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Tony Dong

Tony Dong

Founder & CEO, AI Engineering Leader, Angel Investor

tonydong
San Francisco, California, United States
Joined February 2026
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Network

12.1K connections
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Rippling Leadership Alumni
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Startup Founders CEOs
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Venture Capital Investors
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AI ML Engineers Leaders
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Propel Code AI Team
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Stripe Google Engineers
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Abnormal AI Team

Summary

Tony Dong is a seasoned engineering leader and founder with a strong background in scaling technology organizations and building innovative software products. At Rippling, he rapidly progressed to VP of Engineering, playing a key role in growing the engineering team from 60 to over 600 and developing core platform and HR products. sfelc+2
As the Founder and CEO of Propel Code AI, Tony is leveraging his deep engineering expertise to lead the development of an AI-powered code review platform. This venture focuses on enhancing developer productivity, improving code quality, and managing technical debt through AI-driven automation for various engineering teams. propelcode+3
Tony has a strong entrepreneurial spirit, evidenced by co-founding PerShop, a Y Combinator-backed startup focused on personal clothing retail. He is also an active angel investor, supporting various startups primarily in the enterprise applications sector, and has been involved as a co-investor alongside prominent names in the tech industry. ycombinator+2
His expertise extends to automated machine learning, as demonstrated by his creation of OptimalFlow, an open-source Python toolkit. This project showcases his capability in developing sophisticated tools for data scientists to optimize and automate ML workflows, even featuring a "no-code" web app for accessibility. github+2
Tony is a thought leader in engineering talent and team building, sharing insights on the traits of high-performing engineers—such as system thinking, mission orientation, grit, and sound judgment—derived from interviewing and hiring hundreds of engineers at companies like Twitter, Rippling, and Propel. linkedin

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Traits of top engineers: system thinking, mission, grit, opinions, clarity, ease, judgement

January 1, 2025

A LinkedIn post by Tony Dong sharing insights on the seven traits he observes in high-performing engineers, drawing from his experience hiring at Twitter, Rippling, and Propel.

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OptimalFlow: Omni-ensemble and Scalable Automated Machine Learning

November 1, 2020

A publication presented at the GENPACT GVector Augmented Intelligence Conference, detailing the OptimalFlow toolkit's approach to optimizing and automating machine learning workflows.

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Build No-code Automated Machine Learning Model with OptimalFlow Web App

September 18, 2020

An article discussing how OptimalFlow's Flask-based web app allows users to build automated machine learning models through simple clicks without coding.

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End-to-end OptimalFlow Automated Machine Learning Tutorial with Real Projects

September 1, 2020

A two-part tutorial illustrating the use of OptimalFlow for automated machine learning, published on Medium's Towards Data Science.

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Notes

RMRohan Manchandasaid
TDTony Dong
is one of the most effective leaders they've seen in customer success.

Oct 29, 2025