Case Study: Engineering an AI-Powered Career Intelligence Platform

The Client

Gradvisor is a UK-based charity on a mission to bridge the opportunity gap for students and recent graduates. Their digital platform connects young people with over 600 professionals sharing authentic career insights across 80+ career paths. For students without established networks, Gradvisor is a lifeline—a digital library of real experiences from relatable voices.

But their technology had become an obstacle to their mission. Every pound spent firefighting technical issues was a pound not spent helping students. Every week of delayed features was a week of missed impact.

The Challenge

Gradvisor came to us in crisis. Their original engineering team had built a platform that, while functional, was buckling under its own weight. As a charity operating on limited funding, they'd made early compromises to get to market quickly. Those compromises had compounded into a platform that was actively hindering their mission.

The Business Reality

User engagement was suffering. Page loads averaged 10 seconds. Students—digital natives with zero patience for lag—were bouncing before they could access the career insights they needed. The platform's slowness was directly undermining Gradvisor's charitable mission.

Feature development had stalled. Even minor changes took 3+ weeks. The roadmap was frozen. While competitors evolved, Gradvisor couldn't respond to user feedback or launch new capabilities. Their product was falling behind.

Costs were unpredictable. The architecture made it impossible to forecast infrastructure spend. For a charity dependent on grants and donations, budget uncertainty created real operational risk.

The team was stuck firefighting. Instead of building features that served students, engineering resources went to fixing regressions, debugging production issues, and working around architectural limitations.

The Technical Reality

The architecture was fundamentally flawed. The previous team had chosen DynamoDB for what was inherently highly relational data: users, careers, recommendations, and connections. Every query fought against the database's design. Simple features required complex workarounds.

Technical debt had reached critical mass. No common libraries. Weak references scattered throughout the codebase. Breaking API changes shipped weekly. Regressions were the norm, not the exception.

There was no safety net. Zero automated tests. Manual releases deployed without verification. Every deployment was a roll of the dice.

The harsh truth: the platform was too far down the wrong track. Patching wasn't an option. The database choice, the deployment architecture, the code quality—everything pointed to one conclusion.

Our Approach

We proposed what many consultancies avoid: a complete platform rebuild. Not because it was easy, but because it was the only path that served Gradvisor's actual needs.

The Business Objective

Gradvisor didn't need a slightly better version of what they had. They needed a platform that would:

• Restore user engagement by delivering the instant responsiveness students expect
• Unblock feature development so they could iterate on their product and serve users better
• Provide cost predictability so they could plan their charitable operations with confidence
• Eliminate operational burden so their team could focus on mission, not maintenance

A patch job might have been cheaper in the short term. But for a charity that needs to maximise every pound of impact, building something that would serve them for years—not months—was the only responsible choice.

The Scale of the Migration

This wasn't a small undertaking:

• 170 API endpoints redesigned, rebuilt, and documented
• 50+ database tables migrated from DynamoDB to a properly normalised relational schema
• Complete data migration with zero data loss
• Full API contract redesign ensuring clean, consistent interfaces

Every endpoint was an opportunity to fix the architectural mistakes of the past. Every table was redesigned to model the domain correctly.

Phase 1: Systems Design

Before writing a line of code, we designed the entire system from the ground up. A new relational database schema that actually modelled their domain. Clean API contracts. A deployment architecture built for performance and maintainability.

Phase 2: Core Platform Rebuild

We rebuilt the platform on enterprise-grade technology—battle-tested frameworks chosen for long-term support and developer familiarity. This wasn't about chasing trends; it was about building something any engineer could understand, maintain, and extend.

Phase 3: Intelligent Services

Gradvisor's AI and recommendation capabilities are what differentiate them from a static content library. These features are central to their value proposition—they're why students return to the platform and why the charity can demonstrate measurable impact to funders. We architected dedicated services for these critical functions, designed to be cost-effective while delivering genuine intelligence.

Recommendation Engine

Our recommendation system matches students with relevant career paths, job opportunities, sectors, and even other users with similar interests. The system analyses:

• User interests and stated preferences
• Engagement patterns and content interactions
• Skills and experience profiles
• Career path compatibility

All built on cost-effective infrastructure that scales with usage rather than burning through budget on idle capacity.

AI-Powered Career Assistant

We built an intelligent chat agent with deep contextual awareness. Using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), the assistant has comprehensive knowledge of:

• The user's profile, interests, and career journey
• The entire Gradvisor content library (6,000+ career insights)
• Available job opportunities and sector information
• Other users and professionals the student might benefit from connecting with

The agent doesn't just answer questions—it proactively recommends roles, jobs, sectors, and connections tailored to each user's unique situation.

Voice Processing Pipeline

To make career insights more accessible, we built a complete voice processing pipeline:

• AI-powered transcription converting audio content to searchable text
• Automatic content indexing for the RAG system
• Quality validation and error handling at scale

Platform metrics at time of writing:

These numbers represent thousands of career insights made searchable and accessible to students who might otherwise never find them. For Gradvisor, this capability transforms their content library from a passive archive into an active, intelligent resource—dramatically increasing the value they deliver per piece of content.

Phase 4: Engineering Excellence

We introduced the practices that separate prototypes from production systems:

• Comprehensive test suites: Unit tests and integration tests across the platform
• Infrastructure as code: Reproducible, version-controlled environments
• Proper release cycles: Development environments, automated testing, performance validation
• CI/CD pipelines: Every change tested before it reaches users

Migration to Hexploits Cloud

After stabilising the platform, we migrated Gradvisor to Hexploits Cloud—our managed infrastructure offering built for organisations that need enterprise reliability without enterprise complexity.

The Same Infrastructure, Better Economics

Gradvisor now runs on the same underlying cloud infrastructure they had before, but with significant improvements:

Why This Matters for Charities

For a charity, every pound matters. Hexploits Cloud delivers:

• Budget predictability: Fixed monthly costs make financial planning straightforward. No more unexpected cloud bills disrupting charitable operations.
• Zero operational overhead: Gradvisor's team focuses on their mission, not on infrastructure. We handle deployments, scaling, security patches, and incident response.
• Faster iteration: With managed rollouts and deployment pipelines, new features reach users faster with less risk.
• Enterprise support: Direct access to the engineers who built their platform, not a generic support queue.

The result: Gradvisor gets more compute power for less money, with none of the operational burden.

Business Intelligence & Observability

A charity lives and dies by its ability to demonstrate impact. Gradvisor needed more than a working platform—they needed the data to prove their value to funders, identify what's working for students, and make informed decisions about where to invest limited resources.

We equipped them with a complete BI and observability stack, prioritising cost-effective tools that deliver enterprise-grade capabilities.

Metabase: The Reporting Hub

Metabase serves as Gradvisor's central reporting platform, providing self-service analytics across the entire organisation.

• Pre-configured dashboards for every part of the business: user engagement, content performance, career path analytics, and operational metrics
• Self-service queries allowing non-technical staff to explore data without engineering support
• Scheduled reports delivered automatically to stakeholders and funders
• Embedded analytics powering data visualisations within the platform itself

Metabase gives Gradvisor enterprise-grade business intelligence at minimal licensing cost—critical for a charity that needs to justify every expense.

PostHog: Product Analytics

PostHog provides deep insight into how users actually interact with the platform:

• Event tracking across every user journey
• Funnel analysis identifying where students drop off and why
• Session recordings for understanding user behaviour
• Feature flags enabling safe, gradual rollouts
• A/B testing for data-driven product decisions

This isn't vanity metrics—it's the data Gradvisor needs to understand which features actually help students and where to focus development effort.

Datadog: Real-Time Observability

For operational visibility, we implemented Datadog with comprehensive monitoring:

• Real-time dashboards showing system health at a glance
• Custom monitors tracking critical business and technical metrics
• Automated alerts notifying the team before users notice issues
• Log aggregation for rapid debugging and incident response
• APM tracing identifying performance bottlenecks

When something goes wrong—or is about to—the team knows immediately.

Compliance & Security

Gradvisor serves students, including potentially vulnerable young adults navigating career uncertainty. This responsibility demanded rigorous attention to compliance and data protection.

GDPR Compliance

We implemented comprehensive GDPR controls:

• Data minimisation and purpose limitation built into the architecture
• User consent management and preference controls
• Right to erasure workflows with complete data deletion
• Data portability enabling users to export their information
• Privacy-by-design principles embedded throughout

ISO 27001 Alignment

Given the sensitive nature of career guidance for young people, we aligned Gradvisor's security practices with ISO 27001 standards:

• Information security policies governing data handling
• Access controls ensuring least-privilege access to systems and data
• Incident response procedures for security events
• Regular security assessments and vulnerability management
• Audit trails tracking system access and data changes

These measures protect both Gradvisor and the students who trust them with their career journeys.

The Results

We delivered a complete platform transformation in 8 weeks—from crisis to production-ready.

User Experience Restored

For a platform serving students, this isn't a technical vanity metric—it's the difference between helping someone and losing them before you can.

Development Velocity Unblocked

Gradvisor can now respond to user feedback, launch new features, and evolve their product—capabilities they'd effectively lost.

Costs Controlled

For a charity, predictable costs mean better financial planning and more confident conversations with funders.

Foundation for Growth

• Standardised architecture: Future engineers can onboard quickly, reducing dependency on any single team
• Scalable infrastructure: The platform handles growth without re-architecture
• Complete observability: Real-time insight into what's working and what isn't
• Compliance-ready: GDPR and ISO 27001 aligned practices protect students and satisfy due diligence

The Impact

For Students

The platform now responds instantly. The AI assistant knows their context and provides genuinely helpful guidance. Voice content is transcribed and searchable. Recommendations actually match their interests.

More importantly: students who would have bounced after 10 seconds of loading now stay, explore, and find the career insights they need. The technology no longer stands between Gradvisor and the people they're trying to help.

For Gradvisor as an Organisation

The transformation goes beyond technical metrics:

• Mission amplification: Technology now enables their work instead of constraining it
• Resource efficiency: Every pound of charitable budget goes further—no more burning money on firefighting
• Operational freedom: The team focuses on content, community, and impact—not infrastructure maintenance
• Funder confidence: Predictable costs and demonstrable platform metrics strengthen grant applications
• Future readiness: The platform can grow with their ambitions without requiring another rebuild

This is what we mean by value-focused engineering. We didn't just fix their technology—we removed a bottleneck from their charitable mission.

Why It Worked

Gradvisor succeeded because we approached the engagement as partners invested in their mission, not contractors billing for hours.

Many consultancies would have proposed incremental fixes—safer for the consultant, but ultimately more expensive for the client. We recognised that Gradvisor's real problem wasn't technical debt; it was that technical debt was blocking their charitable impact. The right solution was the one that unblocked their mission fastest, even if it meant proposing a more ambitious rebuild.

Every architectural decision flowed from business objectives: What helps students most? What gives Gradvisor the most operational freedom? What makes their limited budget go furthest? Technical excellence in service of mission—not technology for its own sake.

Our Commitment to Value

We measure success by our clients' success. For Gradvisor, that means:

• A platform that serves students instantly, not after a 10-second wait
• Infrastructure that costs less and requires no operational attention
• A foundation that grows with their mission for years to come
• The data and tools to demonstrate impact to funders

This is the standard we hold ourselves to. Charities don't have budget to waste on technology that doesn't work. We build things that do.

Gradvisor continues to serve thousands of UK students, connecting them with career insights that would otherwise be locked behind networks they don't have access to. With nearly 70,000 AI transcriptions processed and growing, their platform handles this mission at the speed and intelligence their users expect. Technology that enables mission. This is how we build.