Mission LC-25 · crew manifest & flight planAll systems go

Lucas Chen

Software Engineer at Zynga (AdTech) · Toronto

Liftoff May 2025Zynga · AdTech1 yr 4 moMission elapsed time

I'm a software engineer on Zynga's AdTech team in Toronto. I designed and led our internal tooling for ad-serving configurations, an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and tools that let AI assistants work with ad-serving configuration, and a project that helps our games identify high-value ads. I also worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a 2–3 hour workflow to about 20 minutes.

Read the flight log GitHub LinkedIn

Crew patch · LC-25

Commander: Lucas ChenSoftware Engineer
Flight: Zynga · AdTechSince May 2025
Home base: Toronto, Canada43.65° N, 79.38° W
Training: McMaster UniversityB.Eng., Software Engineering · 2025
Payloads: 10 deployed5 featured · 6 roles logged

Phase 02 · OrbitLC-25 · Experience

Flight log

Every role since T+0 (Jun 2021, the first day on the job), newest first. The current orbit is at the top.

T+3Y 11MMay 2025 – Present1 yr 4 mo
Zynga
Software Engineer
Current orbit
T+3Y 11M, Toronto, ONMay 2025 – PresentOn orbit 1 yr 4 mo
- Designed and led internal tooling for ad-serving configurations: an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and tools that let AI assistants work with ad-serving configuration.
- Worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a workflow from 2–3 hours to about 20 minutes.
- Designed and led a project that helps games identify high-value ads.
T+1Y 11MMay 2023 – Jun 20241 yr 2 mo
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
Full Stack Engineering Intern
Internship
T+1Y 11M, May 2023 – Jun 2024
- Developed 15+ UI and 10+ API production features for the Nexus Platform, using React and Express with TypeScript.
- Reduced load times for user list pages by 97% by optimizing API calls and refining Express APIs.
- Cut test automation start-up time by up to 98% by parallelizing the Playwright test suite setup.
- Reduced API response time by up to 82% with an Azure Cosmos DB proxy that moved Express APIs to C# .NET database pagination.
TypeScriptReactExpressC#.NETAzure Cosmos DBPlaywright
T+1Y 03MSep 2022 – Apr 20238 mo
McMaster University
Teaching Assistant
Teaching
T+1Y 03M, Hamilton, ONSep 2022 – Apr 2023
- 1P13 Integrated Engineering Project (Sep–Dec 2022).
- 2GA3 Computer Architecture (Jan–Apr 2023).
T+0Y 11MMay 2022 – Aug 20224 mo
Exchange Solutions
Software Engineering Intern
Internship
T+0Y 11M, May 2022 – Aug 2022
- Made e-commerce client onboarding over 10x faster by building AWS Lambda components.
- Led an augmented reality proof of concept for a national loyalty program, built with 8th Wall WebAR and JavaScript.
- Raised a loyalty platform’s user engagement by 4% by integrating it with blockchain assets, using Next.js, Ethereum and the Alchemy API.
- Built a real-time data visualization dashboard (D3.js, Snowflake), improving early error catching and data comparisons by over 10%.
AWS LambdaJavaScriptNext.jsD3.jsSnowflake8th Wall WebARShopify API
T+0Y 04MOct 2021 – 2022
McMaster Artificial Intelligence Society
AI Research Member
Research
T+0Y 04M, Hamilton, ONOct 2021 – 2022
- Worked with a team of four developers on training a humanoid to walk and navigate obstacles in a ragdoll physics simulation.
- Used C# and Unity to train and simulate the humanoid.
C#Unity
T+0Y 00MJun 2021 – Sep 20214 mo
InsideDesk
Software Engineering Intern
Internship
T+0Y 00M, Jun 2021 – Sep 2021
- Found 50+ bugs through QA testing, validated bug fixes, and was the link between clients and the development team.
- Cut manual tasks by over 30% with custom JavaScript Slack bots that automate the customer onboarding notifications.
- Wrote automated end-to-end UI tests with Selenium and Python, cutting manual QA testing by 40%.
JavaScriptPythonSeleniumSlack

Phase 03 · EVALC-25 · Impact

Mission objectives

Extravehicular work at Zynga AdTech: 3 objectives achieved, 2 of them designed and led by Lucas.

OBJ-01Achieved
Ad-config MCP
Crew roleMission lead · designed & led
I designed and led internal tooling for ad-serving configurations at Zynga: a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and tools that let AI assistants work with ad-serving configuration.
AIMCPAdTechLeadership
OBJ-02Achieved
LiveOps agent
Crew roleCrew · worked on it
I worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a workflow from 2–3 hours to about 20 minutes.
Telemetry · Time to complete one LiveOps workflow
Before2–3 h
After~20 min
AI agentsLiveOpsAutomation
OBJ-03Achieved
High-value ads
Crew roleMission lead · designed & led
I designed and led a project that helps games identify high-value ads.
AdTechLeadership

Phase 04 · PayloadsLC-25 · Projects

Payloads deployed

10 projects put into orbit since 2022; 5 featured below, the rest in the deployment manifest.

PL-01Tool · deployed 2026
Agent Platform
A control plane for safely delegating software work to autonomous coding agents.
Orbit
Aug 2026 – present
Crew
Solo: spec, design and CLI (in progress)
Instruments
TypeScriptNode.jsJSON Schema (Ajv)CommanderYAML
- Wrote the v3 spec: missions, workflow templates, task and role contracts, review gates, model routing, memory and fleet security.
- Built the “agent” control-plane CLI in TypeScript: it scaffolds a target repo, validates artifacts against JSON Schemas and runs the claim → start → submit → gate loop.
- Workers never certify their own work: a task passes only with an evidence bundle, independent verification, and spec, quality and architecture review.
- Routes each task by risk to a capability tier (frontier, strong, mid, cheap), mapped to models by policy instead of hard-coded vendors.
Mission report →GitHub ↗
PL-02Product · deployed 2026
TennisBooker
Books tennis and pickleball courts the moment booking opens, every morning.
Orbit
2023 – present
Crew
Solo, full-stack (2023 version with help from Douglas Chen)
Instruments
TypeScriptPlaywrightReactExpressPostgreSQLAuth0Docker
- The bot logs in at 7:25, builds every reservation, then fires at exactly 7:30 a.m. ET for courts 7 days out, falls back to backup courts and texts results via Twilio.
- TypeScript monorepo (Turborepo): Express + Prisma/PostgreSQL API with Auth0 roles and machine-to-machine tokens for the bot, and a React, MUI and TanStack Query web app.
- Runs in Docker on a Raspberry Pi: CI builds multi-arch images to GHCR, deploys go staging → smoke test → promote with one-command rollback, and Vitest and Playwright suites cover the code.
- Began in 2023 as “Alfred”: a Playwright bot on a cron-scheduled GitLab pipeline, with a React and Express app, Firebase and multi-user Auth0 login, used by 2 clients. In Aug 2026 the bot moved to the booking platform’s new GraphQL API.
Mission report →GitHub (2023 version) ↗
PL-03Product · deployed 2024
PlatefulAI
Mobile meal planner: pick meals, get a grocery list, track calories and protein.
Orbit
Nov – Dec 2024
Crew
Team of 5: app shell, Auth0 login, meal-planning flow, deploy
Instruments
ReactViteMUIAuth0Chart.jsVercel
- Set up the React + Vite app with Auth0 login, the start and home screens and bottom-tab navigation, and deployed it on Vercel.
- Built the meal-planning flow: favourites, filtering out meals that clash with saved allergies and diets, a meal-details view, and meal and serving selection.
- Teammates built the grocery list and meal data (Mohammad Mohsin Khan), the calorie and protein tracker (Wajdan Faheem), and profile and target settings (Jasmine Sun-Hu).
Mission report →Live demo ↗
PL-07Product · deployed 2023
CarpoolX
Android app that matches riders headed the same way so they can share a taxi.
Orbit
Mar – Apr 2023
Crew
Team of 4: repo lead, most of the Flask backend and auth, core screens
Instruments
React NativePythonFlaskFirebaseGoogle Maps Platform
- Led the repo: scaffold, navigation and a feature-branch workflow. Merged all 38 pull requests that landed and wrote 119 of 156 commits.
- Wrote most of the MVC Flask backend: multi-user Firebase Auth sign-in, tokens kept in the Android Keystore, token-checked endpoints, and the controller and model layers.
- Built login and registration, the profile, taxi verification by door code, taxi details and passenger reports.
- Teammates built ride requests and matching with Google Maps routes and fare estimates (Henushan Bala), end-of-ride ratings (Rafeed Iqbal) and private group rides (Allison Cook).
Mission report →GitHub ↗
PL-10Hackathon · deployed 2022
Rest Day
A workout planner that schedules rest days, not just workouts. Built at DeltaHacks 8.
Orbit
Jan 2022
Crew
Team of 2: Fitbit API integration, landing page, deploy
Commendation
2nd place, “To Work or Not To Workout” sponsor challenge (AI Endurance), DeltaHacks 8
Instruments
ReactFitbit Web APIstyled-componentsNode.jsFigma
- Wrote the Fitbit Web API client, which pulls 7-day sleep and activity logs and heart-rate data (a standalone Node script, not yet wired into the UI).
- Built the navigation bar and landing page with styled-components, plus the routes for the other pages.
- Merged the feature branches, deployed the React app to GitHub Pages, and wrote the README and Devpost story.
- Willie Pai built the weekly schedule view and the exercise GIFs.
Mission report →Devpost ↗GitHub ↗

Deployment manifest5 more payloads

PL-04StudySpotFind a place to study at McMaster: search, filters, ratings, favourites and a map.Product · Nov 2024Live demo ↗
PL-05UnPasswordA password manager built in one day for the MEC 2024 programming challenge.Hackathon · Nov 2024GitHub ↗
PL-06API ResumeMy resume as a REST API: Postman-only, rate-limited, with a joke for anyone who POSTs.Experiment · Oct 2023Mission report →
PL-08Ride HomeMix subway sounds, chatter and lo-fi music into your own TTC ride-home ambience.Experiment · Jun 2022Live ↗
PL-09Summary.ioUpload a lecture video and get an AI transcript to study from. Built at MacHacks 2.Hackathon · Jan 2022Devpost ↗

Phase 05 · SystemsLC-25 · Skills

Systems check

The go / no-go poll: every console that flies on this mission, and the instruments on it.

01Languages
TypeScriptJavaScriptPythonJavaC#SQLHTML/CSSBash
GO
02Frontend
ReactReact NativeNext.jsViteMUITanStack Query
GO
03Backend & data
Node.jsExpress.NETFlaskPrismaPostgreSQLMongoDBAzure Cosmos DBFirebaseDynamoDBSwagger
GO
04AI & agents
Model Context Protocol (MCP)Claude Agent SDKClaude CodeCursor
GO
05Testing & automation
PlaywrightVitestJestSelenium
GO
06Infra & tooling
DockerGitGitHub ActionsGitLab CIVercelAWS (Lambda, S3)Auth0Azure DevOps
GO

Training record

B.Eng., Software Engineering (Co-op)McMaster University · 2020–2025Dean's Honour List (2020–2023) · McMaster Honour Award (2020–2023) · Courses: System Design, Data Structures and Algorithms, OOP, Software Design, Databases

All systems go6 of 6 consoles report go

Phase 06 · SplashdownLC-25 · Contact

Houston, come in

Splashdown in Toronto, Canada. The channels are open: pick one and Lucas will pick up.

Comms panel · LC-25Line open

Recovery zone · Toronto, Canada · 43.65° N 79.38° W

↺ Back to launch Plan another mission (remix this portfolio)

Intro	Mission patch
Experience	Flight log
Impact	Mission objectives
Projects	Payloads deployed
Skills	Systems check
Contact	Splashdown

Lucas Chen

Ad-config MCP

LiveOps agent

High-value ads

Agent Platform

TennisBooker

PlatefulAI

CarpoolX

Rest Day