AJ — Zin Kyaw Kyaw

Lead Software Engineer at SEAD · Bangkok · Open to lead roles

Hi, I'm AJ. I build the backends other people build on.

Eight years shipping web services at scale in Node.js, Go and PHP — payment SDKs, print pipelines, real-time delivery systems. I like owning a project end to end, keeping the architecture honest, and helping the people around me get better at this.

Zin Kyaw Kyaw

Selected work

Building now

Two products of my own, designed and engineered end to end.

Shop AShop BShop C
Inventory
Linen shirt · M42
Cotton tee · L7 low
Canvas tote128
Denim jacket3 low
theme: minimalstripepromptpayomise
Storefront● live
#1042 packed → shipped฿890
Own product · 2024 — nowFounder & sole engineer

Multi-shop POS & online store

A point-of-sale platform I'm building on my own: inventory, order tracking and a customisable online store per shop, with an extension system for themes and payment gateways.

1 → manyshops on one platform, each with its own storefront
  • Inventory
  • Online store
  • Themes
  • Payment gateways
  • Order tracking
  • Multi-shop
something spicy, no peanuts, under ฿200
3 matches
Green curry · chicken
฿160
Tom yum · prawn
฿180
Basil stir-fry
฿140
Table 7
scan to order
Order #218 · Table 7฿480
Received
Cooking12 min
Ready
Served
KitchenBarService
Own product · 2025 — nowFounder & sole engineer

Restaurant management with QR ordering

Guests scan a table code and order from their phone; the kitchen moves each order through defined steps. Menu search is AI-driven — plain-language prompts like "spicy, no peanuts, under ฿200" instead of filters.

Scan → servedevery order tracked step by step, no waiter needed to take it
  • QR ordering
  • Order steps
  • AI menu search
  • Kitchen display
  • Multi-station

Shipped for clients

Four systems, each still in production.

PDF/X-4
CMYK · 300 dpi
● 10,412
this month
SEAD · 2023 — nowLead Software Engineer

Print-ready PDF pipeline

A production PDF engine for a German print partner, compliant with PDF/X-4 — colour profiles, output intents, the lot. I architected it and lead the five-person team that runs it.

10,000+documents rendered every month
  • Node.js
  • TypeScript
  • pdf-lib
  • React
  • AWS
  • Docker
Plugins
WooCommercev3.8
Shopifyv2.1
Magentov4.0
PHP SDKv5.2
Checkout฿1,290.00
Pay now
latency640ms 6ms
Omise · 2022 — 2023Software Engineer

Payment SDKs for six platforms

Owned the WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, PHP, Node.js and Go integrations for a Southeast-Asian payment gateway, and rebuilt the caching and query layer underneath them.

−98%API latency, 500ms–1s down to 2–10ms
  • Go
  • PHP
  • Node.js
  • Redis
  • WooCommerce
  • Shopify
Order #48211
driver 2 min away
● live · socket
512 connections
1,084 orders today
Develop Now / Hungry Now · 2021 — 2022Senior Backend Developer

Real-time food delivery backend

Built and scaled the platform behind a Bangkok delivery service: 20+ REST APIs for web and mobile, plus live driver location over Socket.IO.

1,000+orders a day, 500+ drivers tracked concurrently
  • Laravel
  • Node.js
  • Socket.IO
  • MySQL
Orders in production5,214
BF-20-07731
cutting → sewing ✓
Befeni GmbH · 2019 — 2020PHP Developer

Garment production system

Full-stack production management for a made-to-measure shirt maker, with mail and payment modules and a Cordova barcode app used daily on the factory floor.

−30%order-to-delivery time across 5,000+ orders
  • Laravel
  • Vue.js
  • MySQL
  • Cordova

Eight years, six teams

Each block is drawn to the real length of the job.

  • Nov 2023
    Present

    Lead Software Engineer

    Southeast Asia Development Corp. (SEAD) · Hong Kong

    Development partner of SB Entwicklung GmbH. Lead a 5-person team delivering end-to-end software on time with agile methods; 100+ code reviews and pair-programming sessions.

  • Jul 2022
    Oct 2023

    Software Engineer

    Omise · Bangkok

    Owned 6+ payment SDKs and plugins; cut API latency 98%; shipped merchant-facing interfaces that reduced integration time by 40%.

  • Nov 2021
    Jun 2022

    Senior Backend Developer

    Develop Now / Hungry Now · Bangkok

    Food-delivery backend serving 1,000+ daily orders; 20+ RESTful APIs; real-time driver tracking for 500+ concurrent connections.

  • Dec 2020
    Sep 2021

    Senior Full Stack Developer

    BuzzTags · Bangkok

    Ran a real-estate platform producing white-label sites for partners; led a team of 3 through end-to-end delivery.

  • Aug 2019
    Nov 2020

    Mid PHP Developer

    Befeni GmbH · Bangkok

    Production management system tracking 5,000+ garment orders; Cordova barcode app for 50+ factory staff.

  • Mar 2018
    Aug 2019

    Junior PHP Developer

    TR Cloud · Bangkok

    Cloud accounting system for 200+ business clients; shipped 30+ features and resolved 100+ bugs under tight deadlines.

Open source

Things I maintain or contributed to on GitHub.

How I work

What the last eight years turned into habits.

  • Reliability over cleverness

    Retries, queues and fallbacks around every third-party API. Fewer incidents, less 3 a.m. recovery work.

  • Measure before optimising

    Monitoring, logging and alerts first — then indexing, caching and API redesign where the numbers point.

  • Quality gates in the PR

    Unit, integration, E2E, linting and deploy checks run before a human looks. Reviews stay about design.

  • Fast with AI, strict on review

    Claude Code and Cursor daily to move quicker — with the architecture bar and code review unchanged.

  • Legacy without downtime

    Rework old systems in place — production keeps running while the debt comes down.

  • Grow the people

    Pairing, reviews and standards that let junior developers ship confidently — and product, design and QA speak the same language.

Toolbox

  • Backend

    • Node.js
    • PHP
    • Go
    • Rust
    • Dart
    • Laravel
    • TypeScript
  • Frontend

    • JavaScript
    • Vue
    • React
    • Nuxt
    • Tailwind
    • Flutter
    • Figma
  • Data

    • MySQL
    • PostgreSQL
    • MongoDB
    • Redis
  • Cloud & delivery

    • Docker
    • GitHub Actions
    • AWS
    • Azure
    • GCP
    • Cypress
    • Playwright
  • AI-assisted development

    • Claude Code
    • Cursor
    • Copilot
    • Codex

Education

Bachelor of Electronic Engineering

TU Myitkyina, Myanmar · 2016

Languages

  • Burmese native
  • English fluent
  • Hindi intermediate

Let's build something that lasts.

Open to senior and lead engineering roles, remote or in Bangkok.

Build with purpose. Engineer with precision.

Zin Kyaw Kyaw · Bangkok, Thailand