I lead Operational Support and Efficiency at TikTok. My team uses AI to reduce manual work and shorten triage. I have worked across engineering management, infrastructure, payments, compliance, and platform operations.
Engineering and operations
I started programming young with microchips, LEDs, datasheets, and small experiments. I still prefer getting close enough to a problem to see what is actually happening before proposing a fix. My professional work has included:
- TikTok: Site Leader for Server Architecture, OSE Engineering Leader
- PayPal: Engineering management in Consumer In-Store, Digital Commerce, and Compliance
- Singapore Power: DevOps Lead
- Nugit: Senior Engineer
- Earlier roles: software engineering across mobile, web, and platforms
I also helped build developer communities through GeekcampSG and PayPal developer outreach. Moving from software engineering into leadership and operations meant looking beyond the tool itself: who handles the queue, what information they need, and who can make the next decision.
Community work
IAmTalentedSG (2014–2024): David Hoe and I worked together on youth opportunity for much of this period. I contributed technology, operations, events, and photography.
Project Stable Staples (2020): Before the lockdown, friends and I visited families in rental blocks and saw how quickly lost work affected them. I co-founded Project Stable Staples, and we partnered with BLESS to help families waiting for longer-term support. We raised over SGD 160,000, supported more than 600 households, launched a donation portal in under two days, and operated with zero expense ratio. Fundraising, the portal, communications, and volunteer logistics had to work together so support could reach households while longer-term help caught up.
GeekcampSG (2011–2014): I was Lead Organizer and helped grow the developer community.
Lai Yu Hua Bursary: I helped set this up with NUS Computing in my father’s name. He worked so his family would not have to worry about paying for education. After he died, the bursary was one of our first steps toward continuing that legacy. It supports NUS Computing undergraduates who need financial help. The bursary has no grade-point-average cutoff; we did not want to penalise students who had to help their families through financial gaps. NUS bursary.
Lai Yu Hua Kindness Youth Lit Fund: I seeded the fund and set its funding direction. Ray of Hope supports the fund by bringing me opportunities and finding delivery partners. It found 3Pumpkins as a credible partner and connected me with EFI when I wanted to test the concept of Curiosity Credits. The fund has backed personalised support for children at 3Pumpkins’ Tak Takut Kids Club in Boon Lay. I initiated a six-month Curiosity Credits pilot with EFI and Ray of Hope for nine children in November 2025 so they could choose activities to explore. Ray of Hope fund page.
For me, the pilot continues the youth-opportunity work David Hoe and I did through IAmTalentedSG. During the pilot, I noticed that the children generally seemed more engaged, happier and more motivated.
The fund currently funds a PSLE Math ICU programme delivered with 3Pumpkins to help children taking the PSLE pass mathematics.
Recognition
- NUS Outstanding Young Alumni (2021)
- NUS Computing Outstanding Young Alumni
- President’s Volunteerism and Philanthropy Awards, People of Good (2020)
- Singapore Kindness Movement’s Voice of Loving Kindness (2022)
How I work
I start by tracing one real piece of work: where it waits, who checks it, and who makes the recurring decision. Then I separate necessary review from avoidable handoffs and choose a small change to test. In engineering that requires staying close to the technical details; in community work it can mean coordinating logistics, communications, fundraising, and tools.
为无为，则无不治. A useful system leaves room for judgment.