Summary!Lucas Chen

Software Engineer on Zynga AdTech in Toronto. This is Lucas’s portfolio as a spreadsheet: six sheets along the bottom, real tables, and a formula behind every cell. Click one and see.

Profile: one field per row
	A	B
	Field	Value
	Name	Lucas Chen
	Role	Software Engineer
	Team	Zynga AdTech
	Since	May 2025
	Based in	Toronto, Canada
	Summary	Software engineer building AI tooling and ad tech at Zynga.
	Education	B.Eng., Software Engineering (Co-op), McMaster University (2020–2025)
	About	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.
	Off the clock	Outside work, I automate things I'd rather not do by hand. My longest-running side project started in 2023 as a Playwright script that booked my parents' tennis courts the moment booking opened; it's now a TypeScript monorepo with a web app, an API and a bot that runs every morning on a Raspberry Pi. Right now I'm building a platform for delegating software work to coding agents, where results have to be verified independently instead of taken on the agent's word.
	Along the way	I studied Software Engineering (Co-op) at McMaster University. Along the way I interned at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, Exchange Solutions and InsideDesk, was a teaching assistant for two engineering courses, and built projects at DeltaHacks, MacHacks and MEC.
	LinkedIn	linkedin.com/in/lucasichen
	GitHub	github.com/lucasichen
	Résumé	lucasichen.me/resume

=COUNTA(A2:A14) → 13 fields. Frozen: row 1.

Roles!Where I’ve worked

6 rows, newest first. A red corner on a cell means it has a note: open it to see what I did.

Roles, newest first
A	B	C	D	E	F
Logo	Title	Dates	Kind	Stack	Notes
	Software EngineerZynga · Toronto, ON	May 2025 – Presentcurrent	Full-time	AdTech team: AI tooling and ad projects.	3 noteson Software Engineer at Zynga 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.
	Full Stack Engineering InternHexagon Manufacturing Intelligence	May 2023 – Jun 2024	Internship	TypeScript React Express C# .NET Azure Cosmos DB	4 noteson Full Stack Engineering Intern at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence 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.
	Teaching AssistantMcMaster University · Hamilton, ON	Sep 2022 – Apr 2023	Teaching	—	2 noteson Teaching Assistant at McMaster University 1P13 Integrated Engineering Project (Sep–Dec 2022). 2GA3 Computer Architecture (Jan–Apr 2023).
	Software Engineering InternExchange Solutions	May 2022 – Aug 2022	Internship	AWS Lambda JavaScript Next.js D3.js Snowflake 8th Wall WebAR	4 noteson Software Engineering Intern at Exchange Solutions 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%.
	AI Research MemberMcMaster Artificial Intelligence Society · Hamilton, ON	Oct 2021 – 2022	Research	C# Unity	2 noteson AI Research Member at McMaster Artificial Intelligence Society 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.
	Software Engineering InternInsideDesk	Jun 2021 – Sep 2021	Internship	JavaScript Python Selenium Slack	3 noteson Software Engineering Intern at InsideDesk 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%.

Impact!What I shipped

Three results from Zynga. Only real numbers: where none are published the cell says so. Select the Change cell to see its formula.

Results at Zynga, with the rows Lucas designed and led highlighted
A	B	C	D	E	F
Result	What	Owner	Before	After	Change
Ad-config MCP AI MCP AdTech	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.	Designed & led	—	—	—
LiveOps agent AI agents LiveOps Automation	I worked on an AI LiveOps agent that cut a workflow from 2–3 hours to about 20 minutes.	Contributed	2–3 h	~20 min	2–3 h → ~20 min
High-value ads AdTech Leadership	I designed and led a project that helps games identify high-value ads.	Designed & led	—	—	—

Conditional format: =$C2="Designed & led" → fill the row. Rows that match say “Designed & led”.

Chart1 · LiveOps agent: time to complete one liveops workflow

Drawn to scale in hours: the solid bar is 2 h, the hatched stretch is the range up to 3 h; the short bar is about 20 minutes.

Projects!Things I’ve built

10 projects, each with a snapshot of the product. The link column goes to the case study or the repo.

Projects with a thumbnail, stack and links
A	B	C	D	E
Thumbnail	Project	Kind	Stack	Link
	Agent PlatformA control plane for safely delegating software work to autonomous coding agents.	ToolAug 2026 – presentSolo: spec, design and CLI (in progress)	TypeScript Node.js JSON Schema (Ajv) Commander YAML	Case study for Agent Platform GitHub for Agent Platform
	TennisBookerBooks tennis and pickleball courts the moment booking opens, every morning.	Product2023 – presentSolo, full-stack (2023 version with help from Douglas Chen)	TypeScript Playwright React Express PostgreSQL	Case study for TennisBooker GitHub (2023 version) for TennisBooker
	PlatefulAIMobile meal planner: pick meals, get a grocery list, track calories and protein.	ProductNov – Dec 2024Team of 5: app shell, Auth0 login, meal-planning flow, deploy	React Vite MUI Auth0 Chart.js	Case study for PlatefulAI Live demo for PlatefulAI
	StudySpotFind a place to study at McMaster: search, filters, ratings, favourites and a map.	ProductNov 2024Solo, front-end	React Vite Leaflet React Router Vercel	Live demo for StudySpot
	UnPasswordA password manager built in one day for the MEC 2024 programming challenge.	HackathonNov 2024Team: Auth0 login, JWT-secured API, dashboard-to-API wiring	React TypeScript Vite Ant Design Express	GitHub for UnPassword
	API ResumeMy resume as a REST API: Postman-only, rate-limited, with a joke for anyone who POSTs.	ExperimentOct 2023Solo	Node.js Express MongoDB Mongoose Vercel	Case study for API Resume GitHub for API Resume
	CarpoolXAndroid app that matches riders headed the same way so they can share a taxi.	ProductMar – Apr 2023Team of 4: repo lead, most of the Flask backend and auth, core screens	React Native Python Flask Firebase Google Maps Platform	Case study for CarpoolX GitHub for CarpoolX
	Ride HomeMix subway sounds, chatter and lo-fi music into your own TTC ride-home ambience.	ExperimentJun 2022Co-created with Quinn Ha; built the app and audio controls	React Sass MUI AWS S3 Netlify	Live for Ride Home GitHub for Ride Home
	Summary.ioUpload a lecture video and get an AI transcript to study from. Built at MacHacks 2.	HackathonJan 2022Team of 4: AssemblyAI integration, repo setup and write-up	React AssemblyAI Node.js Express	Devpost for Summary.io Demo video for Summary.io GitHub for Summary.io
	Rest DayA workout planner that schedules rest days, not just workouts. Built at DeltaHacks 8.★ 2nd place, “To Work or Not To Workout” sponsor challenge (AI Endurance), DeltaHacks 8	HackathonJan 2022Team of 2: Fitbit API integration, landing page, deploy	React Fitbit Web API styled-components Node.js Figma	Case study for Rest Day Devpost for Rest Day GitHub for Rest Day

Skills!What’s in the toolkit

Lucas’s skills as a pivot table: 6 groups, 41 skills. The bars are conditional formatting, sized against the biggest group.

Skills grouped by area, with a count per group and a grand total
A	B	C
Row labels	Count of skill	Skills
Languages	8	TypeScript JavaScript Python Java C# SQL HTML/CSS Bash
Frontend	6	React React Native Next.js Vite MUI TanStack Query
Backend & data	11	Node.js Express .NET Flask Prisma PostgreSQL MongoDB Azure Cosmos DB Firebase DynamoDB Swagger
AI & agents	4	Model Context Protocol (MCP) Claude Agent SDK Claude Code Cursor
Testing & automation	4	Playwright Vitest Jest Selenium
Infra & tooling	8	Docker Git GitHub Actions GitLab CI Vercel AWS (Lambda, S3) Auth0 Azure DevOps
Grand total	41	6 groups

Contact!Let’s talk

I’m Lucas, at Zynga AdTech. Roles, hard problems and good conversations are all welcome. Every link below is a hyperlink cell: click it, or select it to see its formula.

Where to find me
A	B	C
Channel	Link	Note
GitHub	github.com/lucasichen	The code behind the projects
Résumé	lucasichen.me/resume	One page, printable
LinkedIn	linkedin.com/in/lucasichen	Say hi, or send a role my way
Résumé (PDF)	Lucas-Chen-Resume.pdf	The same résumé, to download

Press Tab to leave the grid at any time; the arrow keys move between cells.

Intro	Summary sheet
Experience	Roles sheet
Impact	Impact sheet
Projects	Projects sheet
Skills	Pivot table
Contact	Contact sheet