Studio Kids Management

The problem

The owner could track only one project at a time digitally, resetting progress for the next one and relying on printouts to keep other active projects organized. Email was manual, and families had to send information to a single staff member who copied it into the system. The replacement needed to preserve each project’s progress, automate communication, and let families provide their own information while protecting sensitive records.

How I approached it

I designed three connected applications—an internal staff operations portal, a family onboarding and self-service portal, and the public marketing and intake site—around a shared 71-table PostgreSQL schema, with separate access boundaries for staff, families, public forms, and the AI assistant. App Service connects to PostgreSQL through private networking; Entra ID manages staff sign-in, and Key Vault supplies keys for sensitive-field encryption. I also built the Python migration and media-conversion pipelines needed to bring legacy records and images into the new platform.

Inside the build

• Scaled agency operations from single-project tracking to 90+ active projects by building three connected Next.js/TypeScript apps as sole engineer over a shared 71-table PostgreSQL schema.
• Automated project email with Microsoft Graph and built family self-service forms, replacing manual messages and staff copy-paste with direct digital intake.
• Owned Azure operations and GitHub Actions CI/CD, including private PostgreSQL networking, Entra ID auth, Key Vault encryption, and 700+ automated tests.
• Built an Azure OpenAI staff assistant with 27 permission-filtered tools, read-only database access, sensitive-data screening, and human-reviewed drafts for changes.
• Implemented Entra ID / Easy Auth sign-in with JWT signature verification, four application roles with granular permissions, and AES-256-GCM encryption for sensitive fields using a key retrieved from Azure Key Vault.
• Built scheduled email with an Azure Logic App defined in Bicep, a leased worker with per-recipient retries and audit records, and delivery through Microsoft Graph.
• Upgraded production PostgreSQL from version 14 to 16, configured storage auto-grow and 35-day backup retention, and evolved the shared schema through roughly 50 reviewed migrations.
• Modernized the agency’s data infrastructure, from an on-premise SQL Server migration to Azure SQL to a resumable Python pipeline for the new PostgreSQL platform, with checkpoint recovery and audit logging.
• Recovered legacy binary images, converted them into web-safe formats, and stored them in Azure Blob Storage for use in the new applications.
• Built GitHub Actions CI/CD with automated tests, a gated deployment branch, and startup migrations; documented deployment, authentication, recovery, and tenant migration in operational runbooks.

The result

In October 2026, the owner reported managing 90 active projects at different stages in that week’s workload. Each project now retains its progress, replacing the old single-project workflow and paper tracking. Automated email and family self-service reduce manual messages and staff copy-paste; a digital wizard replaces the seven-page registration packet. Daily operations are now largely digital and automated, and the owner uses Outlook with the studiokidsmanagement.com domain instead of Gmail. The admin platform has 700+ automated tests, and my responsibility spans application development, Azure infrastructure, identity, database operations, and deployment.