A day in the life of Christos, our Tech Lead

How long have you worked at The Distance?

I've been at The Distance for 8 years now.

How would you describe your role in one sentence?

My role as a Development Team Lead involves different aspects from day to day, independently working on project tasks, internal work to improve quality and processes, as well as supporting the other developers when needed.

What’s a typical day like for you as a Development Team Lead?

9:00 AM – Start of day

• Log in and review my tasks for the day to assess feasibility.
• Check Slack messages for any urgent issues or blockers.
• Identify anything that needs to be addressed with Project Managers (PMs).

9:30 AM – Daily Scrum

• Attend the stand-up to align on priorities for the day.
• Provide updates on ongoing tasks and discuss blockers.
• Set expectations for what can realistically be achieved by the end of the day.

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM – Focused Development & Support

• Work through high-priority tasks.
• Provide feedback to PMs when blockers arise so they can manage expectations.
• Keep an eye on Slack in case other developers or the product team need support.

The sense of achievement and being able to build new software that other people will use, and a sense of service.

A typical day starts with checking updates on ongoing projects and unblocking any team members facing technical challenges. Daily Scrums help keep the team aligned on priorities. A good chunk of the day is spent coding and ensuring best practices are followed. Whether it’s optimising React Native performance, improving app builds, or debugging complex issues. I also collaborate with the Product Team and Project Managers to keep projects on track.

How do you decide on the best tech stack for a project?

The decision is based on a few different factors. Project requirements are a big part, affecting the decision when it comes to scalability and integrations. Team expertise is taken into account as we want to be confident in what we use while also being open to new tech. Community also plays an important role, as we would adopt well-maintained and supported frameworks where they fit.

AI-assisted development, like Cursor and AI-driven code reviews, is changing how we write and optimise code. Also, Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) + React Native is exciting because it allows shared logic across platforms while keeping a great native experience.

Implementing seamless authentication across a React Native app and a website, ensuring users can log in using stored credentials while maintaining security. Handling Stored Credentials on Mobile (React Native App), we leveraged native credential managers to store and autofill login details. Used Credential Manager API for Android and Keychain Services for iOS, which allows users to store and autofill credentials securely. This allowed Safari (iOS) and Chrome (Android) to retrieve saved credentials from the app and vice versa.

AI is improving development and efficiency in several ways. It provides code suggestions & completion, and detects potential bugs in your code. It can provide performance optimisation insights and write up boilerplate code for you, given the right instructions. AI isn’t replacing developers, but it’s helping teams work efficiently and focus on higher-level problem-solving.

The mix of diverse projects and a strong development culture. We get to work on innovative apps while always looking for better ways to do things, whether it’s optimising the build process, improving performance, or trying out new tools and frameworks.

If you were a biscuit, what biscuit would you be?

Chocolate Digestive. Classic and reliable, and with chocolate, which is my favourite sweet. Like clean and efficient code.

Keeping it within the same industry, probably something like game development, as game mechanics is an intriguing aspect for me.

Outside of tech, it would be something related to nutrition, which is an interesting and important topic for me in life.

For Christos, being a Tech Lead is about more than building great software; it’s about driving progress, supporting his team, and finding better ways to do things. Each day brings a new challenge, a new opportunity to learn, and the satisfaction of seeing ideas come to life.

From testing emerging tech to enjoying a well-earned Chocolate Digestive, Christos embodies what makes our dev culture thrive: curiosity, collaboration, and a passion for doing things right.