Meet Dandan Chang Wang
Dandan Chang Wang is co-founder and Head of Operations at AtalayaSoft OÜ. She runs the studio's administration, invoicing and tax compliance. She developed native iOS applications in Swift and SwiftUI for seven years. Trilingual in Chinese, Spanish and English.
Her multidisciplinary path — languages, Chinese-Spanish translation, international trade, digital marketing and iOS development — is what makes it possible for a two-person studio to operate the way it does.
A multidisciplinary career: from piano keys to MacBook keys
Dandan was not born an iOS developer. Her path started in front of a piano and went through languages, administration, international trade and digital marketing before landing in native iOS development. Trilingual in Chinese, Spanish and English, she has chained different disciplines together, guided by the curiosity to keep learning new things.
She translated from Chinese into Spanish, taught Mandarin and worked at offices like Uría Menéndez and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. She later moved into international trade, managing Chinese suppliers at Mora Vilches and opening the Asian market for Stendhal Museum Solutions. The digital world came with Ticketbis (later StubHub, after the acquisition by eBay) and T2O Media, where she coordinated PPC campaigns across 13 Asia Pacific markets.
After years of watching Francisco José García Navarro code, she moved into native iOS development, learning it self-taught under his direct mentoring. Years later she consolidated that training in Apple Coding Academy's Swift Developer Program. For seven years she developed AtalayaSoft's own apps. Today she runs the studio's administration, invoicing and tax compliance.
eBay
eBay
StubHub
Ticketbis
Apps Dandan worked on
These are AtalayaSoft's own products where Dandan contributed native iOS development in Swift and SwiftUI.
How Dandan worked in iOS
Across her seven years of iOS development, Dandan worked exclusively with native Apple technologies in Swift and SwiftUI. These are the principles and tools she applied, adapting to the methodologies each project preferred.
- Swift and SwiftUI as the main focus Her daily work was in Swift and SwiftUI. She leaned on the modern declarative syntax to build clear, maintainable interfaces.
- UIKit when the project required it Her focus was SwiftUI, but she also worked with UIKit on projects that needed it, taking advantage of interop when necessary. Objective-C was always out of her stack.
- Concurrency with async/await She worked with Swift Concurrency (async/await) for clear, predictable asynchronous flows, avoiding nested completion handlers.
- MVVM architecture She applied the MVVM pattern to keep code organized, scalable, and easy to maintain.
- Minimal use of third-party libraries She leaned on native frameworks whenever possible. URLSession over Alamofire, SwiftData over external solutions. Fewer dependencies, less technical debt.
- Git with Gitflow She used Git with the Gitflow workflow for version control and team collaboration. Code reviews and iterative delivery.
- Persistence with Core Data and SwiftData She used Core Data on established projects and SwiftData on new ones when the iOS target allowed it.
Tech stack
Language and frameworks
- Swift
- SwiftUI
- UIKit
- Combine
- Core Data
- SwiftData
Architecture and quality
- MVVM
- Clean Code
- SOLID Principles
- Swift Concurrency (async/await)
Tools and platforms
- Xcode
- Git
- Gitflow
- Swift Package Manager
- Firebase
- TestFlight
Services and security
- REST services
- URLSession
- Basic app security
- App Store Connect
This is how Dandan worked during her iOS years, adapting to the tools and methodologies each project required.
My Professional Philosophy
My approach to work is deeply rooted in the following Japanese philosophies:
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01. Ikigai (生き甲斐)
Finding purpose in my work by aligning what I love, what I’m good at, what the world needs, and what I can be paid for.
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02. Kaizen (改善)
Continuously improving processes, products, and services to deliver the best possible results.
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03. Shoshin (初心)
Maintaining an open and curious mindset, always ready to learn and adapt.
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04. Gaman (我慢)
Demonstrating patience and resilience in the face of challenges, ensuring consistent progress and success.
Recognition
KeepCoding webinar
KeepCoding invited Dandan to give the webinar "How to be a digital nomad as a mobile programmer", where she shared her experience working as a freelance iOS developer from different parts of the world.
Experience
Dandan's full professional career path, also available on her LinkedIn profile
Education
Dandan's educational path mirrors the same diversity as her professional one. Her early years of training were dedicated to the piano, earning the Piano Grade 5 Certificate (Amateur Music Grading) from Yunnan Arts University in 2002, within China's official amateur arts grading system supervised by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Education.
Once in Spain, she completed her Technician in Administrative Management at IES María Inmaculada (2010 — 2011), an official Vocational Education degree regulated by the Spanish Ministry of Education.
She continued with the Higher Technician in International Trade at Escuela Profesional Javeriana (2012 — 2014), graduating with a final grade of 9.85 out of 10 (With Honors) and earning Honorable Mentions in multiple subjects.
She then made the jump to the digital world with the Online Marketing Course at UNED Foundation (2014 — 2015), an intensive program covering the full digital marketing funnel: SEO, SEM, Display, Social Media, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing and web analytics.
Already working as an iOS developer, in 2023 she consolidated her self-taught background at Apple Coding Academy in the Swift Developer Program 2023 (Oct 2023 — Feb 2024), specialising in Swift 5.9, functional programming, concurrency with Async/Await, app development for iOS and iPadOS with SwiftUI 5, an introduction to visionOS, and programming with AI coding assistants.
But in the digital world, learning never stops. In her day-to-day work at AtalayaSoft, Dandan stays in constant learning mode: in business management, in artificial intelligence, in social media management and in marketing strategies for the studio's own products. And since neither Spanish nor English are her native languages, she also practises both every day. A role in an ecosystem that demands continuous updating.
Full educational background available on her LinkedIn profile
Testimonials
“ When Dandan joined our team the first thing that attracted me was her curiosity for learning. She was ready to learn eagerly from everyone, from everything. And she made it, very fast. Her progress not only on Digital Marketing but learning Spanish and English was fascinating and motivating. She is passionate about what she does, but also she is open and always willing to help and to develop others work. ”
“ Dandan is one of the most capable programmers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She never backs down from a challenge and tackles it head-on until it’s resolved and completed. She is always looking for the best way to do things. Additionally, she is a sponge for knowledge and an incredibly well-rounded individual, not only as a programmer but also possessing a set of qualities that are hard to find, which enable her to be a natural manager and leader when needed. ”
“ I have worked with Dandan for more than a year, and she has never ceased to amaze me with her professionalism, dedication, and being an excellent colleague—very friendly, cheerful, and polite. She is always willing to help, responsible, and very hardworking. I highly recommend her. ”
Hobbies and interests
Beyond work, Dandan keeps several hobbies that have been with her for years.
Singing, playing the piano and theatre
She has been singing, playing the piano and doing theatre for almost two decades. Three hobbies that have been with her since she was young, and that she still practises whenever she can.
Manga and comics
A regular reader of manga and comics. A world she's discovered in recent years and dedicates time to consistently.
Krav Maga and shooting range
She practises Krav Maga and likes going to the shooting range.
Travelling
Whenever possible, she travels. She loves meeting different cultures, trying new cuisines and discovering landscapes and stories you can't find without moving.
Follow me on Instagram
Family, friends, travel, events, food, hobbies and also work. A mix of personal and professional life, told in pictures.
Follow @dandancw on Instagram (opens in a new tab)Recent Instagram posts
Let's talk
If you'd like to know more about my work, about the studio's own projects, or simply want to get in touch with AtalayaSoft, I'm a message away.
Let's talk about your project Visit my LinkedIn profile