Daniel Chong, PhD
GMT+12
Senior full-stack engineer — mobile, web, and backend. I ship fast and take ownership: leading migrations, solo framework upgrades, and incident postmortems. I improve the systems around the code — release pipelines, CI gates, design handoff — not just the code itself. AI-assisted development is how I work. Fully remote for the past 6 years.
Work experience
Senior React Native Engineer (Contract)
Clearpoint, Auckland, NZ — for Meridian Energy & Powershop
Oct 2025 - Sep 2026
● Senior engineer on the Meridian Energy and Powershop apps. React Native/Expo + React web, ~200K customers, billing domain.
● Led the phased Billing Trigger GraphQL migration. Preserved Power Organiser, the core savings/usage feature.
● Moved the Power Organiser calculation engine to the backend. Frontend now consumes one source of truth.
● Solo-delivered the Expo 52 → 54 upgrade. 51K lines in two weeks.
● Built the OTA update system on EAS Update. Then proposed a biweekly native release cadence after 1,000+ support emails from stale builds.
● Built a Figma → JSON design-token pipeline. Added CI quality gates. Owned a customer-outage postmortem.
Senior Software Engineer (Contract)
Soul Machines, Auckland, NZ
Oct 2024 - Jul 2025
● Built Workforce Connect — a platform for AI digital humans with Salesforce and Zapier integrations.
● Led the Agent Editor. Live in-call editing and testing of digital-human behavior. Fixed a top drop-off point.
● Integrated the OpenAI Agent SDK for context-aware behavior.
● Shipped full-stack React + Supabase + Python.
● Introduced AI-assisted workflows: Cursor, Opencode, Bugbot.
Contract Senior Frontend Engineer
Rush Digital, Auckland, NZ
Apr 2024 - Oct 2024
● Deliver website and mobile application with a tight deadline
● React TypeScript app with CapacitorJS
● Cypress end-to-end testing & Unit testing
Senior Software Engineer, Full Stack + Mobile
Veho, New York, USA
Jun 2021 - Jan 2024
● System migration from monolithic to event-based microservices
● Continuous development of driver mobile application serving 10,000 daily drivers
● Add observability to the app and services to identify issues
● On-call to help solve production issues in real time
● Build multiple proof of concepts for step function improvements
● Process improvement including supporting design teams' work
● Created a returns website for consumers to book returns pick up
● Continuous development of driver mobile application
Software Engineer
Private Chef Club, San Francisco, USA
Oct 2020 - Apr 2021
● Created front-end marketplace web application in React.JS
● GraphQL API design
Interview Engineer
Karat, Seattle, USA
Aug 2019 - Oct 2025
● Conducted over 500 technical interviews with live coding
● Provide a comfortable environment for candidates and help them
Front End & Game Developer
CerebralFix, Christchurch, New Zealand
Aug 2017 - Oct 2020
● Led greenfield React Native projects ● Porting to progressive web app (PWA) ● Game development ● Introduce and educate Automated Testing company-wide
Technical Co-Founder
Smish, Christchurch, New Zealand
Jul 2016 - Jul 2017
● React Native mobile app with custom GraphQL backend
Independent iOS Developer
Anywhere
Oct 2009 - Jun 2016
Develope iOS applications for App Store publication and as contractor
Portfolio
Meridian & Powershop
React Native/Expo + web apps for ~200K NZ electricity customers
Soul Machines Workforce
Digital Avatar customization tool for enterprise
FarmlandsPro
E-commerce solution for enterprise
Veho Returns website
10K weekly booking scheduled
Veho Driver Mobile App
10K daily active driver
Bubble Tag
COVID QR scanning
b spot
Real money gambling mobile application
Personal Projects
Side projects I design, build, and ship end-to-end.
AI meal-planning agent SaaS — per-user stateful agents on Cloudflare Durable Objects.
Automated career-brag-sheet agent — turns weekly work wins into interview-ready stories.
Blog, on purpose
Long-form writing and a YouTube channel exploring how I use AI agents to ship real products.
Short videos on building AI agents, shipping personal SaaS, and the workflows behind MealAlchemist and brag-sheet.com. Subscribe for new drops — usually weekly.
Watch on YouTubePrefer text? Start here:
Read the blog →Education
PhD in Medical Physics
Universität Bern, Switzerland
2006 - 2009
Bachelor & Master of Science in Physics
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
2001 - 2006