# Kilo Loco

> Kilo Loco is the alias of Kyle Lee, a self-taught iOS engineer, instructor, and content creator who turned a string of dead-end jobs into a nine-year career building production mobile apps. After teaching himself Swift to build apps for his own family, he became a Senior Developer Advocate at AWS Amplify, reached tens of thousands of developers through YouTube tutorials and courses, and now leads iOS work on accessibility testing tools at Deque Systems while tinkering at the edge of AI and developer tooling.

- **Role:** iOS Tech Lead at Deque Systems
- **Organizations:** Deque Systems, AWS Amplify, Kilo Loco LLC, SageDom (TennisPal), Bird, SoCal Tech Academy, Kilo Loco Academy, Say Their Names
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Associate of Arts for Transfer, Psychology, Mt. San Antonio College
- **Known for:** Self-taught his way into a nine-plus-year iOS engineering career with no CS degree., Reached 50,000+ developers as Senior Developer Advocate at AWS Amplify (25+ videos, 10+ blog posts, 15+ shorts)., Led the iOS team at Deque Systems, shipping 6 releases with 37+ merged PRs.

## Career timeline

- **Pre-2016** — Worked across restaurants, real estate, car sales, and telemarketing without finding a passion.
- **2016** — Officially entered tech; began as Senior iOS Engineer at SageDom (TennisPal).
- **2017** — Founded Kilo Loco LLC for freelance iOS/Android development and technical content.
- **2018** — Taught Swift and UIKit as an iOS Instructor at SoCal Tech Academy (95% satisfaction, 80% job placement).
- **2019** — Joined Bird as a Software Engineer building scooter and flight-tracking features.
- **2020** — Affected by a COVID-era layoff at Bird; joined AWS Amplify as Senior Developer Advocate.
- **2020** — Co-built say-their-names-ios, an open-source racial-justice awareness platform.
- **2023** — Concluded his run at AWS Amplify after reaching 50,000+ developers with content.
- **2024** — Became iOS Tech Lead at Deque Systems, building accessibility testing tools.
- **2026** — Focused on Claude Code tooling, AI development, and iOS security research.

## Achievements

- Self-taught his way into a nine-plus-year iOS engineering career with no CS degree.
- Reached 50,000+ developers as Senior Developer Advocate at AWS Amplify (25+ videos, 10+ blog posts, 15+ shorts).
- Led the iOS team at Deque Systems, shipping 6 releases with 37+ merged PRs.
- Achieved 95% satisfaction and 80% job placement teaching at SoCal Tech Academy.
- Co-created say-their-names-ios, an awareness platform with 244+ GitHub stars.
- Built and maintains the KiloLocoXcodeTheme used across all of his videos.
- Authored open-source projects including SwiftMCP, SwiftAIContextTools, and Xamrock Studio.

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Publishing Claude Code desktop app reviews, AI development tips, and iOS security research (intercepting HTTPS traffic in iOS apps).
- **2026-03** — Released a video, 'Why AI Made Coding Easier But Engineering 10x Harder,' on AI's impact on engineering quality.
- **2024-06** — Started as iOS Tech Lead at Deque Systems building accessibility testing tools.

## Links

- Website: https://www.kiloloco.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiloloco/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Kilo_Loco
- GitHub: https://github.com/Kilo-Loco
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/kiloloco

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kilo-loco
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-03