Wai T.

About Wai T.

Visionary Senior Director of Software Engineering with 20+ years of experience building mission-critical distributed systems and leading global organizations of 115+ engineers. Currently pioneering GenAI capabilities at Palo Alto Networks, transforming Go-To-Market (GTM) and Customer Experience (CX) through LLM-driven architectures and AIled SDLC initiatives. Proven track record of managing internet-scale infrastructure as the Service Owner for AWS API Gateway, overseeing billions of daily transactions. Expert at translating complex emerging technologies - from distributed microservices to RAG based GenAI applications—into scalable, revenue-generating, enterprise solutions. Core expertise includes GenAI Leadership (Architecting LLM-integrated platforms, RAG pipelines, and AI-driven automation to accelerate customer time-to-value), Operational Excellence (Driving AI-led SDLC to optimize developer velocity, reduce cycle times, and automate complex engineering workflows), Hyperscale Infrastructure (Deep expertise in Multi-Tenant Distributed Systems, API Management (AWS), and Global Cloud Operations), and Organizational Scaling (Building and mentoring high performing, geographically distributed teams across North America and overseas).

Experience

1. Senior Director of Software Engineering

   Palo Alto Networks

   Oct 2021 — Present

   Pioneered Enterprise GenAI Strategy: Architected and deployed GenAI-powered RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) applications leveraging LLM, Langchain, A2A architecture within the GTM and Customer Experience org, reducing customer \"time-to-value\" by 80% and increasing self-service resolution rates by 70%.Spearheaded AI-Led SDLC Transformation: Orchestrated the transition to an AI-augmented development lifecycle for 115+ engineers across 10 global teams; integrated AI-assisted coding and automated PR agents, resulting in a 35% reduction in cycle time and a 100% increase in developer velocity.Architected Scalable AI Infrastructure: Leveraged deep distributed systems expertise to build resilient, cost-effective LLM orchestration layers, ensuring high availability and sub-second latency for internal and customer-facing GenAI tooling.Drove Operational Efficiency via Automation: Led the development of AI-driven and ML-Ops based operational intelligence agents, automating manual customer journey mapping and decreasing backlog by 25% and TTR by 50%.

Education

• Boston University

  Master of Science (MS), Computer Information Systems

• University of Virginia Darden School of Business

  Executive Leadership Development Program

• McGill University

  Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), Computer Engineering