Kawai Wong

Senior Backend Engineer with 10+ years of experience building distributed systems, Public API platforms, internal developer tooling, and cloud-native infrastructure across AWS and Azure. I specialize in designing and scaling backend platforms, enabling safe and progressive delivery, and improving system reliability through observability and robust rollout patterns. I’ve led large-scale API migrations, built authorization and integration systems, introduced OpenTelemetry tracing across platforms, and improved deployment times by over 70%. Passionate about building tooling that empowers teams to ship quickly, safely, and confidently.

Key Achievements

Contributed and led the development of next-gen Public API platform to enhance customer stickiness through integration
Improved CI/CD throughput of new API endpoints by 70%, reducing deployment time from hours to minutes and significantly accelerating engineering delivery
Introduced distributed tracing via OpenTelemetry across microservices and Lambda functions, improving bottleneck detection and reducing API latency
Led migration of monolithic integration features into domain‑focused microservices, increasing system resilience and reducing lead time for new integrations
Built a new OAuth2 authorization server supporting code and client credentials flows, improving security and modernizing the API identity stack
Established containerization strategy across teams, enabling consistent Docker/Kubernetes usage and improving operational reliability

Key Skills

Professional Experience

Pushpay

Senior Software Development Engineer 2 Apr 2025 — Current

Member of the team responsible for the Public API and integrations platform, enabling safe and predictable delivery of API changes across all customers
Involved with the longer-term engineering strategy for Pushpay's next generation Public API such as REST API standards (naming, version control etc)
Led the introduction of spec driven development via Open API and leveraging code generation for API endpoints to speed up development
Oversee and plan migration and safe rollout of new versions of existing API endpoints
Drive technical design for projects features within the API and integrations domain

Senior Software Development Engineer Dec 2021 — Mar 2025

Led development of the next-gen Public API platform, improving build/deployment times by 70% from hours to minutes and enabling faster iteration
Co‑developed a modern OAuth2 authorization server supporting OAuth2 code and client credentials flows
Led the adoption of Open Telemetry for microservices and lambda functions which helped improve API response times and bottlenecks
Migrated critical integration features from a monolith to isolated microservices, improving reliability and delivery speed
Built and enhanced integrations for payment, transaction, and customer sync with external vendor APIs
Improved the developer experience via Docker tooling, local dev environments, and internal scripts
Collaborated with teams using feature flagging and staged rollouts to ensure safe, controlled delivery of backend changes

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare

Senior Software Engineer May 2021 — Nov 2021

Member of the IoT backend services team responsible for device data uploads and IoT infrastructure microservices
Involved with and contributed towards the design of future system architecture and strategy
Contributed to future architecture strategy focused on containerization and scalable cloud patterns
Set up Kubernetes/Docker usage standards and migrated services to container‑based deployments
Mentor junior members on best practices of software design and architecture
Worked closely with firmware teams to design reliable over‑the‑air update and device communication flows

Solutions Developer January 2018 — April 2021

Built Platform libraries and internal tooling to improve engineering productivity
Developed a CoAP protocol parser (UDP & TCP) and contributed to in‑house IoT communication protocols
Designed and developed microservices enabling next‑gen over‑the‑air firmware solutions
Co-developed a dynamic Protobuf serializer/deserializer library
Contributed to mobile app development (React Native, iOS) including rewriting major user registration workflows
Supported medical device design controls and ISO27001 requirements

Datacom

Software Developer (ASB Bank) February 2015 — December 2017

Designed and developed REST microservices for ASB's CRM platform, supporting home loan origination and customer onboarding
Served as a lead developer and SME across multiple enterprise projects
Delivered critical compliance and regulatory changes on time for Reserve Bank deadlines
Built automation POCs using SpecFlow to improve testing efficiency
Contributed to enterprise-scale upgrade projects for ASB's CRM system

ACIT

Junior Developer November 2012 — November 2014

Researched and developed an antenatal growth chart generator to integrate with the existing maternity management software
Built user interfaces for workflow management solutions and introduced a windows metro style design to new projects
Develop and maintain customized workflow management software for various small to medium businesses
Performed data migration exercises when integrating or migrating from legacy systems
Worked with clients to troubleshoot and diagnose issues

Hansen Technologies

Student Intern March 2013 — October 2013

Performed feasibility studies and investigations on various solutions such as Oracle OLAP, Pentaho Mondrian, Palo
Researched various OLAP implementations: MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP
Performed ETL based on sample data sets from Hansen's CISs (Customer Information System)
Developed a proof of concept solution consists of pivot tables, reports and dashboards

Senior Backend / Platform Software Engineer