack Compose Apps: Leveraging Kotlin and the Accessibility Scanner
Droidcon Italy 2025
Sharing insights on building accessible Android applications using Jetpack Compose and leveraging the Accessibility Scanner for better user experience.
Code & Hydrate: Build a Water Intake Tracker App (Android Edition)
Mentor Me Collective Workshop
Led a beginner friendly workshop on Android app development, teaching participants to build a water intake tracker app using Kotlin, XML UI design, and local storage with SharedPreferences.
What if GraphQL Knew Accessibility
GraphQLConf 2025
Exploring how GraphQL can be leveraged to build more accessible applications and improve user experience.
Building Inclusive Jetpack Compose Apps: Leveraging Kotlin and the Accessibility Scanner
KotlinConf 2025
Presented on building accessible Android applications using Jetpack Compose and leveraging the Accessibility Scanner for better user experience.
Projects
A showcase of my work
Kotlin Code Quality with Problems API
Google Summer of Code 2025 project integrating the new Problems API in detekt and ktlint plugins to improve code quality tooling and provide better developer experience.
Speaker Scout
upcomingAn app for conference speakers to find conferences they can present at. Filter and discover speaking opportunities based on talk length, travel and accommodation coverage, location, and more!
GutFeeling
activeA gut health app that helps you track your meals, drinks, supplements, and snacks. This app will help you also track your mood, bowel movements, water intake, and more that would be useful for your doctor during your appointments. All in all, this app will help you on your gut health journey which will also include suggestions for de-stressers, supplements that you can try before going to medications, and it will utilize the power of AI to identify changes that can be made in your diet.
Gemini Collaboration IDE
completedThis is an iOS application that acts as an IDE that supports Python code. Developers are able to collaborate on the same code and see each other's real time updates. They can also utilize the Gemini feature of the app to get code that they may need and ask questions about the code they wrote. Firebase is used for the real time updates, saving on the code that was written, and keeping track of all the projects that a user has after they have logged in through authentication.
Get in Touch
Let's connect and build something amazing
Let's Connect
I'm always interested in new opportunities, speaking engagements, and collaborations. Feel free to reach out!
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