From McDonald’s and Dennys to trains and trackways: How working in food service formed top engineering manager Ni Lee’s work philosophy

Ni Lee, PE, PMP, Group Manager and Deputy Project Director for VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project, pictured outside BART Headquarters in Oakland. 

In 16 years at BART, Ni Lee, PE, PMP, has been promoted six times. At this rate, she’s averaging a promotion every 2.67 years.  

The secret to her success? 

“Much of what I know,” she said, “I learned as a food server.” 

Ni started working in food service when she was in middle school, serving donuts at a local shop. In the years that followed, she worked at a smattering of restaurants in both Taiwan, where she was born, and California. The list includes McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s, and Dennys, to name a few. Her last job in the industry was working as a server at California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville.  

Lee’s current work environment is quite different than those she grew up in. Now a top engineering manager, Lee says much of what she knows about working and managing others crystallized while she was waiting tables and daydreaming about what her future might hold. Writing a book about her restaurant days is on her “secret bucket list.”  

Lee is the Group Manager and Deputy Project Director for VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project. It’s a big job with an admittedly long title. In the role, she manages a team of seven who are responsible for collaborating with the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) throughout the phases of design, construction, testing, and commissioning of the Silicon Valley Phase II Project, emphasizing a strong commitment on safety and reliability. 

Lee wants her staff to feel supported and empowered. As a leader, her goal is to foster a work environment founded on trust, one in which her employees have the right tools and guidance to be successful. Mentoring and supporting their growth is central to her management philosophy, and in her time at BART, she’s finetuned countless resumes and mapped out many a career plan.  

But the teaching goes both ways, she said. In her conversation with BART Communications, Lee referenced a Chinese proverb: “三人行, 必有我師.” In English, the phrase translates roughly to: “When you’re in a company of three, you will find a teacher.”  

“I believe that everyone’s my teacher – my supervisor, my peers, my teams,” she said. “I can learn something from anyone.” 

Lee was raised between Taiwan and Southern California. Regularly switching between continents was hard. She had to constantly make new friends, and out of necessity, she admits she got pretty good at it.  

“This was before the internet and cell phones,” she said. Long-distance calls were expensive, so Ni and her overseas friends sent each other notes in the post.  

Lee's congeniality proved especially useful years later as an engineering student at UC Berkeley. She studied electrical engineering and computer sciences, and in one of her classes, there was an option to enter her team’s final project into a robotics competition. Their project was building a robot “to help socially awkward engineers make friends.”  

“It would come out, do a little dance, and then say pickup lines in three different languages,” Lee said. Her favorite line was, “Hey baby, what’s your major? Is it looking good?”  

Said Lee with a laugh: “We didn’t win.” 

The project sparked a passion for robotics in Lee, especially the realm of autonomous vehicles (this was years before Waymos were cruising San Francisco streets). In her senior year, Lee founded and served as the first president of Cal Robotics, a student organization that fostered a community of robotics enthusiasts. The club doesn’t appear to be operating anymore, but Lee and her Cal Robotics colleagues undoubtedly paved the way for the many robotics clubs currently active on the UC Berkeley campus (the university even has a robotics lab now!).  

While a student at UC Berkeley, Lee also had her first exposure to BART. She didn’t own a car, so “BART and AC Transit were always there for me.” Though she never did finish the autonomous vehicle she designed as an undergrad, “BART’s fully automatic,” she pointed out, and that satisfies the “geekiness in me." 

Lee came to BART from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). She worked closely with BART in her role and quickly realized that the BART staff she worked with “all radiated the same passion.” She wanted to be a part of it.  

In 2008, Lee joined BART as a Safety Specialist in Operations Safety. Things snowballed from there. Since that first job, Lee has served as Senior Operations Safety Specialist, Manager of Operations Safety, Project Manager (this was a “pivot moment” for her career, she said), Manager of Engineering Programs, Senior Manager of Engineering Programs, and now Group Manager. 

And who knows where Lee will soar from here? She's not totally sure either.  

“I should know this because I do career plans,” she said. “Where’s my career plan, ha.” 

Lee can say with certainty that she wants to continue mentoring people. 

“I was afforded that by many, many people throughout my career,” she said. And she wants to repay the favor.  

This story ends where it began. May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and Lee always celebrates the month with delicious meals shared with family, friends, and colleagues. 

“I’m very honored and humbled that there’s an entire month dedicated to celebrating my heritage,” she said. “I’m grateful to the trailblazers who paved the way, and I do feel like I have an obligation to promote cultural awareness.” 

Her favorite way to do so is through food, she said.  

“The month encompasses so many diverse, rich cultures and histories,” she continued, and with that, many different cuisines and dishes and flavors.  

“Who doesn’t love a variety of delicious and diverse food?” she said in closing.  

BART wishes you a wonderful Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. More than 24% of BART employees are members of the AAPI community (as of May 1, 2024), and we want to honor and recognize the ways their heritages and cultures have contributed to BART and our region.  

In celebration of the month, BART Communications interviewed Ni Lee, Group Manager and Deputy Project Director for VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase II Project. Lee discusses growing up between Taiwan and Southern California, the many lessons she learned working in food service, and shares her favorite recipe for hot pot dipping sauce. 

BART celebrates heritage and diversity months throughout the year, and with stories such as Lee’s, we want to recognize some of the exceptional employees in our organization.   

Read about another amazing AAPI BART employee, Crisis Intervention Specialist Caryl Blount on bart.gov/news.  

And check out BARTable’s suggestions for celebrating AAPI Heritage Month near BART stations.