Cloud-native document processing pipeline

The problem

A manual, paper-based student loan application process was causing delays and giving processing teams poor visibility.

The approach

A cloud-native platform with a React self-service portal in front of an event-driven document processing pipeline.

• Students complete applications and upload supporting documents as PDFs through a React frontend, with all files stored securely in S3.
• Document uploads trigger ECS tasks that process files asynchronously and submit them to downstream systems.
• Application data reaches the frontend through a serverless REST API on API Gateway and Lambda, backed by DynamoDB.
• The processing pipeline is decoupled from the API, so high application volumes do not affect API responsiveness.

The outcome

Paper submissions were eliminated, application processing time came down, and the platform handles high application volumes without degradation.