A member of the country's governing People's Action Party (PAP), he is currently the Deputy Prime Minister (since 2019), Minister for Finance (since 2015) and First Assistant Secretary-General of the country's governing People’s Action Party (PAP) (since 2018) under the current Prime Minister and the Secretary-General of the People's Action Party, Lee Hsien Loong.
He was previously the Minister for Education from May 2011 to September 2015.
He has been a member of parliament (MP) representing the Tampines Group Representation Constituency (Tampines GRC) since the 2011 general election.
He is currently the first assistant secretary-general of the People's Action Party and is poised to be the next Prime Minister of Singapore, succeeding Lee Hsien Loong.
On 1 May 2019, Heng became the 12th Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore.
He is also the first solo Deputy PM in 34 years.
From 1985 to 2019, Singapore had two sitting deputy prime ministers working at the same time.
Prior to his election to Parliament, Heng served as the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) from 2005 to 2011.