# Raylene Yung

> Raylene Yung is an engineering leader, organizational designer, and public servant who scaled teams at Facebook and Stripe before co-founding U.S. Digital Response - the nonprofit that mobilized 10,000+ volunteers to help governments navigate COVID-19. She later served as Executive Director of the GSA's Technology Modernization Fund, overseeing $1B+ in federal tech investments, and as Chief of Staff at the Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. Now a board member at USDR and SolarAPP+, she writes 'raylene's field notes,' a Substack newsletter on climate, tech, and complex systems.

- **Role:** Board Member at U.S. Digital Response & SolarAPP+
- **Organizations:** U.S. Digital Response, SolarAPP+, Facebook (Meta), Stripe, U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Aspen Institute Tech Policy Hub
- **From:** California, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS in Computer Science, Stanford University, MS in Computer Science (Theoretical CS & AI), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Youngest engineering director at a public company with 10,000+ employees (Facebook), Scaled engineering org at Stripe from ~200 to 1,500+ people, Co-founded U.S. Digital Response, mobilizing 10,000+ volunteers across 550+ government projects in all 50 states/territories during COVID-19

## Career timeline

- **2009** — Joined Facebook as an engineer; chose it over a Manhattan hedge fund for better engineering fundamentals
- **2009-2015** — Rose to Engineering Director at Facebook, leading News Feed, Timeline, Privacy, Content Creation, and Sharing - became the youngest engineering director at a public company with 10,000+ employees
- **2015** — Joined Stripe as Head of Payments/Product Engineering
- **2015-2019** — At Stripe: built first Product Management team, created engineering levels/ladders, established Singapore engineering hub, scaled from ~200 to 1,500+ engineers
- **2019** — Left Stripe; published open-source Engineering Handbook on GitHub
- **2020** — Co-founded U.S. Digital Response (USDR) during COVID-19; served as Founding CEO; became Aspen Institute Tech Policy Hub Fellow
- **2021-2023** — Executive Director, Technology Modernization Fund Program Office at U.S. General Services Administration - oversaw $1B+ in federal technology investments
- **2023-2024** — Chief of Staff, Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations at U.S. Department of Energy
- **2024-present** — Board Member at USDR and SolarAPP+; writing 'raylene's field notes' Substack newsletter on climate, tech, and systems

## Achievements

- Youngest engineering director at a public company with 10,000+ employees (Facebook)
- Scaled engineering org at Stripe from ~200 to 1,500+ people
- Co-founded U.S. Digital Response, mobilizing 10,000+ volunteers across 550+ government projects in all 50 states/territories during COVID-19
- Established Stripe's first Singapore engineering hub, pioneering Asia-Pacific expansion
- Oversaw $1B+ in federal technology investments as Executive Director of the GSA Technology Modernization Fund
- Built Stripe's first Product Management team and created engineering levels/ladders from scratch
- Published open-source Engineering Handbook on GitHub used by teams worldwide
- Co-authored Stripe Atlas guide to scaling engineering organizations

## Latest updates

- **2024-12** — Serving as Board Member at U.S. Digital Response and SolarAPP+
- **2024-06** — Launched 'raylene's field notes' Substack newsletter covering climate, tech, and complex systems
- **2023-2024** — Served as Chief of Staff at U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations

## Links

- Website: https://raylene.substack.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayleney/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/emdashry
- GitHub: https://github.com/raylene/eng-handbook

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/raylene-yung
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-21