New York, NY · Enterprise deployment

Brandon
Qiao

Senior Deployment Engineer

I take enterprise software from signed contract to go‑live. Requirements with the customer, configuration built around how they actually work, data migration, validation, then the cutover itself. Six years of it in regulated, mission‑critical environments, where the work rewards being self‑sufficient: finding the answer, building the tool that was missing, and moving on it before anyone has to ask.

How I work Full background (PDF)
  • Now Sectra North America
  • Focus Cloud migration & automation
  • Certified Microsoft Azure (AZ‑900)
Brandon Qiao presenting a deployment architecture diagram
6+ Years deploying enterprise software
$120M+ Project portfolio under my technical ownership
80% Faster deployments after automating the process
1,000+ Mission-critical tickets resolved

How I work

Deployments that land the first time

Enterprise customers do not get a maintenance window because a deployment ran long. That constraint shapes everything: plan the whole path before touching anything, automate what repeats, and validate against the way people actually work rather than the spec sheet.

Ownership from contract to go-live

Requirements with the customer, configuration around their workflow, data migration, validation, go‑live, then a clean handoff to support. Right now that means three large enterprise deployments running in parallel and technical ownership of ten projects worth over $120 million.

  • Requirements with IT and the people using it
  • Workflow-driven configuration and validation
  • Go-live command and post-live stabilization

The cloud playbook, written from scratch

Sole engineer on the company’s first Azure Cloud customer, picking up the configuration once the cloud team handed off infrastructure. No precedent, no runbook. That deployment became the model every SaaS customer has followed since.

  • Azure infrastructure handoff to full configuration
  • SQL Server Always On migrations
  • Identity, certificates and compliance

Automation in place of runbooks

Manual runbooks are how configuration drift reaches production. Replacing ours with PowerShell that installs the software and drives configuration through an internal API means the same result every time, and about 80% faster than doing it by hand.

  • PowerShell deployment and configuration framework
  • API-driven setup in place of manual steps
  • Adopted company-wide as the standard

Experience

Six years, one product, every layer of it

I started on the support desk and worked outward: tickets, then escalations, then the deployments themselves. Knowing exactly how a system fails at 2 a.m. is what makes the difference when you are the one designing it.

  1. Jan 2025 – Present

    Senior Deployment Engineer

    Sectra North America · Shelton, CT

    • Technical point of contact for 10 enterprise projects totaling over $120 million.
    • Ran three large enterprise deployments in parallel, each through go-live and into a clean handoff to support.
    • Integrate SaaS software into enterprise workflows, bridging solution architecture with what end users actually need.
    • Automate deployment and configuration in PowerShell against an internal API, retiring manual install runbooks.

  2. Jun 2022 – Jan 2025

    Lead Systems Engineer

    Sectra North America · Shelton, CT

    • Led and deployed the champion customer into Azure Cloud, owning full configuration after infrastructure handoff and setting the SaaS deployment model still used today.
    • Managed data migrations into a SQL Server Always On environment to move customer data safely.
    • Drove company-wide adoption of an automated script framework, cutting deployment time by 80% and removing manual configuration errors.
    • Presented completed deployments company-wide to keep transitions to support clean and consistent.

  3. Nov 2021 – Jun 2022

    L2 Support Engineer

    Sectra North America · Shelton, CT

    • Worked over a thousand mission-critical tickets across hundreds of enterprise systems spanning thousands of servers.
    • Led global open-issue meetings, documenting solutions and change requests into a living knowledge base.

  4. May 2020 – Nov 2021

    L1 Support Engineer

    Sectra North America · Shelton, CT

    • Spotted a regional knowledge gap in a specialty workflow and filled the role myself within my first year.
    • Delivered white-glove support to enterprise admins, keeping business-critical systems continuously available.
    • Trusted with mentoring new hires through onboarding and internal workflows.

  5. Feb 2018 – May 2020

    Assistant System Administrator

    University of Connecticut, Student Affairs IT · Storrs, CT

    • Wrote Bash and PowerShell automation for server processes, data validation, firewalls and certificates.
    • Deployed Windows and Raspberry Pi images alongside senior system administrators.

Skills

What I work with

Integration standards on one side, Windows and Azure infrastructure on the other, and scripting to hold the two together.

Deployment
& integration
RESTful APIsData migrationMirth Connect HL7DICOM
Infrastructure
Microsoft AzureSQL Server Always OnIIS TCP/IPLoad balancingWindows Server Unix / LinuxmacOS
Languages
& scripting
PowerShellPythonBash BatchSQLGit
Security
& compliance
Microsoft Entra IDOktaDuoSAML LDAPSSSL/TLS lifecycleHIPAA
Tools
JiraConfluenceVisioVS Code ClaudeRemote Desktop ManagerJAMF Microsoft 365WiresharkGrafana

Recognition & education

Along the way

2026

Seniority Award

Sectra Global

For technical leadership across North American deployments.

2021

Collaboration Award

Sectra North America

For technical leadership and expertise on sophisticated software issues.

2026

Azure Fundamentals (AZ‑900)

Microsoft Certified

Cloud concepts, Azure services, governance and cost management.

Contact

Always up for talking shop

Deployment automation, cloud migrations, systems integration, or how to run a cutover nobody notices. If you are working on any of it, I would enjoy the conversation.

brandon@brandonqiao.com