Najib Ninaba

Head of Platforms Engineering, AI Singapore · Senior Associate Director, Nanyang Technological University

AI makes software cheaper to build, but not cheaper to own.

I lead Platforms Engineering at AI Singapore, where I joined in 2018 as one of the original four engineers: hybrid infrastructure, GPU and HPC capacity, MLOps and data platforms for national AI programmes. Since April 2026 that work sits at NTU.

I started around 2000 building Linux HPC clusters in Singapore, and the habits from that work still hold: clear contracts, observable behaviour, and ownership after the demo. These days I build tools for agent-assisted development.

Projects

  • Orchard Playground showing a completed local inference request

    Orchard

    Creator · Pre-release pilot · Apache-2.0

    Sovereign on-premises LLM orchestration that turns a fleet of Apple Silicon Macs into one OpenAI-compatible service. Elixir/OTP control plane with per-Workspace deny-by-default model grants, request tracing, Postgres as the only infrastructure, and MLX-LM workers.

    kapitan-ai/orchard

  • Cuaca Now view showing air quality and weather for Pasir Ris
    Captured 29 Sep 2026 from cuaca.bijan.app

    Cuaca

    Creator · Live · PWA

    A Singapore neighbourhood weather and haze briefing built only on official data.gov.sg feeds. Covers two-hour forecasts for all 47 forecast areas, official PSI and PM2.5 readings, and a separately labelled US AQI computed with EPA NowCast.

    cuaca.bijan.app

  • RepoPrompt CE agent session window with the chat list, the workflow tips and the Codex CLI model selector
    Screenshot © Repo Prompt, repoprompt.com

    RepoPrompt CE

    Contributor & reviewer · Open source · macOS

    A free, open-source native macOS context-engineering app with a bundled MCP server for AI coding agents. Contributions include Cursor ACP agent support (#902), Cursor Effort and Speed controls (#960), Codex goal support on by default (#33), and Homebrew install documentation.

    repoprompt/repoprompt-ce

Writing

Experience

  1. 2018–now

    Head of Platforms Engineering · Senior Associate Director · AI Singapore · NTU

    Joined AI Singapore under NUS as one of its original four engineers. Leads Platforms Engineering across hybrid infrastructure, GPU and HPC capacity, MLOps foundations, data platforms, and reliability practices. Became Senior Associate Director at NTU when AI Singapore transitioned from NUS to NTU in April 2026.

  2. 2020–2024

    Scientific Advisor for AI · NSCC Technical Resource Allocation Committee

    Served on the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore advisory committee for technical resource allocation.

  3. 2017

    Data Engineering Architect · NUS School of Continuing and Lifelong Education

    Lectured in data analytics, data engineering, reproducible data science, and chatbots.

  4. 2016–2017

    Co-Founder · Real Analytics

    Worked on data analytics, data engineering, consulting, and training.

  5. 2012–2014

    Development Manager · Revolution Analytics

    Built and led a Singapore engineering team working on cloud and analytics infrastructure.

  6. 2006–2010

    Development Manager · Platform Computing

    Built an engineering team in Singapore working on distributed computing and HPC systems.

  7. 2003–2006

    Co-Founder · Scalable Systems

    Co-founded the HPC startup, which Platform Computing acquired in 2006.

  8. ~2000

    Early Linux HPC and Rocks work

    Built early Linux HPC clusters in Singapore and contributed cluster tooling and packaging to the Rocks ecosystem.

Bio

Najib Ninaba is Head of Platforms Engineering at AI Singapore and Senior Associate Director at Nanyang Technological University. He builds tools for agent-assisted development, including Orchard, an open-source platform for sovereign on-premises LLM orchestration.

Read the long bio

Najib Ninaba is Head of Platforms Engineering at AI Singapore, Senior Associate Director at Nanyang Technological University, and a hands-on builder of tools for agent-assisted development. His work sits at the intersection of platform architecture, operational ownership, and the engineering systems that help teams deliver reliably.

Najib began his career around 2000, building early Linux high-performance computing clusters in Singapore. He contributed cluster tooling and packaging to the Rocks ecosystem before co-founding Scalable Systems, an HPC startup acquired by Platform Computing in 2006. He later led engineering teams at Platform Computing and Revolution Analytics, working across distributed computing, cloud infrastructure, and large-scale analytics. He also co-founded Real Analytics, where he worked on data engineering, consulting, and technical training.

In 2017, Najib joined the NUS School of Continuing and Lifelong Education as a Data Engineering Architect, where he lectured in data analytics and data engineering. He joined AI Singapore in January 2018 as one of its original four engineers. He now leads the Platforms Engineering function supporting national AI programmes through hybrid infrastructure, GPU and HPC capacity, MLOps foundations, data platforms, and reliability practices. When AI Singapore transitioned from NUS to NTU in April 2026, Najib became Senior Associate Director at NTU while continuing to lead Platforms Engineering. From 2020 to 2024, he also served on the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore’s Technical Resource Allocation Committee as its Scientific Advisor for AI.

He created Orchard, an open-source platform for sovereign on-premises LLM orchestration, and contributes to and reviews RepoPrompt CE, a context-engineering application for AI coding agents.

Najib’s practical view is that AI makes software cheaper to build, but not cheaper to own. More software creates more systems that must be understood, operated, secured, and maintained. Many of the old HPC habits still apply: clear contracts, observable behavior, disciplined workflows, and ownership after the demo.