CAIRA Platform

Problem

Accounting professionals are being asked to prove AI proficiency, and a video library cannot certify anyone. CAIRA needed globally trained faculty running live lectures, attendance observed accurately enough to underwrite NASBA CPE credit, and a completed tier that produces a certification employers recognise.

What I built

• The learner-facing platform for the three-tier certification: Bronze for AI readiness, Silver for applied AI across audit, tax and advisory, and Gold for a governed firm-wide AI operating model.
• Zoom SDK integration so learners attend live faculty lectures inside the product rather than being handed a meeting link.
• The credits system: attendance converts to NASBA CPE credit, and credit accumulates toward certification and the next tier.
• Achievement badges learners can share wherever they want their progress seen.
• Entitlement handling so registered CPA and CMA candidates get Bronze access automatically — one learner identity spanning three products.
• Frontend binding against a Django REST API owned by another team, on the same platform patterns as the certification products.

Technical decisions & trade-offs

• The Zoom SDK is embedded rather than linked out: credit depends on attendance, so attendance has to be observed by the product instead of attested afterwards.
• Credits and badges are deliberately separate. Credit is a regulated unit governed by certification rules; a badge is social proof. Conflating them would couple a compliance concern to a marketing one.
• A learner’s tier is computed from credit history rather than stored as a flag, so a learner’s standing cannot drift from the record behind it.
• Cross-product entitlement resolves at the platform boundary, so enrolment in another product grants access without either side knowing the other’s internals.
• Reused the existing platform patterns and design system instead of starting a third visual language.

Challenges solved

• Attendance accurate enough to underwrite a certification credit — a join event is not attendance, and certification cannot be issued on the weaker signal.
• Cross-product entitlement, where free access for registered candidates depends on state living in two other platforms.
• Integrating a backend owned by another team without letting its shape leak through the frontend.

Outcome

Shipped in 2025 and serving 10K+ learners. Accountants trained through globally delivered live lectures hold a certification with CPE credit behind it — and a badge they can share wherever they want it seen.