Anthony Persaud - Engineering leader, founder, and product builder
Career Snapshot
Current Work
Senior Software Engineer at Apple working on product experiences across Watch Fitness and Apple Fitness+.
Leadership Arc
Former VP of Engineering at Heal, founder and head of engineering at Modernistik, and product and engineering lead across multiple startups and product teams.
Career Signals
20+ years of software engineering experience, 10 patents, 4 publications, and multiple Fortune 500 awards.
Reputation
Known for influential hands-on leadership, strong product judgment, and the ability to connect ambitious ideas with dependable execution.
About Me
Anthony Persaud builds software that turns complex ideas into products people use every day. With more than 20 years of experience across healthcare, consumer, media, and enterprise domains, he has led initiatives from early discovery and architecture through launch, scale, and long-term platform evolution.
Career highlights include senior engineering work at Apple across Watch Fitness and Fitness+ experiences, VP-level engineering leadership at Heal, patented work from Qualcomm, and founder-led product delivery through Modernistik and Addicted2Salsa.
His work spans mobile apps, web platforms, consumer products, applied AI workflows, and internal systems, with a consistent blend of hands-on implementation, hiring, mentoring, roadmap planning, and cross-functional execution with design, product, and business stakeholders.
7 Awards
Recognized with multiple awards from Fortune 500 organizations, including two GEM Fellowships in Computer Engineering. Product work has also been featured by the Apple App Store, The New York Times, Business Insider, and other major outlets.
10 Patents
Named inventor on 10 patents across media delivery, user interface systems, gesture recognition, and wearable technologies, reflecting sustained innovation from R&D through product implementation.
4 Publications
Published graduate research in digital watermarking, network security, and digital forensics, with work appearing in peer-reviewed journals and technical publications.
Expertise
Deep experience in mobile and full-stack product engineering across Apple platforms, healthcare systems, cloud-backed applications, and early-stage product delivery. Proven track record leading teams while staying close to architecture, implementation, and product quality.
Technical focus areas include product architecture, API and data design, release engineering, observability, privacy-aware systems, and code quality practices that support long-term maintainability. Leadership focus areas include building high-trust teams, setting clear delivery processes, and turning product requirements into reliable technical roadmaps.
Recent work also includes practical AI-assisted product and engineering workflows, with an emphasis on using modern reasoning and coding tools to improve planning, implementation quality, and delivery speed without losing engineering rigor.
Selected Experience
Leadership experience across startups and enterprise environments, including engineering management, product ownership, and hands-on technical execution. The roles below reflect a long arc of building products, leading teams, and shaping technical direction across different stages of company growth.
2022 - Present
Apple
Senior Software Engineer, Watch Fitness
Building product experiences across Watch Fitness and Apple Fitness+, with work spanning watchOS, iOS, and tvOS.
2018 - 2022
Heal
VP of Engineering
Led engineering across mobile, backend, and web platforms, including telemedicine, clinical workflows, and remote patient monitoring during a period of national scale-up and acquisition by Humana.
2012 - 2019
Modernistik
Founder and Head of Engineering
Built and led product engineering for clients and internal ventures across mobile and web, combining software delivery, design direction, and product strategy.
2014 - 2016
GigTown
Chief Product Officer and Engineering Lead
Owned product and engineering from concept through launch, helping grow the platform into meaningful recurring revenue and an eventual acquisition outcome.
2004 - 2012
Qualcomm Inc.
Senior Software Engineer
Developed consumer and internal software across mobile, web, and backend systems, contributing patented work in media delivery, interaction design, gesture recognition, and motion technologies.
2004 - 2013
Addicted2Salsa
Founder, Principal Software Engineer
Created a globally recognized digital media and entertainment brand spanning mobile products, web platforms, and long-form content.
2003 - 2006
Iowa State University
Graduate Student Researcher
Conducted graduate research in multimedia forensics and digital watermarking, contributing to multiple publications and book chapters.
2002 - 2003
Cargill
Software Engineer
Built web-based network scanning and monitoring tools in support of infrastructure security and operational reliability, helping improve visibility and reduce risk across production environments.
2000 - 2002
IBM
Software Engineer
Developed software tools to automate testing workflows and improve deployment efficiency for IBM server products. Also built web applications that provided real-time infrastructure visibility and reduced administrative overhead.
Patents
Anthony's patents reflect long-term work in applied R&D across media delivery, user interface design, wearable technology, and gesture recognition, with emphasis on practical systems that move from research into production-ready experiences.
System and Method of Contacting Devices and Creating a Communication Session
US 11,516,435 B1
System and Method of Authenticating Devices for Secure Data Exchange
US 17/342,683 (Pending)
Method and Apparatus for Remote Controlled Object Gaming with Proximity-Based Augmented Reality Enhancement
US 13/274,570
Proximity Sensor Mesh for Motion Capture
US 13/274,539
Method and Apparatus for Using Proximity Sensing for Augmented Reality Gaming
US 13/274585
Method and Apparatus for Multi-Camera Motion Capture Enhancement Using Proximity Sensors
US 13/274,517
Gesture Recognition via an Ad-Hoc Proximity Sensor Mesh for Remotely Controlling Objects
US 13/274526
Method and Apparatus of Proximity and Stunt Recording for Outdoor Gaming
US 13/274,556
Dynamic Generation, Delivery, and Execution of Interactive Applications Over a Mobile Broadcast Network
US 13/004,813
Method and System for Selecting Media Content for Broadcast Based on Viewer Preference Indications
US 12/556,466
Publications
Graduate research focused on digital forensics, multimedia watermarking, network security, and cryptography, with publications through IEEE and IFIP channels. This research foundation continues to inform an engineering approach centered on reliability, security, and measurable performance.
2006
Collusion Detection Using Multimedia Fingerprints
Advances in Digital Forensics II (Springer), Chapter 9
2006
Stepping Stone Attack Attribution in Non-Cooperative IP Networks
Proceedings of the 25th IEEE International Performance Computing and Communications Conference
2006
The Use of Wavelet Watermarking and Statistical Classification Techniques for Collusion Detection and Identification in Multimedia Forensics
Iowa State University PARKS
2005
A Framework for Email Investigations: Automated Information Extraction and Linkage Discovery
Advances in Digital Forensics (Springer)
Education
2006
Masters of Science, Computer Engineering
Iowa State University
2004
Bachelors of Science with Honors Program, Computer Engineering
Iowa State University
Anthony received scholarships and awards from Motorola, Cargill, General Motors, IBM, and Qualcomm. He was awarded a GEM Fellowship for graduate engineering studies at Iowa State University and a Ph.D. Engineering GEM Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University.
Connect
This site serves as a public profile and archive of selected work, leadership experience, patents, and publications. For professional background, portfolio context, or media-related inquiries, feel free to reach out.
Location
San Diego, California, USA