---
title: "Santosh Narayanappa - Professional development in Bengaluru | Tal"
description: "Meet Santosh Narayanappa, Senior Quality Engineering Leader | 16+ Years Enterprise QE | AI Quality Engineering, Testing and Automation | Reduced Defect Leakage by 35% | Quality Strategy based in Bengaluru. AI stack includes claude, codex, and gemini."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/santosh-kanthamma-narayanappa/share-image"
---

# Santosh Narayanappa on Tal

## Headline

Senior Quality Engineering Leader \| 16\+ Years Enterprise QE \| AI Quality Engineering, Testing and Automation \| Reduced Defect Leakage by 35% \| Quality Strategy

## About

I am a hands\-on Quality Engineering Leader with 16 years of experience driving quality for large\-scale enterprise platforms, specializing in next\-generation AI\-driven QE solutions\. I have spent nearly 7 years leading QA strategy across multiple concurrent 5G programs at a global telecom leader, achieving zero critical production escapes and accelerating flagship product launches by 20\-30%\. My expertise lies in building and leading high\-performing QA teams \(10 engineers\), defining comprehensive end\-to\-end test strategies, and transforming testing processes into repeatable, efficient systems\. I leverage advanced automation, including AI\-assisted testing, to significantly reduce risk and accelerate release cycles\. My background encompasses: \- Mobile QA \(Android/iOS via Appium\) \- API testing \(Postman, REST Assured\) \- CI/CD enablement \(Jenkins, GitLab\) \- Risk\-based and Shift\-Left Testing methodologies I partner closely with Product, Engineering, and DevOps to ensure quality and delivery speed are harmonized\. My key achievements include: \- Accelerated flagship 5G product launches by 20\-30% \- Cut regression testing cycle time by \~25% \- Took a CI/CD proof\-of\-concept to full production adoption, reducing manual release intervention by 40%\+ \- Grew mobile test automation coverage by 50%\+ through early adoption of open\-source Appium frameworks \- Reduced production defect leakage by \~35% through stronger test strategy and triage discipline \- Re\-architected legacy automation frameworks, cutting script maintenance effort by 30% \- Won a Product Enhancement Innovation Award for a custom mobile testing framework I recently completed focused upskilling in Python and Agentic AI architectures, including self\-healing test automation and LLM\-driven log parsing, to integrate intelligent automation into quality engineering practices\. I hold an ISTQB Foundation Level certification and a Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence for Leaders\. I am actively seeking Quality Engineering leadership roles in telecom, enterprise SaaS, or fintech environments\. For direct inquiries, please reach me at santosh\.kn@rediffmail\.com or santoshsld@gmail\.com\.

## Location

Bengaluru

## AI stack

claude

codex

gemini

langchain

ChatGPT

CrewAI

## Work experience

Professional development at Career Break, Jan 2026 \- Present · 10 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, AI Quality Engineering \| Professional Upskilling \| 2026 \-Upskilled in AI Quality Engineering and AI Testing, developing testing strategies for Generative AI, RAG, and Agentic AI systems across accuracy, robustness, safety, reliability, and business outcomes\. \- Developed practical knowledge of Red Team / Blue Team and adversarial testing to identify and mitigate prompt injection, jailbreaks, hallucinations, data leakage, bias, and agent/tool risks\. \- Built expertise in AI evaluation, Golden Test Suites, regression testing, and risk\-based certification, applying quality gates and acceptance criteria to support reliable AI releases\. Currently focusing on advanced upskilling in Generative AI and Python for Quality Engineering, including self\-healing test automation and LLM\-driven log parsing, to prepare for leadership roles in AI\-driven QE\. Completed focused programs in AI Fluency, Generative AI Tools, and a Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence for Leaders\.

Sr Engr Cslt\-App at Verizon, Apr 2019 \- Dec 2025 · 6 yrs 9 mos, Bengaluru, \- Owned end\-to\-end QA strategy across multiple concurrent enterprise telecom programs delivered \*\*zero critical production escapes\*\* through strict release validation and governance \- Drove CI/CD enablement \(Jenkins\) and automation initiatives that \*\*accelerated 5G product launches by 20\-30%\*\* and \*\*cut regression cycle time by \~25%\*\* \- Led and mentored a \*\*QA team of 10\-15 engineers and test leads\*\*, defining and publishing quality metrics that gave stakeholders full sprint\-level visibility \- Partnered with Product Engineering and DevOps teams to align quality with business goals\. \- Received multiple Spotlight Awards for flawless delivery and accelerated 5G initiatives\.

Consultant System Dev at Verizon, Nov 2018 \- Mar 2019 · 5 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, \- Delivered automation and QA best\-practice training to engineering teams while building CI/CD pipelines \(Jenkins \+ Git\) took the pipeline from proof\-of\-concept to full production adoption\*\*, cutting manual intervention by 40%\+

IT Specialist at Verizon, Apr 2015 \- Oct 2018 · 3 yrs 7 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, \- Led mobile automation initiatives using open\-source Appium frameworks for Android/iOS grew mobile test automation coverage by 50%\+\*\* \- Executed functional, integration, and regression testing across distributed systems while mentoring junior QA engineers on automated test generation

Senior Software Engineer at Tech Mahindra, Dec 2011 \- Feb 2014 · 2 yrs 3 mos, Pune Area, India, \- Directed manual and automated functional, integration, and regression testing suites for enterprise client applications → managed defect triage and authored test closure reports for major release cycles

Technical Associate at Tech Mahindra, Oct 2009 \- Dec 2011 · 2 yrs 3 mos, \- Created, debugged, and executed automated and manual test scripts across the full SDLC — system, regression, positive, and negative testing

## Education

Bachelor of Engineering \- BE, Mechanical Engineering, Basaveshwar Engineering College \(A\), Bagalkote

Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Visvesvaraya Technological University

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/santosh-kanthamma-narayanappa)

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