Lieu Thai received his Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering (1st Class Honours) from Swinburne University of Technology. He obtained his MEng in the field of deep excavation and soil-structure interaction from the same institution.
He joined Swinburne University of Technology as an Associate Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering, Computing, and Science and was subsequently appointed as a Lecturer in 2015. He is also a Chartered Professional Engineer of Engineers Australia.