AltiChi

Brandon T. Chihota.

Focus Area Technology & AI Solutions

Background

Enterprise SaaS, Technology & AI Delivery

An enthusiast of technology and innovative solutions, always drawn to exciting products and IT that create real impact. Over 5 years delivering enterprise SaaS, AI, and cloud initiatives across regulated industries and higher education, with an HBA in Economics from York University bringing analytical rigour and systems thinking to every engagement. Currently completing a Cloud Computing program at Humber Polytechnic, driven by a genuine passion for continual development and staying at the forefront of emerging technology. This combination of business acumen, technical depth, and creative background in painting and fine art positions a uniquely well-rounded leader, one who understands the business case, can lead the technical delivery, and brings design thinking to every product decision.

Experienced public speaker and Master of Ceremony for two consecutive convocation seasons at Global University Systems Canada. Widely described by peers and stakeholders as welcoming, kind, and deeply collaborative, bringing high attention to detail, exceptional communication skills, and a warm, energetic presence to every team and engagement. Known for being the sunshine in the room, a creative force and a professional who leads with both heart and results.

Proven at Scale

Results, Teams & Delivery Track Record

Delivered multimillion-dollar SaaS implementations across 7+ institutions in higher education and regulated industries, serving over 10,000+ users across U.S. and Canadian operations. Achieved 100% operational adoption, a 70% reduction in core workflow times, and a 90% deliverable acceptance rate through structured UAT and QA processes.

Led cross-functional delivery teams of 5 to 10 spanning engineers, product owners, QA analysts, and UX designers, simultaneously across multiple concurrent initiatives. Managed stakeholder relationships at executive level, including VPs of Operations and Executive Directors of IT and Digital Transformation, consistently translating complex technical requirements into clear delivery roadmaps across engineering teams, sponsors, and end users.

Now

Building Cloud-Native Expertise

AWS

Cloud Platform

Docker

Containers

K8s

Kubernetes

Terraform

Python

SQL

MySQL

PMP

Project Mgmt

SAFe

Agilist

CSM

Scrum Master

CSPO

Product Owner

HBA

Economics · York

UI/UX · BrainStation

🎨

Visual Art

Cloud

In Progress ●

View My Work Read the Blog

Open to Opportunities · Toronto, ON

10K+ Users Served

100% Adoption Rate

70% Faster Workflows

7+ Institutions Led

90% Acceptance Rate

5–10 Team Size

PMP CERTIFIED

AI SOLUTIONS

CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE

UX / UI DESIGN

AUTOMATION

PUBLIC SPEAKER

HBA ECONOMICS

03 — Featured Projects

Delivered at Scale.

FEATURED PROJECT

Multi-Institution Student Systems Modernization

Problem7 higher education institutions were running disconnected legacy systems with no unified student data platform, creating operational bottlenecks affecting 10,000+ students and staff across two countries.

Led enterprise Student Management System (SMS) transformation across 7+ higher education institutions supporting 10,000+ students and staff across U.S. and Canadian operations. Managed project budgets up to $100K and cross-functional delivery teams of 5 to 10, reducing core operational workflows by up to 70% across implementation cycles spanning 4 weeks to 3 months.

SaaS Implementation Edtech API Integration SSO / MFA Figma Power BI

10,000+ Users

Students & staff across U.S. & Canadian operations

100% Adoption

Full adoption achieved across all 7+ institutions

70% Faster

Core workflow time reduced from 5–7 min down to 1–2 min

Integrations Shipped

MFA + SSO CIBC ISP AI Chatbot Power BI Turnitin

Oil & Gas

Pipeline Risk Modeling Platforms: Oil & Gas

ProblemMajor U.S. pipeline operators lacked a modern, cloud-hosted risk modeling platform capable of meeting PHMSA regulatory requirements across transmission, distribution, and storage assets at scale.

Directed multimillion-dollar SaaS implementations supporting probability-based risk modeling across transmission, distribution, and storage pipeline assets for major U.S. pipeline operators. Led cross-functional squads of 8 through requirements, UAT, and production deployment to ensure the safety, integrity, and maintenance of pipeline infrastructure in full compliance with PHMSA regulations, the federal framework governing U.S. hazardous liquid and gas pipeline operations.

Transmission High-pressure long-haul ↗

Distribution Local delivery networks ↗

Storage Strategic reserves ↗

Risk Modeling Cloud Hosted Regulated Jira Mavenlink

AI First

First AI Chatbot Implementation: Student Portal

ProblemStudents and prospective applicants across 7+ institutions had no 24/7 self-service support channel, placing unsustainable load on staff and creating inconsistent information experiences across campuses.

Led the organization's first AI implementation from strategic inception through scaled multi-institution deployment. Coordinated directly with the Executive Director of Digital Transformation, the Executive Director of IT & Infrastructure, and the Vice President of Operations, Enterprise Systems & Digital Transformation to conduct a structured build vs. buy evaluation, proceeding with a third-party proof of concept before determining the path to scale. Managed the full implementation lifecycle including cross-departmental knowledge base development to train the LLM across student, faculty, and public inquiry domains. Established a dual monitoring framework pairing a dedicated accuracy review team with hallucination safeguards, and led go-live communications, staff training, and a continuous improvement roadmap to deliver a 24/7 high-availability solution scalable across all institutions.

AI / LLM Build vs. Buy Knowledge Base Dual Monitoring 24/7 Availability

Security

Secure Portal & Authentication Enhancements

ProblemEnterprise portals lacked multi-layered authentication, and students had no way to pay fees directly within institutional platforms, creating both a security risk and a fragmented digital experience.

Implemented Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Single Sign-On (SSO) across enterprise portals, and led the integration of a secure payment API with CIBC, one of Canada's largest Schedule I chartered banks, enabling students to transact directly within institutional platforms.

🔐 MFA & SSO Enterprise auth hardening ↗

🏦 CIBC Payment API Secure banking integration ↗

SSO / MFA Figma CIBC ISP Security

Integrations

LMS & Data Integration Programs

ProblemCanvas LMS operated in isolation from key institutional tools, leaving academic integrity, reporting, and student communications as manual, disconnected processes across a multi-institution environment.

Led a strategic vendor integration program on the Canvas LMS platform, used across hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide, coordinating directly with third-party vendors to deliver integrations aligned to institutional priorities and roadmap planning.

🎓 Canvas LMS Global platform context ↗

🔗 Vendor Integrations Turnitin, Power BI, SMS ↗

Canvas LMS Turnitin Power BI Vendor Management

Cloud — AWS

Fault-Tolerant AWS Admissions Architecture

ProblemA university application needed a production-grade cloud infrastructure capable of surviving component failures without downtime, with no existing AWS architecture in place to build from.

Designed and built a fault-tolerant AWS architecture for a university admissions web application using Amazon EC2 compute instances, an Application Load Balancer (ALB) for traffic distribution, Auto Scaling to four instances under load testing conditions, and Amazon RDS for managed relational database services, validating high availability under simulated peak traffic.

EC2

ALB

Auto Scaling

RDS

Cloud — DevOps

Cloud-Native Microservices Platform

ProblemA monolithic banking application needed to be decomposed into independently deployable services with automated delivery pipelines — applying real-world DevOps practices in a cloud-native environment.

Building a cloud-native microservices platform on AWS using containerized services and CI/CD pipelines to support scalable, automated software delivery across independently deployable services. Developing hands-on containerization experience with Docker, including packaging and running a functional Python banking application as a containerized workload, applying real-world DevOps practices to cloud infrastructure design.

Docker

CI/CD

Python

AWS

06 — Tech Insights

Thoughts from
the Field.

Practical perspectives on cloud computing, SaaS delivery, and leading technology initiatives in regulated industries, drawn from real project experience.

View All Posts →

Cloud Computing

From PM to Cloud AI: Leading the Next Wave of Intelligent Infrastructure

My second semester dives into generative AI, machine learning security, and cloud automation. Here is what it means to lead technology initiatives when the infrastructure itself is starting to think, and why a PM perspective on AI architecture matters more than most people expect.

Coming Soon 8 min read

Project Management

Delivering SaaS in Regulated Environments: Lessons from Oil & Gas

Coming Soon 6 min read