Skip to content
Cristóbal Garrido Olivares

Cristóbal Garrido Olivares

IT Project Manager | Santiago, Chile

How can I help?

I lead technology projects that change how organizations sell to and serve their customers.

  • Digital & Process Transformation
  • Salesforce CRM
  • Applied AI
Download resume (PDF) Contact
  • ≈2,000programs in the UC digital channel whose renewal I lead
  • 11macro-processes in the process map I designed
  • 44business workflows being mapped
  • ≈10,000customers affected by a failure I fixed at La Polar

Profile

Industrial Engineer with four years delivering digital transformation projects on Salesforce CRM in higher education and consumer finance. I connect business processes, technology and customer experience: process redesign, RFPs and vendor management, cost analysis, digital payments and automation with Python and AI, through matrix leadership.

I design, direct and validate solutions built with AI agents, with human review, and apply them to project management.

Skills

  • IT project management
  • Digital transformation
  • Business process reengineering (BPMN)
  • Requirements and RFPs
  • Vendor and stakeholder management
  • Cost analysis (CAPEX/OPEX)
  • Agile and Scrum
  • Salesforce (Experience and Service Cloud)
  • Integrations and APIs
  • Digital payments
  • Website migration and SEO
  • Python
  • SQL
  • Jira and Confluence

Experience

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Aug. 2024 – present

IT Project Manager, Continuing Education

One of Latin America's leading universities

  • Lead the renewal of Continuing Education's digital channel for marketing, admissions and payments (about 2,000 programs), integrated with Salesforce, with Admissions, Marketing, Finance, IT and vendors.
  • Designed Continuing Education's process map (11 macro-processes) and lead the mapping of its 44 business workflows: the foundation for the RFP, business rules and data model.
  • Structured requirements and the RFP, took part in vendor evaluation and selection, and coordinate two technology vendors, tracking milestones and reporting to the steering committee.
  • Prepare cost analyses (CAPEX and OPEX), design payment flows and lead the international payments pilot.
  • Plan the redirects of 14,000 URLs and automated catalog data-quality checks with Python and AI.

Empresas La Polar S.A.

Nov. 2022 – Aug. 2024

Salesforce Systems Analyst

IT Division, Chilean retailer and consumer credit provider

  • Took over SoftToken when my manager moved roles (in-app transaction authentication replacing SMS one-time passwords): designed the flow and integrations, managed two vendors, led QA and delivered it to production.
  • After the project manager and deputy manager left, ran the Salesforce projects reporting to IT senior management, with two teams of about 8 people (Experience and Service Cloud): digital card onboarding and the customer portal.
  • Found and fixed a password-recovery failure affecting about 10,000 customers.
  • Launched and led the first phase of the card core-system migration after the merger with ABCDin (now ABC).

Earlier

  • TeSuma | Co-founder, Business Development2021 – 2022
  • Universidad Arturo Prat | University Lecturer in Engineering2022 – 2023

Selected cases

What needed solving, what I did and where it landed.

  • UC Continuing EducationIn progress

    A process map to renew the digital channel

    Challenge
    Renew the channel where about 2,000 programs are marketed, sold and paid for. I started with the processes.
    What I did
    Proposed a four-level structure (macro-process, process, sub-process and feature) and set up weekly deliveries with one lead per area, cross-area review and sign-off by senior management.
    Outcome
    11 macro-processes and 44 business workflows being mapped: the foundation of the RFP, the user stories and the data model.
  • UC Continuing EducationIn progress

    From requirements to vendors

    What I did
    Structured the requirements and the RFP, and took part in vendor scouting and evaluation, with cost analysis (CAPEX and OPEX), and in the award.
    Today
    I coordinate two technology vendors, tracking milestones and reporting to the steering committee.
  • UC Continuing Education

    AI applied to data quality

    What I did
    Directed an automated review, in Python with AI support, of the catalog of about 2,000 programs before loading it into the new website.
    How I work
    I design, direct and validate; key decisions stay under human review.
  • La Polar

    Transaction authentication without SMS

    Challenge
    La Polar validated transactions with SMS one-time passwords, a recurring cost.
    What I did
    Took over the SoftToken project when my manager moved roles: designed the flow and integrations, managed the authentication vendor and the app developer, and led QA with Cybersecurity.
    Outcome
    Delivered it to production: in-app authentication replacing SMS passwords.
  • La Polar

    A failure affecting about 10,000 customers

    What I did
    From second-level Salesforce support, I found that password recovery was failing for about 10,000 customers.
    Outcome
    Found the root cause and fixed it with the platform administrator.
  • La Polar

    Leading beyond the job title

    What I did
    My title was analyst. After my manager and the deputy manager left, I ran the Salesforce projects reporting to senior IT management, with two teams of about 8 people.
    Role
    I was IT's visible face to the Commercial, Operations and Cybersecurity areas.

Education, languages and leadership

Education & languages

  • Industrial Engineer (Ingeniero Civil Industrial)Universidad de Santiago de Chile
  • MSc in PhysicsRUDN University, Moscow, taught in Russian
  • Salesforce Certified Associate2025
  • LanguagesSpanish (native), English and Russian (professional)

International leadership

  • Speaker RelationsSouth American Space Generation Workshop (SGAC, 2026), including a panel in English. Certificate of Honour.
  • PresidentChilean Students Association in Russia (2018 – 2020)

Contact

How can I help?

Let's talk on LinkedIn or by email.

LinkedIn garrido.kao@gmail.com