M Nurul Akbar (Babono)
Lead Software Engineer
Hi, I'm Babono, a Tech Leader & Frontend Specialist with 11+ years of experience shaping digital transformation across E-commerce, Games, Social Media, and Retail. I combine a strong product mindset with design sensibility to bridge the gap between business strategy and technical execution. I specialize in translating complex requirements into pragmatic yet empathic solutions, ensuring reliable, high-performance delivery.
Previously, I've led engineering teams at Shopee driving impactful growth projects that enhance user experiences and help the company to grow even more. As a leader, I foster a supportive culture that generates consistently exceptional output and strong positive feedback from engineering teams.
When I'm not building software, you'll find me playing football, hunting for local culinary gems, or hangingout with my cats.
Experience
Apple Developer Academy - Bali
Feb 2026 - PresentApple Developer
- Architecting native applications for iOS, macOS, and Apple Vision Pro utilizing Swift and server-side Swift.
- Applying Human-Centered Design and challenge-based learning methodologies within cross-functional teams to deliver innovative solutions.
- Leveraging agentic AI coding to build next-generation, AI-native products for the Apple ecosystem.
Career Transition
Aug 2024 - Dec 2025Educational Sabbatical & Advanced Degree
- Pursued a Master's degree at NUS with a specialization in AI and Digital Transformation, fully funded by a scholarship from the Indonesian Government.
- Served as a postgraduate Teaching Assistant for the Fullstack Development course (IT5007 Software Engineering on Application Architecture) under NUS School of Computing.
- Executed a Capstone project with Micron Technology as the sole software engineer, engineering the full-stack solution with Next.js and FastAPI, and integrating the Google Gemini API to build an AI-driven prescriptive analysis dashboard. This successfully reduced lead times and optimized material consumption rates for the procurement team.
Shopee
Apr 2020 - Aug 2024Engineering Manager - Games
Jan 2022 - Aug 2024- Served as a Engineering Manager / Studio Lead, leading a Games Studio of 20+ BE and FE engineers.
- Collaborated closely with the Shenzhen Games Studio to deliver high-performance games for Shopee's multi-country platform.
- Implemented end-to-end product telemetry (client & backend) and observability (dashboards, SLOs, alerting) to proactively detect issues and guide data-driven improvements.
- Managed performance appraisals for all team members and served as Hiring Manager, conducting 100+ software engineer interviews.
- Fostered a learning culture by maintaining knowledge repositories and facilitating sharing sessions.
Lead Software Engineer, Frontend - Growth
Apr 2020 - Dec 2021- Entrusted by the Head of Engineering to lead the Frontend Chapter, managing over 20 frontend engineers across 5 units team.
- Directed over 40 growth projects, implementing key initiatives to enhance deliverable quality and streamline development workflows of frontend domain.
- Served as reporting manager, providing direct people management and professional development for team members.
Gawean
Jan 2016 - Jul 2020Co-Founder & Lead Engineer
- Co-founded Gawean, a web-based job platform for blue-collar workers in the Food & Beverages, Retail, and Hospitality industries. Contributed to key business strategies and direction for the venture.
- Served as Lead Developer, overseeing all technical aspects and development of the platform.
CT Corp Digital
Sep 2019 - Mar 2020UX Engineer
- Spearheaded the end-to-end development of the CT Corp Digital Company Profile website, showcasing its role as CT Corpora's digital transformation arm.
- Developed and launched multiple campaign websites for Transfashion brands, including GEOX and Hugo Boss.
- Led the prototyping of key digital platforms, such as the Aigner Online Store and the Transmart Website.
- Collaborated with design teams to establish and develop the Transmart Design System website.
KASKUS
Jan 2015 - Aug 2019Principal Software Engineer
Apr 2017 - Aug 2019- Led the Front-end team, overseeing team performance and workflow optimization. Growing the team from 2 to 7 members. Interviewed 50+ frontend developers candidates.
- Created essential automation tools to ensure efficient operations and high-quality results, including an EDM (Electronic Direct Mail) Marketing and Microsite Generator.
Senior Software Engineer
Oct 2016 - Mar 2017- Advanced to Senior Software Engineer, leveraging expertise to develop sophisticated and creative user interface designs while providing mentorship to junior engineers.
- Achieved a 95% reduction in website CSS size by implementing a comprehensive functional CSS strategy.
- Spearheaded research and early adoption of new technologies (Google AMP, Progressive Web Apps, Facebook Instant Articles), leading to the company's feature at Google I/O.
Software Engineer
Jan 2015 - Dec 2015- Built the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the KASKUS JUAL BELI mobile app for Android from scratch.
- Implemented new features across core KASKUS products (Forum, Jual Beli, Microsites) utilizing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Definite Studio
Sep 2013 - Dec 2013Frontend Developer Intern
Developed mobile responsive websites for clients such as Indofood, BSDCITY, Sinarmas and AMINEF.
Education
National University of Singapore
2025
Msc in Smart Industries and Digital Transformation
University of Queensland
2014
Bachelor in Information Technology
University of Indonesia
2014
Bachelor in Computer Science
SMA Labschool Kebayoran
2010
High School
Community
2025
Tech Director of PINUS (NUS Indonesian Students’ Association)
2024
Guest Lecturer for IT Project Class at University of Indonesia
2021
Guest Speaker at Garuda Hacks 2.0
2020
Speaker at Engineering Talks Shopee
2017
Mentor at FINHACKS BCA 2017
2016
Mentor at FINHACKS BCA 2016
Skills
Frontend
TypescriptNext.jsFlutterSwift UITailwind CSSReactGatsby.jsMicrofrontendPhaserCocosReact NativeJestReduxZustandTanStackStorybookjQuery
Backend
Node.jsNext APIExpressPythonFastAPIFirebaseGraphQLSupabasePayloadCMSMongoDB AtlasStrapiPHPGo
Platform
VercelSentryWordpressMagentoGCPAWSAzureGrafanaNotion APIShopifyMapboxCloudflarePosthogGemini APIZapierStreamlit
Tools
GitAntigravityVS CodeCopilotFigmaNotionTrelloConfluenceJiraPhotoshopGoogle SuitesMicrosoft OfficeCanvaPrezi
Languages
Bahasa IndonesiaEnglish
Awards
2025
Full Indonesian Government Scholarship for Master's Degree
2016
Winner at Sprint Coding FINHACKS BCA 2016
2016
Top Ten Finalist at HACKJAK 2016
