Bluetooth LE & NFC iOS Development Consulting

Core Bluetooth, NFC Reader Sessions, iBeacon, MFi hardware integration. Most of my BLE work has been on clinical and medical hardware, where a dropped sample loses patient context.

Core Bluetooth: peripheral/central, GATT, background modes, state restoration
NFC Reader Sessions, NDEF, background tag reading (iOS 14+)
BLE integration for regulated medical devices and consumer hardware

Recognition

App Store Best New Apps 2026 Product Hunt Product of the Day 2025 CES Best of Innovation 2021 CES Innovation Award 2021 Webby Honoree 2021 Google Material Design 2020

Credentials

Member of British Computer Society 2024 BEng (Hons) 2017 Apple WWDC Scholarship 2015

Tell me what you're working on. I reply within 48 hours.

work@drobinin.com

What clients say

"Vadim was instrumental to the success Epsy enjoyed on iOS, taking it from an idea on a Miro board to the highest rated and most downloaded app of its kind on the store."

James C. · Mobile Engineering Lead, Epsy

"We had a strict deadline, and Vadim managed to complete the job in time. He gave us meaningful feedback and suggested better approaches, not trying to blindly stick to our specification."

Founder · Pre-seed streaming service

"I can say with confidence that it will be difficult to find a better developer. Vadim is achievement-oriented, highly organized, with very good communication skills."

Alex Z. · Co-Founder, eda.so

Related work

Common engagements

Ship a BLE integration end-to-end

I handle the iOS side and spec with your firmware team. Done means the device round-trips cleanly across foreground, background, killed, and state-restored app lifecycles, tested on at least three iPhone generations in realistic conditions.

Triage a production connectivity bug

1-3 days once I have logs and a device pair. I sit between the firmware team and the iOS stack and work out which side is wrong, usually with a Nordic sniffer capture to settle it.

Decide between BLE, NFC, and MFi

A half-day advisory before you commit to hardware. I review your requirements, map them to the iOS stack that fits, and flag the long-tail problems each stack comes with.

Pricing

Advisory

£110

per hour

Architecture reviews, hiring help, second opinions on that thing that's been bugging you.

Available now

Can you work with our firmware team?

Yes. Most of my engagements here are iOS-side-of-hardware, paired with the firmware team on the other end. Packet captures from an external sniffer (Nordic, Ellisys) settle vendor-vs-iOS debates quickly.

Do you test across device generations?

Yes. BLE behaviour differs across iPhone models and iOS versions in ways that matter. I keep a small pool of devices for this and test across a range before calling an integration done.

We have a BLE device. Can you build the iOS app for it?

Yes. I work iOS-side of hardware and pair with your firmware team on the other end. Most engagements cover the pairing flow, GATT service design, connection handling across foreground and background states, and whatever fallback is needed when the OS suspends or kills the session. Tested on at least three iPhone generations before I call it done.

Does our hardware need MFi certification for iOS?

Usually no, unless you're using audio, the Lightning connector, or the External Accessory framework. Standard Core Bluetooth covers most sensor and wearable categories without MFi licensing, which saves months of process.

How quickly can you start?

Advisory calls can happen within days. For project work, I typically need 1-2 weeks notice to clear the calendar, though I keep some buffer for urgent firefighting. Check the availability badges above for current openings.

Do you work with early-stage startups?

Yes, from pre-seed to Series C and beyond. For very early teams, the advisory tier often makes more sense than project work: you get architecture guidance without committing to a large engagement before you've validated the product.

What's included in the day rate?

Everything: code, architecture decisions, code review, documentation, async Slack availability during working hours. No surprise add-ons. I bill for time spent working on your project, not for "thinking about it in the shower."

We're in a different timezone. Will that slow things down?

I'm currently in Vancouver (PST), with full overlap for North American teams. For UK and Europe, I'm online by their afternoon. For Gulf or APAC, we'd agree on overlap hours and handle the rest async. I've worked with teams from San Francisco to Dubai.

Areas I cover

Core Bluetoothperipheral and central roles, GATT service discovery, service UUID caching, connection interval negotiation, and the background-mode caveats nobody reads.

NFC Reader SessionsNDEF and native tag variants, background tag reading (iOS 14+), entitlement limits, URL handler auto-launch.

iBeaconregion monitoring, ranging, 20-region limit, undocumented background-wake behaviour.

MFiwhen External Accessory framework is needed, the licensing path, and whether MFi is required at all or Core Bluetooth will do.

Where I've worked CV · LinkedIn

Drobinin Limited Founder · 2025 - present 12+ apps from idea to App Store. Featured by Apple in EMEA & Americas.

LivaNova (NASDAQ: LIVN) Senior iOS · 2020-2025 Epsy, an epilepsy management app. Shipped inside an FDA-regulated medical-device company. HIPAA, CES Innovation Award.

Sphere (acquired by Twitter/X) Senior iOS · 2017-2020 Early Employee. $30M funding to acquisition.

VK.com iOS Consultant · 2016-2017 Authored & delivered an onsite course on iOS development.

ToBox Lead iOS · 2015-2016 Built team, MVVM architecture, full Swift rewrite.

Integrating hardware with iOS?