District 01 · Downtown · Toronto

LucasChen

Software EngineerZynga AdTech

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.

Corporate plaza GitHub LinkedIn

District · Experience

Corporate Plaza

6 tenants since 2021, newest on the top floor. The current job is the lit one; the badge is the pass for it.

Floor06
Zynga
Software Engineer
Current tenant
Toronto, ONMay 2025 – Present
- 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.
Floor05
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence
Full Stack Engineering Intern
Internship
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
Floor04
McMaster University
Teaching Assistant
Teaching
Hamilton, ONSep 2022 – Apr 2023
- 1P13 Integrated Engineering Project (Sep–Dec 2022).
- 2GA3 Computer Architecture (Jan–Apr 2023).
Floor03
Exchange Solutions
Software Engineering Intern
Internship
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
Floor02
McMaster Artificial Intelligence Society
AI Research Member
Research
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
Floor01
InsideDesk
Software Engineering Intern
Internship
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

District · Impact

Arcade Strip

3 results at Zynga AdTech, 2 of them designed and led by Lucas. Each one gets a billboard.

Designed & led
Ad-config MCP
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.
- AI
- MCP
- AdTech
- Leadership
Worked on it
LiveOps agent
I worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a workflow from 2–3 hours to about 20 minutes.
- AI agents
- LiveOps
- Automation
Time to complete one LiveOps workflow
Before: 2–3 hAfter: ~20 min
Designed & led
High-value ads
I designed and led a project that helps games identify high-value ads.
- AdTech
- Leadership

District · Projects

The Market

10 stalls since 2022; 5 on the main street, the rest down the side alley. Walk in: every sign is a link to the real thing.

Stall 01 · Tool · 2026
Agent Platform
A control plane for safely delegating software work to autonomous coding agents.
Open
Aug 2026 – present
Run by
Solo: spec, design and CLI (in progress)
- 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.
TypeScriptNode.jsJSON Schema (Ajv)CommanderYAML
Step inside →GitHub ↗
Stall 02 · Product · 2026
TennisBooker
Books tennis and pickleball courts the moment booking opens, every morning.
Open
2023 – present
Run by
Solo, full-stack (2023 version with help from Douglas Chen)
- 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.
TypeScriptPlaywrightReactExpressPostgreSQLAuth0Docker
Step inside →GitHub (2023 version) ↗
Stall 03 · Product · 2024
PlatefulAI
Mobile meal planner: pick meals, get a grocery list, track calories and protein.
Open
Nov – Dec 2024
Run by
Team of 5: app shell, Auth0 login, meal-planning flow, deploy
- 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).
ReactViteMUIAuth0Chart.jsVercel
Step inside →Live demo ↗
Stall 07 · Product · 2023
CarpoolX
Android app that matches riders headed the same way so they can share a taxi.
Open
Mar – Apr 2023
Run by
Team of 4: repo lead, most of the Flask backend and auth, core screens
- 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).
React NativePythonFlaskFirebaseGoogle Maps Platform
Step inside →GitHub ↗
Stall 10 · Hackathon · 2022
Rest Day
A workout planner that schedules rest days, not just workouts. Built at DeltaHacks 8.
Open
Jan 2022
Run by
Team of 2: Fitbit API integration, landing page, deploy
Award
2nd place, “To Work or Not To Workout” sponsor challenge (AI Endurance), DeltaHacks 8
- 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.
ReactFitbit Web APIstyled-componentsNode.jsFigma
Step inside →Devpost ↗GitHub ↗

Side alley5 more stalls

04StudySpotFind a place to study at McMaster: search, filters, ratings, favourites and a map.2024Open ↗
05UnPasswordA password manager built in one day for the MEC 2024 programming challenge.2024Open ↗
06API ResumeMy resume as a REST API: Postman-only, rate-limited, with a joke for anyone who POSTs.2023Step inside →
08Ride HomeMix subway sounds, chatter and lo-fi music into your own TTC ride-home ambience.2022Open ↗
09Summary.ioUpload a lecture video and get an AI transcript to study from. Built at MacHacks 2.2022Open ↗

District · Skills

The Workshop

The bench: one cyberdeck with 6 module bays and 41 tools loaded. Everything on the spec sheet is something that has shipped.

Cyberdeck · spec sheet

Lucas Chen

Role: Software Engineer
Base: Toronto, Canada
Loaded: 41 modules · 6 bays

Slot 018 loaded
Languages
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Python
- Java
- C#
- SQL
- HTML/CSS
- Bash
Slot 026 loaded
Frontend
- React
- React Native
- Next.js
- Vite
- MUI
- TanStack Query
Slot 0311 loaded
Backend & data
- Node.js
- Express
- .NET
- Flask
- Prisma
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Azure Cosmos DB
- Firebase
- DynamoDB
- Swagger
Slot 044 loaded
AI & agents
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Claude Agent SDK
- Claude Code
- Cursor
Slot 054 loaded
Testing & automation
- Playwright
- Vitest
- Jest
- Selenium
Slot 068 loaded
Infra & tooling
- Docker
- Git
- GitHub Actions
- GitLab CI
- Vercel
- AWS (Lambda, S3)
- Auth0
- Azure DevOps

District · Contact

The Rooftop

The line is open from Toronto, Canada. Pick a channel and say hi.

Comms panel · line openDial a channel

Toronto, Canada · rooftop, after dark

← Back downtown Remix this portfolio

Intro	Downtown neon
Experience	Corporate directory
Impact	Neon billboards
Projects	Holo market
Skills	Cyberdeck spec sheet
Contact	Rooftop payphone

LucasChen

Ad-config MCP

LiveOps agent

High-value ads

Languages

Frontend

Backend & data

AI & agents

Testing & automation

Infra & tooling