shipping distributed systems and backend platform work
Hong Kun Tian
Software Engineer
Software engineer focused on distributed systems, backend platform work, and developer tooling.
Distributed systems, backend platforms, and developer tooling.
Recent work spans AWS Step Functions, platform reliability, and tooling for engineers operating production systems.
I build distributed systems, developer-facing platform features, and tooling that makes backend systems easier to ship and operate.
Current focus
recent focus on workflow orchestration, rollout reliability, and service tooling
recent work includes agent workflows and operational automation
Focus areas
Distributed systemsBackend platform and reliabilityDeveloper toolingWorkflow orchestrationOperational automationAgent workflowsTypeScript and Java ecosystems
About
Technical work shaped around systems clarity and useful tooling.
I work primarily on distributed systems, with a focus on backend platform design and reliability. Much of that work is about making workflows easier to validate, safer to deploy, and easier to operate when things go wrong. I also build developer tooling for debugging, automation, and day-to-day service ownership. More recently, that has included agent workflows that help with triage, reporting, and operational tasks.
Education
B.Sc. Honours Computer Science, McGill University
Experience
Current work centers on AWS Step Functions.
Primary role
Software Development Engineer II
Amazon Web Services · United States · Jul 2022 - Present
Working on AWS Step Functions across workflow platform features, rollout reliability, and internal tooling for service operations.
Highlights
- Implemented workflow versioning and aliasing features that let developers publish immutable state machine versions and route traffic more safely.
- Shipped validation and developer-facing workflow features including JSONata support, pre-deployment validation, and infrastructure-as-code integration points.
- Diagnosed deployment failures during region launches and improved rollout paths across service dependencies, build systems, and deployment automation.
- Built tooling for on-call and operational workflows, including batch visibility tools, debugging helpers, and agent-based triage and reporting workflows.
- Worked across API design, service behavior, observability, CI/CD reliability, and production debugging rather than in a single narrow layer.
Earlier experience
Earlier roles built the same foundations that still show up in the current work: UI systems, automation, APIs, and testing.
Amazon Web Services
Software Development Engineer Intern, AWS Step Functions
Built reusable React components and workflow visualization integrations across AWS consoles, with integration tests covering cross-service UI behavior.
Ericsson
Software Developer Intern
Automated deployment workflows through Jenkins pipelines with Bash and Groovy, reinforcing an early focus on infrastructure automation and repeatable delivery paths.
UMAknow / Cloudockit
Software Developer Intern
Worked across responsive UI, backend APIs, diagram generation, and automated acceptance testing for a cloud documentation product.
Selected Work
Recent systems work and internal tooling.
Developer-facing workflow capabilities and validation.
Workflow platform features
Built workflow features that make state machines easier to validate, manage, and deploy.
- Implemented workflow versioning and aliasing paths that support safer release management.
- Added validation behavior around JSONata-based workflow definitions and pre-deployment checks.
- Worked on infrastructure-as-code integration points and observability improvements around those features.
AWS Step FunctionsWorkflow APIsJSONataCloudFormationObservability
Reliability work around launches, deployment paths, and service dependencies.
Region rollout reliability
Worked on rollout reliability for a production cloud service, especially around region launches and deployment automation.
- Diagnosed deployment failures that surfaced during region launch paths rather than in routine steady-state operation.
- Improved repeatability across regional build and deployment workflows by tightening dependency and automation assumptions.
- Invested in CI/CD and test reliability so rollout fixes hold up beyond a single incident or launch cycle.
Region launchesCI/CDDeployment automationService dependenciesTest reliability
Operational tooling and agent-assisted workflows for engineering teams.
Agent workflows and internal automation
Built internal tooling that combines operational context, structured workflows, and LLM assistance for triage, reporting, debugging, and repetitive engineering tasks.
- Built internal tooling for on-call debugging, batch operations, and visibility into service behavior.
- Created research-oriented tools for navigating large codebases and documentation during investigations.
- Integrated LLM-powered workflows into operational tasks such as triage, reporting, and assistance-oriented automation.
Developer toolingOperational automationLLM workflowsTriage systemsCodebase navigation
Contact
Open to engineering roles with real platform and infrastructure depth.
Open to software engineering opportunities with strong product and infrastructure depth.