Headline

Immediate joiner| QA| SDET | AI-Powered Test Automation + LLM & RAG evaluation | FinTech · Blockchain | Scaling Quality at Booking.com, GoTo, Metamask | Multiple YC Startups | Built QA orgs trusted with $B payment flows

About

👋 I'm a Full Stack QA Engineer turned Engineering Manager,QAOps & SDET with a diverse background, highly skilled in scaling quality initiatives and developing robust automation frameworks for Web, Mobile, and API applications. Demonstrated expertise in leading teams, mentoring engineers, and driving quality improvements in dynamic, fast-paced environments. 🌐 Industry Experience: I bring valuable experience in testing OTA (Travel), FinTech Payments, Digital Wallets, Crypto/Blockchain/NFT transactions, Payout systems, Invoicing & Taxation, Employee Management Platforms, HealthCare, SAAS, EduTech, and SuperApps. 🔗 Blockchain Enthusiast | Self-Custodial Wallet Expert | NFT Enthusiast My specialization in Self-custodial Wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) and MPC infrastructure for dApps and wallets has allowed me to navigate complex ecosystems with ease with Web3. 🚀 Startup Enthusiast: Have been a Founding Engineer at multiple early-stage startups, as well as those backed by Y Combinator. This journey has sharpened my ability to adapt quickly, build from zero, operate with ambiguity, and ship under pressure, work independently. 💼 Quality and Automation Expertise: With a strong foundation in building Agile quality processes, I've designed frameworks for automation that span Web, Mobile, and MicroServices-based applications. My experience extends to Performance testing using Locust and Infrastructure management using Terraform. 📈 AI in QA: Experienced in building and evaluating LLM workflows using RAGAS & DeepEval ,including prompt chaining, RAG, and AI-driven test generation. Built agentic AI automations using n8n to eliminate manual QA steps such as automated test runs, notifications, and regression triage. 🔨Tools & Languages Used: Selenium |Appium |Playwright |Cypress |PyTest |Jmeter |Locust |MySQL |MongoDB | PostGres |PostMan |Cucumber |Specflow |Rest Assured |PactumJS |AWS |GitLab |GitHub |JIRA |XRay |TestRail | ClickUp |BitBucket |Okta |Docker |Terraform |OpenSearch |BrowserStack |Sourcegraph |Github actions |Bitrise| Pynt| Wireshark| Charles Proxy| Wire Mock| SAP| n8n| Gen AI| Agentic AI| Copilot| Tosca| Datadog| Splunk| Newrelic| JAVA |JavaScript/TypeScript| C# |Ruby|Python|Junit|TestNg|Mocha 👥 Team Management: Led and mentored dynamic teams of up to 10+ members. Quarterly/Annual planning, OKR formulations, Performance reviews, appraisals, designing roadmaps, Conflict resolutions, promotion cases, career planning, technical leadership, improving team performance. 📬 Open to: QA, SDET, EM roles at product companies in IN,SG,NL,UAE,LU

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

claude code

deepseek

langchain

Glean

Promptfoo

Ragas

Work experience

Staff Test Engineer I at Booking.com, Jul 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 4 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Booking.com processes billions in partner payments annually. I own quality for two of its most critical FinTech tracks: Scheduled Payouts (Bank Transfer + Stripe disbursements to 500K+ property partners) and Virtual Credit Cards (VCC) — the financial backbone of partner relationships globally. Architected and maintained API automation using OkHttp Client across distributed payout microservices, ensuring transaction accuracy and partner data integrity at scale. Drove OKR planning and quarterly roadmap sessions, aligning QA strategy with business-critical payment milestones. Mentored QA engineers, owned resource allocation, and maintained consistent quality standards across concurrent product tracks. Built agentic AI automations using n8n + LangChain, eliminating manual QA steps: automated test run triggers, regression triage, and Slack/notification pipelines — reducing toil by significant hours per sprint. Evaluated LLM-based workflows using RAGAS and LangChain, applying AI-driven test generation techniques to improve coverage intelligently. Designing capacity testing strategy to validate system scalability under peak payment loads. Key Skills: API Automation · OkHttp · FinTech Payments · Microservices · LangChain · RAGAS · n8n · Agentic AI · OKR Planning · Engineering Management

Lead Automation Engineer at GoTo Group, Aug 2022 - Jul 2023 · 1 yr, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, 🚀 Founding QA Engineer for GoPay — led the quality strategy for GoPay’s first launch in Indonesia inside Gojek’s SuperApp, one of Southeast Asia’s largest consumer platforms. Built mobile and web automation using Appium + Selenium across Android and iOS, boosting test coverage by 30% and accelerating release readiness. Reduced API integration failures by 25% by introducing contract testing with PactumJS — the first contract testing initiative in the payment org. Embedded quality gates into GitLab CI/CD pipelines, achieving a 20% faster deployment cycle. Established performance (JMeter) and security (ZAP Proxy) testing as mandatory SDLC pillars — not afterthoughts. Key Skills: Appium · Selenium · PactumJS · Contract Testing · JMeter · ZAP Proxy · GitLab CI · SuperApp · Android · iOS

Lead Software Engineer in Test at Web3Auth, Aug 2021 - Jul 2022 · 1 yr, Singapore, 🚀 Web3Auth was acquired by Consensys/MetaMask. Web3Auth powers authentication and wallet infrastructure for 1000+ dApps. I led QA across its entire product surface. Owned quality for Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS), MPC Auth, NFT integrations, Solana, MetaMask extension, Developer Dashboard, and SDKs. Cut bug leakage by 25% through E2E Playwright automation across complex blockchain transaction flows. Built API automation with RestAssured and PactumJS ensuring cross-service reliability in a rapidly evolving Web3 stack. Implemented Vue Testing Utils for component-level coverage. Integrated all automation into GitHub Actions + AWS CI/CD pipelines for continuous quality assurance. Key Skills: Playwright · Blockchain · Web3 · MPC · NFT · Solana · RestAssured · PactumJS · Vue Testing · GitHub Actions · AWS

Lead Software Test Engineer at Unacademy, Jan 2021 - Aug 2021 · 8 mos, Remote, 🚀 Founding QA Lead — established the quality engineering function from zero. Designed a scalable BDD automation framework using Cucumber + Cucable plugin with parallel execution support, growing automation coverage by 40%. Reduced API defects by 20% through Pytest-based API automation. Stood up CI/CD testing infrastructure using Jenkins and Docker. Key Skills: Cucumber BDD · Pytest · Jenkins · Docker · EdTech · Framework Design · Test Strategy

Principal SDET I at Chargebee, May 2019 - Dec 2020 · 1 yr 8 mos, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Concentrated on mentoring and scaling the QA team from 2 to 20+. Managed OKR's, Quarterly deliverables, Resource allocation with establishment and adoption of best testing and automation practices.

Senior SDET II at Chargebee, Nov 2018 - May 2019 · 7 mos, Greater Chennai Area, 🚀 Founding Engineer [Quality] Established and led the QA team, consistently delivering high-quality projects such as invoice generation and tax integration under tight deadlines. Boosted UI and API automation coverage by 50% using Selenium, RestAssured, and Postman, significantly reducing manual testing efforts. Engineered optimized CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins and GitHub Actions, cutting build and deployment times by 35%. Automated infrastructure with Terraform and AWS, enhancing team productivity and operational efficiency. Mentored and coached junior QA engineers, cultivating a culture of collaboration, quality-first mindset, and continuous innovation within the team.

Education

Bachelor's Degree, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Anna University Chennai

Master of Business Administration, System Management, University of Madras

Public links

github: https://github.com/vinayakkaladhar

vinayak-sdet-quality.lovable.app: https://vinayak-sdet-quality.lovable.app/