Wei Gao

Experience

BlackRock: Vice President, Senior Software Engineer

June 2022 - Present Singapore

Highlights

As part of BlackRock's Aladdin Wealth Tech, I build the front-end of a complex finance application suite for our clients.

• Lead engineer for a feature pillar: As front end lead of my feature, I help drive product development, suggest best practices in delivering web applications, and clarify technical features and constraints to ensure that the tech designs are feasible across domains. I coordinate sprint planning and technical discussions while being one of the main developers on the project.
• Senior engineer across pillars: As a senior engineer I work on features across our application and am an active owner of our codebase by contribution and code review. When working on a feature, I try to understand the motivation and the contexts behind the asks and use such information to guide my tech choices. When making tech decisions, I prioritize reliability and efficiency in production runtime. And I prefer simple and readable code over “smart” code. I keep my work well-documented to ensure efficiency and transparency in remote and cross time zone collaboration.
• Educate stakeholders: I periodically conduct topics sharing on web technologies, their features and limitations. Help designers understand web browsers as their “design material”.
• Foster learning spirits: I host our weekly Studies sessions across multiple teams, where engineers come in a casual gathering to share their insights learnt from the past week.

Shopee: Senior Software Engineer

Nov 2016 - June 2022 Singapore

Highlights

As one of the initial members of the WebFE team, I developed the inaugural versions of Shopee's web applications for both PC and mobile. As the team evolved, I also contributed to the team's growth, particularly in fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing. Later as web platform engineer, I work on cross-team projects that are central to Shopee's web front end engineering.

• Browser stats dashboard: Established a Google Analytics dashboard for WebFE team, enabling the team to gain insights into users' web browsing statitics, and to guide decisions on browser support.
• Adopting Shopee PC for tablets: Led a cross-team project to adapt Shopee's PC site for tablets, introducing UI improvements like swipe gestures and accessibility features, while advising Designers and Product Managers on web technology best practices.
• Built Shopee web app from ground up: Built inaugural versions of Shopee's web apps that grew into the app we see today. Worked on both app features and platform tasks as the team grew, and eventually joined Platform Team to focus on common parts of the apps.
• Proud creator of “RK”: Started and co-organized internal sharing series “React Knowledgeable” for our React teams. The series sees 85 occurrences and over 100 talks delivered over two years. It was a beloved casual event for the team every week.

Earlier experiences

Web Developer, Didi June 2015 - Oct 2016, Beijing

Management Trainee, Lenovo Apr 2013 - Apr 2015, Beijing

Lecturer (Part-Time), New Oriental School Sept 2012 - Mar 2014, Beijing

Community Engagements

I'm a committed participant in the local tech scene, focused on promoting knowledge sharing and guiding students in their tech career pursuits.

• UWS STEM Fest 2023 Nov 2023

  Joined as panelist to share my experience as a Senior Software Engineer at BlackRock.

• CS 3216 Guest Speaker Oct 2023

  Personal sharing “Key Moments” on my journey as a software engineer.

• NUS Hack’n’Roll 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

  Joined as judge.

• JSConf China Oct 2019

  Keynote speaker of day 2, giving talk “Learn as I Write the Docs”

• Various meetups, conferences 2018-2019

  Gave talks/workshops/lightning talks in various events such as SingaporeCSS, SingaporeJS, JuniorDevSG events, JSConf Budapest, etc.