Director Of Engineering (Travel, Authorizations, TransferConnect & Business Ops)

• Nov 2020 - Present

TransferConnect & Authorizations platform director. I build teams that help to scale our business growth, operations, including support & oversight for our Admin Panel & Banking Operations teams to support our end users globally.Solutioning with our bank partners & vendors the data, system & process flows. Bank-grade authorizations & security implementations (think interbank JWE & token exchange processes). Engage our partners to design secure, seamless user experiences for our customers in a distributed environment.Architecting our internal services to be highly scalable and flexible to launching new products. Example situations includes the ability to process tens of billions of points for our global network annually and systems that can support thousands distributed client sessions at any point in time.Major clients include ANZ, Bank of New Zealand, Virgin Money, AMEX Korea & Star Alliance. I mature teams, processes & platforms from the ground up to scale for the kind of loads that Ascenda handles for our partners globally. This includes areas like technical & security architecture for our ecosystems & solutions that meet today's legal & privacy concerns (think AU & China Data Privacy regulations, PCI Compliance etc.)Represent some of the company's BD efforts at premier Fintech events like Money 20/20 in the US (2021, 2022 editions)Since Jan '23, I take on the additional portfolios of Hotels, Flights & Digital Merchandise delivery for the Company.

Lead Engineer

• Mar 2019 - Nov 2020

Building up new teams to support our end to end loyalty platform launches. Leading our TransferConnect platform, building out our banking Authorizations and Admin Panel platformsWork with partners to support the launch of new Travel cards and Transfer programs by connecting them to our network. This includes client delivery planning, solutioning, and release support processes for the end-to-end launch processBuild out the internal operations processes in conjunction with our Accounts & CS teams to provide timely support to our end users (typical servicing turnaround is < 1 business day)Major clients include ICBC, CTBC, JD.com, Fliggy (Alibaba) in China, Capital One, BREX (USA), First Abu Dhabi Bank (UAE) and rollout of transfer networks for Standard Chartered bank in 11 markets globally

Senior Engineer

• Mar 2018 - Mar 2019

TransferConnect LeadLeading a team of engineers responsible for our currency network powering hundreds of partnerships globally, giving banks & airlines alike the agility to grow rewards programs simpler & faster than ever. - Technical guidance & mentorship to engineers for designing projects that deliver features in an agile & flexible manner- Product, Operations & Customer Service guidance for consistent upgrades and improvements for clients to ensure year-on-year value building (e.g. Customised transfer campaigns at scale for all clients, fraud mechanisms)- Work with Client engineering & product leads to build scalable integrations that ensure our systems are extremely flexible in supporting future product upgrades for end-users (with minimal impact & change for clients)- Grew our initial network into a multi-app setup that's globally performant & supports rapid partner & launch for the business across all major continents- Develop our China & Korea linked systems to meet localised client needs (partners include Shanghai Pudong, ICBC & Ping An Bank in China; KEB Hana & SamsungCard in Korea)

Software Engineer

• May 2015 - Apr 2018

Full stack development in both the operational and product development aspects of the business. These efforts are central to expanding our service offerings to more markets, better customizing our offerings to customer preferences and enable the company to enhance partner relationships by increasing our variety of service offerings to different types of online travel purchases. Features of work done in our product include:- Building demos and white labels supporting new partner acquisition efforts- Frontend work to improve consumer experience on our site (e.g. transitioning to a fully mobile responsive site. SME product development etc.)- Backend work to improve site performance, expand our data aggregation & improve payments capabilities etc.- Integration of back-end system with different product partners, working with their respective technical personnel (e.g. SIA, Qatar Airways, Saudia etc)

Software Engineer Intern

• Dec 2014 - May 2015

Frontend & backend development supporting the launch of our consumer facing Kaligo.com site- Built our initial voucher redemptions functionality- Building dedicated landing pages for partner specific launches & benefits. Improved templating for quicker turnaround - Basic dashboard for tracking partner sales performance- Actively developed initial component for enabling loyalty transfers for hotel bookings (e.g. Avios, AirAsia)- Acquired experience in Angular & RailsWorking with very talented and experienced colleagues hailing from diverse backgrounds globally (American Express, Microsoft, Loblaw, Connexions etc.)

Research Assistant

• Jun 2014 - May 2016

Technology Risk Management Working with Prof Enoch Chng on building a compendium of the best practices in technology risk management for financial institutions. Topics include security protocols and frameworks for enterprises such as security in credit card and ePayment solutions. Gamification in classroom learning environments Working with Prof Kyong Shim to build, implement and analyse a platform for e-learning and facilitating in-class exercises. The objective is to study, summarize student performances and identify gaps in the learning process that can be remedied. Summarization of Software Projects for Organizations Working with Prof Swapna Gottipati on text mining techniques for studying the unstructured textual environment of organizational software repositories. The application of summarization is in identifying the knowledge evolution of projects, technologies and people within the organization to match the best qualified personnel to an incoming project. Search and textual analysis is heavily used in this system

Final Year Project: Spatial Developer

• Aug 2013 - Apr 2014

- A.C. Nielsen Singapore Innovation & Measurement Sciences Team, Indonesia Measurement Sciences & Data Acquisition Team - Developed offline capable mapping features for operationalizing the data collection in urban and rural regions. Memory management of data on client side to fulfil operational needs. - Visualization of data acquired ‘live’. On-demand analysis and validation of data with feedback looped back to field operations. Flexible attribution of content for validation and processing - Check out my personal site for an edited (privacy) screenshot of the system I've worked on with them

Data Analytics Intern

• Apr 2013 - Jul 2013

Undergraduate/ Teaching Assistant

• Aug 2011 - Apr 2012

Information Systems (second major in Business Intelligence and Analytics related fields) - Courses: IS201 (Object Oriented Application Development), IS200 (Software Foundations) and SL110 (Fundamentals of Java) - Responsible for identifying areas of improvement and analysing student learning profile - Conduct consultation sessions, where relevant for students and assist with their progress follow-up - Conduct supplementary classes reviewing past coursework and lab work - Involved in a student mentorship programme catered to students and assisted them in achieving the course objectives and knowledge Project Make A Difference 6 (Overseas Community Service Project; Zunyi,China) Creative Director - 9th SISS Management Committee

Research Assistant

• Nov 2007 - Dec 2007

Mentored on the research applications of bioengineering and nanotechnology. Worked on a project entitled “Synthesis & Characterization of Polyelectrolyte Complex Fibres”; The study of accelerated regeneration of cell tissue. Represented IBN at the A*Star internship closing ceremony. Learnt about the patience and technical rigour required to conduct studies in a secure environment for utmost accuracy Mentored on the research applications of bioengineering and nanotechnology. Worked on a project entitled “Synthesis & Characterization of Polyelectrolyte Complex Fibres”; The study of accelerated regeneration of cell tissue. Represented IBN at the A*Star internship closing ceremony. Learnt about the patience and technical rigour required to conduct studies in a secure environment for utmost accuracy