Serving as Lead Technical Architect for Chelsea FC's digital innovation hub. We designed, engineered, and scaled a suite of four custom mobile applications bridging sports science, real-time computer vision, and IoT hardware.
Chelsea Digital Ventures was tasked with building a modern suite of apps that bring elite, professional-grade training and metrics directly to consumer mobile screens. As Lead Technical Architect, Paul Leo took charge of architectural planning and implementation across the entire system. He decoupled complex hardware pipelines, integrated high-performance on-device sensors, established bulletproof VIPER patterns to unify iOS and Android code structure, and ensured strict weekly release cycles to App Store production.
A technical breakdown of the individual systems shipped for Chelsea FC.
A highly interactive football-training app that evaluates passing and dribbling accuracy. We implemented a bespoke pose-estimation algorithm that runs locally on the iOS device, mapping 17 key human joint vectors in real time against a live camera feed inside an AR environment.
An app that pairs via CoreBluetooth with a smart training football containing embedded inertial sensors (IMUs). It streams telemetry data at 60Hz to evaluate touch speed, juggling count, and foot coordination.
A health app that monitors player metrics. Highlights include a custom camera heart-rate monitor utilising AVFoundation to measure pulse, AR body-scanning to evaluate body fat, and an interactive reaction game.
A sports-nutrition system designed to deliver customized plans to elite athletes. We created modular structures that integrate personal biometrics, physical workload metrics, and targeted dietary recommendations.
How we achieved clean development velocity across a suite of complex sports apps.
We split sensor logic (Bluetooth, Camera, AR) into clean SPM targets. This allowed features to be tested and iterated independently without blocking other components.
Using Quick & Nimble, we established Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) patterns, testing complex states such as Bluetooth disconnections and frame-drop buffers.
By decoupling background pipelines from the main thread, we achieved smooth 60fps rendering, essential for fast-paced camera and gaming applications.
"Paul joined Chelsea Digital Ventures as our Lead Architect during a critical pivot. He took four disjointed repositories and transformed them into a unified, high-performing app ecosystem. His mastery of custom ARKit algorithms and Bluetooth IoT protocols was outstanding. He is a rare technical leader who delivers both sophisticated architecture and clean code."
