Available · open to conversations
GATES/CHI
Chicago
RoleAI & Cloud Architect
FocusAI · Cloud · Architecture
CloudAzure
Index001 / 2026

I build the
invisible scaffolding —
systems that don't
get noticed.

Gates ChiSignature
2026Last deploy
v 1.0.0Portfolio build
AI & Cloud ArchitecturePractice

Architect at the intersection of AI engineering, cloud platforms, and enterprise systems. I turn ambiguous goals into systems that ship — Azure-native, well-architected, and pragmatic about the boring details that decide whether something actually works in production.

Azure Azure OpenAI Kubernetes AKS Terraform Bicep LangChain Databricks Synapse Microsoft Fabric Delta Lake RAG Vector DBs Agents Semantic Kernel Python TypeScript FastAPI TOGAF Zero Trust Entra ID Azure Azure OpenAI Kubernetes AKS Terraform Bicep LangChain Databricks Synapse Microsoft Fabric Delta Lake RAG Vector DBs Agents Semantic Kernel Python TypeScript FastAPI TOGAF Zero Trust Entra ID
01 / Capabilities

What I work with, stack by stack.

01 / 06

AI & Agentic Systems

LLM applications, RAG pipelines, and agent workflows. End-to-end ownership from prompt engineering and evaluation to guardrails, cost control, and production deployment on enterprise-grade infrastructure.

Azure OpenAILangChainRAGVector DBAgentsSemantic Kernel
02 / 06

Cloud Architecture

Azure-first solution architecture: landing zones, hub-and-spoke networking, identity, and Well-Architected designs. Cost, security, and reliability treated as first-class concerns — never afterthoughts.

AzureAKSAPI ManagementBicepTerraformFront Door
03 / 06

Data & Platform

Data platforms that AI workloads can actually rely on. Ingestion, transformation, governance, lineage, and serving layers tuned for analytics, BI, and machine learning.

DatabricksSynapseFabricDelta LakeLakehousePurview
04 / 06

DevOps & Platform Eng

CI/CD, IaC, and developer experience that lets teams ship fast without breaking trust. Treating MLOps, DataOps, and platform engineering as one cohesive discipline.

GitHub ActionsAzure DevOpsDockerKubernetesHelmObservability
05 / 06

Enterprise & Strategy

Translating ambiguous business goals into defensible technology roadmaps. Bridging the C-suite and the engineering team — capable of running a steering committee and a sprint review in the same day.

TOGAFCloud StrategyRoadmapsTOMFinOpsVendor Advisory
06 / 06

Security & Identity

Designing zero-trust architectures and identity-first platforms. Threat modelling baked into design reviews; compliance treated as a feature, not a final-stage tax.

Zero TrustEntra IDDefenderSentinelKey VaultRBAC
8+
Years in tech
30+
Cloud & AI projects shipped
12
Industry sectors served
Whiteboards filled
— Certifications & credentials
Azure Solutions Architect Expert Azure AI Engineer Associate Azure Data Engineer Associate TOGAF 9 Certified Databricks Data Engineer
02 / Operating Notes

Principles, in practice.

gates@gateschi.com · ~/architecture · zsh
# pre-flight before any new build
$ arch review --client acme --scope ai-platform
› business goal alignment .... clear
› azure landing zone ......... in place
› identity (Entra ID) ........ federated
› data classification ........ in progress
› ai workload pattern ........ RAG + agents
 
$ arch design --pattern rag --eval enabled
› vector store (AI Search) ... provisioned
› orchestration (Sem. Kernel) scaffolded
› eval harness (promptflow) .. wired
› cost guardrails (Azure) .... budget alerts on
› awaiting stakeholder review

— Field notes / operating principles

01
Bounded autonomy over blind automation.

Agents should propose, not execute. A well-scoped approval gate is worth a hundred impressive demos.

02
Idempotence is a feature, not a byproduct.

Run it again. Run it a thousand times. The fingerprint of the system should not change.

03
Infrastructure is code, so it is reviewed.

GitOps isn't a slogan. Every change has an author, a diff, a reviewer, and a rollback.

04
Observability is negotiated early.

Metrics, logs, and traces get designed alongside the thing — not bolted on after the first incident.

05
Boring tech, bold composition.

PostgreSQL, Terraform, Bicep, Helm — boring and predictable. Spend novelty budget on the composition, not the parts.

03 / Currently Exploring

Where my attention is.

/ 001
Agentic systems — at scale
Multi-agent orchestration · tool-calling · guardrails
Multi-agent orchestration patterns, tool-calling protocols, and the guardrails needed to put autonomous systems in front of real users without losing sleep.
MCP Semantic Kernel LangGraph
/ 002
AI Foundry — Microsoft's evolving GenAI stack
Azure AI Foundry · Semantic Kernel · model catalogs
Where Microsoft's GenAI tooling is heading, how it composes with open-source frameworks, and the architectural decisions that age well across a 2-3 year horizon.
Azure AI Foundry Model Catalogs Promptflow
/ 003
Platform engineering — internal developer platforms
Backstage · golden paths · self-service
Backstage, golden paths, and internal developer platforms that scale expertise instead of bottlenecking on it. The boring infrastructure of "shipping more software, more reliably."
Backstage IDP Golden Paths
/ 004
FinOps for AI — the surprisingly nuanced cost model
Token economics · GPU planning · unit economics
Token economics, GPU capacity planning, and the unit economics of running LLMs in production. Most "AI cost overruns" are architectural decisions made before the first invoice arrived.
FinOps Cost Modelling Capacity Planning

Let's put something
in production.

— Email
gates@gateschi.com
— LinkedIn
in/yuxiangchi
— Domain
gateschi.com
— Focus
AI & Cloud Architecture
— Cloud
Azure-first
— Availability
Open to conversations