Twitter expands Asia Pacific engineering centre in Singapore

• Plans to double the number of engineers to over 100 in 2023
• Aims to bolster engineering capabilities, improve services

Twitter has announced that it will be expanding its engineering centre in Singapore, where the company’s Asia Pacific headquarters is located, by doubling the number of engineers to over 100 staff in 2023. 

In partnership with the Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), this research and development investment in Twitter’s rapidly growing regional business furthers its commitment to bolster its global engineering capabilities, it said in a statement.

It will also improve service availability and reliability for people who use Twitter around the world, the social media platform said.

Based in Singapore and working on global initiatives for Twitter, the technical hires include roles in engineering, data science, machine learning and product management. 

Together with dedicated engineering teams around the world, the team will focus on core advancements to Twitter such as developing new product experiences, surfacing more personalised content for the people who use Twitter, and will drive platform efficiencies to increase speed and reliability, the company said.

Twitter said its Singapore-based engineering hub, sited within its main regional office, was set up in February 2020 and is led by Silvanus Lee (pic), director of the Asia Pacific Engineering Centre at Twitter. 

Lee, spent more than a decade in San Francisco scaling global engineering teams at organisations such as Uber and Dropbox, before joining Twitter nearly two years ago, it said.

“At Twitter, our purpose is to serve the public conversation. We are focused on product innovations and improvements, so that people around the world can have the best experience when they want to find out what’s happening, discuss a trending topic, or connect with their communities.

“Following the success of the centre’s establishment where we built high-quality teams and strengthened our technical capabilities in areas such as machine learning, we are focused on continuing to attract and retain world-class talent.

“I am confident that we will be able to raise the bar on the craft of engineering, and drive global impact for Twitter,” said Lee.

Ang Chin Tah, senior vice president, DISG said Twitter’s expansion of its engineering centre speaks to the company’s confidence in Singapore’s vibrant tech ecosystem for innovation, as well as the partnership that both parties have built up over the years.  

“This will create new job opportunities for Singapore and give Singaporeans the chance to work on new and exciting technologies destined for global markets, with colleagues from all around the world,” said Ang. 

The expansion of Twitter’s engineering hubs outside of the US also accelerates its commitment to building a truly global, inclusive, and accessible product by creating a more distributed workforce, Twitter said.

Offering more choice and flexibility, such as the ability to work in the Asia Pacific region, enables a greater talent mix for the company that reflects the communities it serves, it added.