ML
§00 · ~/index.tsx·the intro
Available · Remote worldwideHồ Chí Minh · GMT+7

Thoughtful software,
shipped with care.

I'm Minh Le (Marcus) — a full stack developer in Ho Chi Minh City. I build complete web products: the interface people use, and the APIs, databases, and pipelines behind it. I've shipped platforms for the Singapore government used by millions, and launched my own products end to end.

Read the journal →

Experience

0+y

building for production

Reach

Millions

users on platforms I've built

Latest

🏆 1st place

Token2049 hackathon · 2025

minh-le.ts
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// who.ts
const profile = {
  name: 'Minh Le',
  role: 'Full Stack Developer',
  location: 'Vietnam · GMT+7',
  focus: [
    'Product · Web & mobile',
    'Platform · APIs & data',
    'Intelligence · AI workflows',
  ],
  open: true, // for contract work
};
mainTypeScript
UTF-8Ln 12, Col 1
Scroll to explore
§01 · ~/about.tsx·the long version

Softwareis justanotherway ofcaringaboutthework.

I'm Minh Le — known as Marcus online. Full Stack Developer based in Vietnam, mostly happy when a system stays quiet through a long weekend.

now

Right now

  • Building and maintaining minhle.xyz — portfolio plus an engineering journal.
  • Writing deep-dives on Kafka, Postgres, Redis, and system design.
  • Mentoring junior engineers on clean architecture and testing habits.
before

Before this

  • Shipped Singapore government platforms — SkillsFuture, MPA, and SGDI — at national scale.
  • Built Dessistant, an AI-driven Web3 trading product, end to end.
  • Won 1st place at the Token2049 Origins hackathon with an on-chain payments flow.
always

Always

  • Boring tech first. Clever code has to earn its keep.
  • Real dependencies in tests. Idempotency from day one.
  • If a runbook doesn’t exist, the system doesn’t exist.
I'm not a 10× developer. I'm a 1× developer who makes the next person's life 2× easier.
a thing I tell juniors, often
§02·~/tech-stack.tsx
CRAFT

Tools I reach for

A generalist's toolbox, built over years of shipping product — from frontend polish to backend plumbing.

JavaScript
TypeScript
Java
Kotlin
C#
PHP
SQL
ReactJS
Angular
VueJS
Tailwind CSS
Spring Boot
ExpressJS
ASP.NET Core
Laravel
Flutter
Android
MySQL
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Firebase
Redis
Docker
Git
Jenkins
SonarQube
JavaScript
TypeScript
Java
Kotlin
C#
PHP
SQL
ReactJS
Angular
VueJS
Tailwind CSS
Spring Boot
ExpressJS
ASP.NET Core
Laravel
Flutter
Android
MySQL
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Firebase
Redis
Docker
Git
Jenkins
SonarQube
JavaScript
TypeScript
Java
Kotlin
C#
PHP
SQL
ReactJS
Angular
VueJS
Tailwind CSS
Spring Boot
ExpressJS
ASP.NET Core
Laravel
Flutter
Android
MySQL
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Firebase
Redis
Docker
Git
Jenkins
SonarQube
JavaScript
TypeScript
Java
Kotlin
C#
PHP
SQL
ReactJS
Angular
VueJS
Tailwind CSS
Spring Boot
ExpressJS
ASP.NET Core
Laravel
Flutter
Android
MySQL
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Firebase
Redis
Docker
Git
Jenkins
SonarQube
§03·~/services.tsx
WAYS TO WORK

Pick a course

Four engagement formats. Honest scope, honest timelines, honest "won't work if's." If your project doesn't fit any of these, we should still talk — I just want you walking in with eyes open.

Le Menu · ed. 2026vat not included · USD
  1. 01Engagement · 4–10 weeks

    Product engineering

    Take a feature, a flow, or a whole product from sketch to production.

    Timeline

    4 – 10 weeks

    Investment

    from $7k

    End-to-end build for a defined slice of work. I write the brief, the code, and the runbook — and stay around long enough that the next person inherits something clean. SaaS surfaces, marketing sites, internal tools, mobile-friendly web apps.

    Includes

    • Discovery + scope doc
    • Design + production code
    • Tests, deploys, runbook

    Ideal for

    • 0 → 1 product slices
    • Pre-launch SaaS surfaces
    • Tight redesigns that need to ship

    Won't work if

    • 10-year legacy migrations
    • Pixel-only handoffs (I want context, not Figma keys)
    Talk about a project →
  2. 02Engagement · 6–14 weeks

    Platform & APIs

    Backends and public APIs you can hand off and sleep through.

    Timeline

    6 – 14 weeks

    Investment

    from $12k

    Resilient services on the JVM, Node, or Go. Authentication, rate limiting, observability, idempotency keys, deploy pipelines. The infrastructure that decides whether your system stays reliable in production or not.

    Includes

    • API contract + auth model
    • Observability (logs, traces, alerts)
    • Runbook + on-call doc

    Ideal for

    • Replacing a fragile core service
    • First public API for a B2B product
    • Migrating off a legacy monolith piece

    Won't work if

    • Greenfield with no domain experts to talk to
    • If 'just keep it cheap' is the only requirement
    Talk about a project →
  3. 03Engagement · 3–8 weeks

    Data & intelligence

    Real-time pipelines, search, and LLM workflows that ship as features.

    Timeline

    3 – 8 weeks

    Investment

    from $9k

    Kafka, Redis, Elastic, vector search, agentic LLM workflows. I treat data infrastructure as a product surface — the goal isn't a dashboard nobody opens, it's a feature your customers feel.

    Includes

    • Streaming or batch architecture
    • Search relevance / ranking
    • LLM tooling + cost guardrails

    Ideal for

    • Search you can't tune anymore
    • First real-time feature for a SaaS
    • AI features that actually need engineering

    Won't work if

    • ChatGPT wrappers with no business logic
    • Anything that ends with 'just plug it into our LLM'
    Talk about a project →
  4. 04Engagement · monthly retainer

    Mentoring & code review

    Long-term multiplier on your juniors and mid-level engineers.

    Timeline

    monthly retainer

    Investment

    from $1.5k / mo

    Recurring 1:1s, async PR reviews, architecture office hours. Working with the people on your team, on the work they're already doing — leveling up taste, testing habits, and the parts of seniority that don't show up in JIRA.

    Includes

    • Weekly 1:1 with each engineer
    • Async PR reviews (48h SLA)
    • Quarterly architecture review

    Ideal for

    • 3–8 engineer teams without a senior
    • Companies hiring juniors deliberately
    • Founders worried about code quality

    Won't work if

    • Performance management duties
    • Last-minute interview prep coaching
    Talk about a project →

P.S.

None of these formats fit? Email me anyway — the most interesting projects rarely arrive in a clean shape.

§04·~/experience.tsx
EXPERIENCE

A short résumé, in changelog form

Roles in reverse-chronological order. Each one with what got shipped, what I actually learned, and the stack I leaned on.

CHANGELOG.md · résumé2 entries · sorted desc
  1. 02

    Independent / Contract

    Full Stack Developer

    Enterprise · AI · Web3

    2023 — Present

    Remote · Vietnam

    Designed and shipped large-scale enterprise platforms and AI-driven Web3 products end-to-end. Authored resilient microservice architectures on the JVM and Node, built real-time event pipelines, and integrated conversational LLMs for automated execution on decentralized exchanges. Partner from discovery to launch — writing the brief, the code, and the runbook.

    Shipped

    • Multi-tenant HRMS & payroll platform from blank repo to prod
    • Singapore government services touched by millions monthly
    • Dessistant.xyz — AI trading platform with on-chain execution
    • Real-time CDC pipelines (Kafka → Elastic) at production scale

    Learned

    • Boring infrastructure compounds. Be patient with it.
    • Most 'AI features' are thin wrappers around well-engineered classical ones.
    • The right config beats clever code for keeping a system stable.
    Stack ›TypeScriptJava · SpringNodeNext.jsKafkaRedisElasticPostgresAWS
  2. 01

    Cao Thang Technical College + private cohorts

    Teaching Assistant & Mentor

    Computer Science · Web Development

    2020 — 2023

    Hồ Chí Minh City

    Mentored interns and junior engineers, translating complex topics — SOLID, CI/CD, architecture, clean testing — into habits the team actually keeps. Ran code reviews as a learning loop rather than a gate. Quiet multiplier on team output.

    Shipped

    • Curriculum for Web Development cohort (60+ students)
    • PR review framework adopted by three internship batches
    • Personal coaching for 12 engineers, 9 still in industry

    Learned

    • If you can't explain it without a whiteboard, you don't know it yet.
    • Code review is a teaching tool. Comments compound; bug counts don't.
    • Beginner questions surface senior-level confusion, every time.
    Stack ›JavaJavaScriptSpringReactMySQLGit workflows
  3. ←
    earlier · self-taught · side projects · github
§05·~/projects.tsx
SELECTED WORK

A few things I've shipped

From Singapore government platforms used by millions to an award-winning Web3 prototype — a cross-section of the last few years.

Training Portcullis System – SkillsFuture Singapore — previewGovernment

Training Portcullis System – SkillsFuture Singapore

Enterprise platform for the Singapore government for adult education and lifelong learning tracking and administration.

Enterprise SystemsJava Spring BootMicroservicesPostgreSQL
skillsfuture.gov.sgVisit site
ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute — previewResearch Institute

ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute

Enterprise system for managing research, publications, and institutional operations for the Singapore-based research institute.

Web ApplicationsBackend ArchitectureSecurity
iseas.edu.sgVisit site
Singapore Government Directory (SGDI) — previewGovernment

Singapore Government Directory (SGDI)

Scalable platform powering the official directory of civil servants and ministries in Singapore.

High-Availability SystemsSearch OptimizationGovernment Platforms
sgdi.gov.sgVisit site
Maritime Singapore (MPA) — previewMission-Critical

Maritime Singapore (MPA)

High-performance port and maritime administration platform to support one of the world's busiest ports.

Real-time DataEnterprise ArchitectureMission-Critical Systems
mpa.gov.sgVisit site
Dessistant AI (AI-Driven Web3 Trading Platform) — previewAI · Web3

Dessistant AI (AI-Driven Web3 Trading Platform)

A distributed microservices architecture for real-time blockchain indexing, LLM-based conversational trade execution, and automated market making via DEXs (Uniswap V3, KyberSwap).

Next.jsNestJSKafkaMongoDB+2
dessistant.xyzVisit site
Wham Labs – Best of Polkadot (Token2049 Origins) — preview🏆 1st · US$5K

Wham Labs – Best of Polkadot (Token2049 Origins)

1st place · US$5,000 at the Best of Polkadot Challenge, Token2049 Origins Hackathon (Singapore, 30 Sep – 2 Oct 2025). Built a crypto remittance flow that sends and receives on-chain payments directly through X (Twitter) DMs.

PolkadotX APICrypto PaymentsWeb3
Token2049 Origins · Singapore · 2025🏆 Hackathon Winner
MemeTv — previewSocial

MemeTv

A random 1-on-1 social platform that connects users through live video chat and instant messaging for spontaneous conversations and real-time interaction.

Next.jsWebRTCReal-time MessagingSocial Platform
memetv.ccVisit site
AnGiDay — Hôm nay ăn gì? — previewConsumer

AnGiDay — Hôm nay ăn gì?

A swipeable food-discovery deck for Saigon and Hanoi. Pick a craving, get a dish card, then surface the closest open restaurants ranked by real distance with one-tap directions to Google Maps.

Next.jsGoogle Places APIGeolocationEdge Caching
angiday.xyzVisit site
EzClean — Terminal-first Mac storage cleaner — previewDeveloper Tool

EzClean — Terminal-first Mac storage cleaner

A CLI that diffs your Mac against a fresh macOS install and lists every cache, leftover, backup and node_modules graveyard with paths, sizes and risk labels. 180+ scan rules, local-only, trash-by-default.

macOS CLIShellFilesystem DiffApple Silicon
ezclean.xyzVisit site
§06·~/journal.tsx
JOURNAL

Writing as a second form of thinking

Clear, practical notes on how real software gets designed, breaks, and ships — the trade-offs and patterns that hold up in production.

75 posts published~667 min total reading20 topics coveredupdated regularly
Apache Kafka6Redis6Elasticsearch6Kibana5PostgreSQL4Database5Docker2Kubernetes3Observability3System Design4Microservices3Concurrency3Scaling4Security3Testing2AWS · Cloud2React6Next.js2TypeScript2AI · LLM4
Featured · Lateststart here ↓

Recent posts

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Read the full journal

no paywall · no newsletter · just words

Let's talk

Got an idea? Let's ship it.

Tell me a bit about the problem and the timeline — I usually reply within a business day.

Send a message

Project brief, contract, or just a “hello”.

Let's connect

Prefer a different channel? Pick whatever works for you.

Response time

Usually within 1 business day · GMT+7