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 career has taken me from mobile and payments engineering into infrastructure, reliability, and leading teams.
At TikTok, I moved from building the initial reliability team in 2022 to leading engineering and operational platforms. My appointment to lead the Cost and Performance team in Singapore began in August 2026. Before that, I led Operational Support and Efficiency, following earlier reliability leadership roles.
Making platforms useful to their users
Across my previous reliability and operations roles, I took over under-adopted platforms as part of a reorganisation. For an inherited monitoring platform, I repositioned the offering and redesigned user flows. It helped engineers configure monitoring and keep configurations aligned across regions. Adoption expanded from within Server Architecture to 33 engineering teams across TikTok within a year of the July 2025 takeover.
Another inherited platform handled alarm response, while a separate database recorded which teams owned services. I connected their use cases into one workflow and improved onboarding. The alarm-response workflow gave teams a practical reason to keep ownership records up to date, making it easier to find the team responsible for a service. Adoption of both platforms together grew from one engineering team to 11 by the time of the reorganisation.
In my earlier Singapore reliability remit, I led development of a capacity-inspection platform that reduced the time needed to identify capacity-related risks by more than 80%. Development teams could use it to manage those risks proactively.
Leading teams and a growing site
The Singapore Server Architecture site grew from 6 to more than 50 engineers and 5 leaders under my site leadership. I built the local leadership layer and operating routines, including onboarding, feedback loops, and leadership training. Separately, my largest directly managed organisation comprised 20 people across three countries, with four team leads. Site leadership also meant supporting teams whose direct leaders were elsewhere.
Earlier engineering experience
At PayPal, I worked in software engineering and later as Manager, Software Development across Compliance Engineering, Consumer In-Store and Digital Commerce, and Digital Wallet Infra. In the Consumer In-Store and Digital Commerce role, I led reliability and latency work. Profiling, isolating bottlenecks, and coordinating fixes across services and dependencies reduced iOS P99 latency by nearly 60%: an improvement in the slow end of the response-time distribution.
At SP Group, Singapore’s grid operator, I was Digital Infra Lead. I managed five engineers and designed controls that enabled DevOps adoption while satisfying audit requirements, working with infrastructure and security teams in a regulated environment. Earlier roles included Senior Engineer at Nugit and software engineering at BillPin.
I also helped build developer communities through GeekcampSG and PayPal developer outreach.
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 passed away, 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.