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Hi, I'm Akash Aggarwal

Staff Engineer – Quality Engineering | AI-Driven Transformation Leader

Quality Engineering Leader

Tech Stack

Selenium
Selenide
Playwright
Cypress
Appium
Java
Python
TestNG
JUnit
PyTest
Cucumber
Rest Assured
Postman
gRPC
GraphQL
Docker
K8s
Jenkins
GitHub Actions
Terraform
AWS
GCP
Azure
Grafana
Kibana
Prometheus
New Relic
Datadog
JMeter
Gatling
ChatGPT
Cursor
Claude
Copilot
Gemini
Bengaluru, India
Worked:
🇮🇳🇮🇩🇯🇵
14+
Years Experience
120+
Engineers Led
90M+
Users Impacted
0
Prod Defects

About Me

Staff-level Engineering Leader with 14+ years of experience specializing in building "Quality as a Product." Currently pursuing an Executive Post Graduate specialization in Generative AI & Agentic AI at IIT Kharagpur. Recognized for architecting high-scale automation for global systems with 90M+ users and 400M+ monthly transactions.

A pioneer in AI-Augmented Engineering, having designed autonomous agents that reduce SDLC bottlenecks by up to 70%. Proven "Founding Engineer" track record, building mission-critical SDET organizations from zero for global tech giants like Rakuten, Paytm, and Tokopedia. Expert in navigating the intersection of Multi-Cloud Infrastructure, Agentic AI, and Enterprise Stability.

Proven Track Record:

Zero-Defect Delivery: Architected quality strategy resulting in Zero Production Issues for global product lines
AI Innovation: Designed autonomous agents reducing SDLC bottlenecks by up to 70%
Founding Engineer: Built SDET organizations from scratch for Rakuten, Paytm, Tokopedia
Scale Leadership: Led teams of 50-120+ engineers across global organizations
Revenue Impact: Drove 15% Affiliate revenue uplift through defect-free, high-velocity releases

Education

Executive Post Graduate Certificate in Generative AI & Agentic AI
IIT Kharagpur (In Pursuit)
Master of Computer Applications (MCA)
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), Delhi
Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA)
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), Delhi

Certifications

AWS Architecting on AWS (Sep 2021)AWS Technical Essentials (Mar 2021)Succeeding in DevOps - LinkedIn Learning (Aug 2021)Software Architecture: Breaking a Monolith into Microservices - LinkedIn Learning (Aug 2021)Microservices: Designing Highly Scalable Systems - Udemy (Aug 2021)

Technical Skills

Languages

Java (Expert)Python (Expert)SQLShell Scripting

Automation Tools

SelenidePlaywrightSeleniumCypressAppiumRest Assured

Frameworks

PyTestTestNGJUnitCucumberReportNG

API & Microservices

RESTgRPCGraphQLCharlesPostmanJava Rest ClientPython Requests

DevOps

JenkinsGitHub ActionsDockerKubernetes (K8s)Terraform

Observability

GrafanaKibanaPrometheusNew RelicDatadog

Performance and Load Test Tools

JMeterGatling

AI Tools

ChatGPTGitHub CopilotClaudeCursorGemini

Professional Experience

14+ years of driving quality transformation across global product companies

🏢

Rakuten

Staff Engineer, Quality Engineering

01 May 2023 – Present
Bengaluru, India / Tokyo, Japan

Staff Engineer leading Quality Engineering for Japan Affiliate vertical at Rakuten.

Zero-Defect Delivery

  • Architected and enforced a high-integrity quality strategy resulting in Zero Production Issues for the Affiliate Marketing division globally since inception
  • Drove a 15% Affiliate revenue uplift by enabling defect-free, high-velocity feature releases through automated quality gates

Foundational Leadership

  • Established the QE function from the ground up; recruited a high-performance SDET team and designed all engineering processes from scratch
  • Built automation solutions from scratch for Web and API

Full-Stack Architect

  • Developed enterprise Web (Selenium) and API Automation Frameworks, fully integrated into global CI/CD pipelines across AWS, GCP, and OneCloud
  • Designed and developed automation solutions that run thousands of UI automation cases in span of couple of hours
💳

Paytm Payments Bank

Senior QA Manager (UPI & Payments)

19 Dec 2022 – 28 Apr 2023
India

Mission Critical Governance: Directed QA for the UPI ecosystem (Lite, 123 Pay, Auto Pay) handling 400M+ monthly transactions.

Mission Critical Governance

  • Directed a 50+ member SDET team responsible for the UPI ecosystem (Lite, 123 Pay, Auto Pay)
  • Maintained a Zero-Defect record for regulated payment products by implementing rigorous automated audit trails and chaos engineering

Scale Operations

  • Oversaw the stability of a platform handling 400M+ monthly transactions with 99.99% uptime requirements
  • Managed 50+ QA/SDET engineers across mobile, backend, and payments systems
🛒

Tokopedia

Technical Architect, Engineering Productivity

29 Oct 2019 – 09 Dec 2022
Noida, India / Jakarta, Indonesia

Sole Architect Influence: Served as the only Technical Architect for the 120+ person QA organization, overseeing productivity strategy for a Decacorn marketplace with 90M+ MAU.

Sole Architect Influence

  • Served as the only Technical Architect for the 120+ person QA organization
  • Oversaw the productivity strategy for a Decacorn marketplace with 90M+ MAU
  • Formally ranked in the Top 1% of Software Engineers across the entire organization of 1,500+ developers

Enterprise Platform Construction

  • Built and scaled three foundational platforms (API, Desktop, App) that served as the automation backbone for 1,500+ developers
  • Developed web automation framework using Selenium, TestNG, ReportNG
  • Developed API automation framework using Rest Assured, TestNG, ReportNG
  • Developed automation framework for Android app automation using Appium

Efficiency Leader

  • Reduced global automation execution time by 50% via intelligent test sharding and localized test data generation
  • Built distributed, parallel execution system → 50% faster automation runs
  • Integration of test automation framework with Kibana
📱

Paytm / Paytm E-Commerce

QA Lead

01 Jun 2016 – 28 Oct 2019
India

The 'First QA' Architect: Hired as the first dedicated QA hire for the mobile app ecosystem; established the tech stack, processes, and hiring roadmap for Paytm Mall, Travel, Money, and Lending from scratch.

The 'First QA' Architect

  • Hired as the first dedicated QA hire for the mobile app ecosystem
  • Established the tech stack, processes, and hiring roadmap for Paytm Mall, Travel, Money, and Lending from scratch
  • Scaled the team from 0 to 20+ engineers, building the foundation for the highest-growth phase of India's largest digital wallet

Org Builder

  • Started as 1st member in Mobile Apps QA team and extended it to 20+ members
  • Handling entire iOS, Android, Windows apps for Marketplace, O2O, Travel business
  • Handling team of 20+ members - Responsible for Manual as well Automation testing

Automation & Testing

  • Manual and Automation API Testing by using TestNG framework
  • Automation Testing of Paytm Mall iOS, Android apps
  • Automated entire jenkin jobs to see and keep track of entire Paytm's activity
  • Handling API Automation of Complete CART module individually
🏷️

Snapdeal

QA II (Mobile Applications)

20 Apr 2015 – 31 May 2016
India

Strategic Overhaul: Led quality for the iOS 4.0 redesign and the Freecharge integration.

Strategic Overhaul

  • Led quality for the iOS 4.0 redesign and the Freecharge integration
  • Built Appium automation for Android & iOS from scratch

Resilience Engineering

  • Managed quality for massive Flash Sales, maintaining 99.8% crash-free sessions under extreme peak loads
  • Delivered apps with 99.8% crash-free rate, validated via automated pipelines
🏠

Steria (Sopra Steria)

Software Engineer, QA (IoT Division)

22 Sep 2014 – 17 Apr 2015
India

IoT & Connectivity: Validated the British Gas Hive (UK) product suite, focusing on hardware-software-mobile integration.

IoT & Connectivity

  • Validated the British Gas Hive (UK) product suite, focusing on hardware-software-mobile integration
  • Built SeeTest automation for British Gas Hive IoT smart-home products

Global Delivery

  • Guided a 5-member offshore team in coordination with UK stakeholders using a Shift-Left testing strategy
📲

LeewayHertz

QA Engineer (Founding QA)

09 Jan 2012 – 19 Sep 2014
India

The 'Zero-to-One' Specialist: Hired as the first QA in the company's history. Built the entire QA department and documentation standards from zero.

The 'Zero-to-One' Specialist

  • Hired as the first QA in the company's history
  • Built the entire QA department and documentation standards from zero

Massive Delivery Portfolio

  • Personally validated and delivered 180+ Mobile Applications and 40+ CMS platforms for global clients including ESPN, iCruise, and LaserPegs
  • Delivered QA and automation for enterprise & consumer mobile applications

Core Competencies

AI & LLM

Generative AI & Agentic AIMCP (Model Context Protocol)Prompt EngineeringLLM GovernanceAI Governance Agent (40% PR review reduction)Autonomous API Architect (70% time-to-market reduction)Self-Healing Runtime (50% maintenance cost reduction)Intelligent Log RCA Agent

3Ps Leadership

Product OwnershipPeople ManagementProcess & Practice ExcellenceTest Owner AccountabilityOverall Success ManagementFounding Engineer Track Record

Automation Architecture

Framework Design & DevelopmentCross-Platform Automation (Web, Mobile, API)Test Data Management & Auto-GenerationCI/CD IntegrationDistributed Execution SystemsUniversal Plug-and-Play Infrastructure

Quality Engineering

Test GovernanceRelease QualityZero-Defect DeliveryDefect PreventionRCA & Quality MetricsFlakiness Reduction99.8% Crash-Free UXRegulatory Excellence

Technology Expertise

Java (Expert), Python (Expert)Selenide, Playwright, Selenium, CypressAppium, Rest Assured, gRPC, GraphQLPyTest, TestNG, JUnit, ReportNGSQL, Shell Scripting

DevOps & Cloud

CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions)Docker, Kubernetes (K8s)AWS, GCP, Azure/OneDriveTerraformMulti-Cloud Infrastructure

Observability

Grafana, KibanaPrometheusNew Relic, DatadogObservability-Integrated Test Systems

Key Achievements

0
Production Defects
Zero Production Issues for Affiliate Marketing division globally
15%
Revenue Uplift
Affiliate revenue uplift through defect-free releases
50%
Faster Execution
Reduction in automation execution time via intelligent test sharding
70%
SDLC Bottleneck Reduction
Autonomous agents reducing SDLC bottlenecks
120+
Engineers Led
Sole Technical Architect for 120+ person QA organization
1,500+
Developers Served
Automation backbone for 1,500+ developers
90M+
Monthly Active Users
Decacorn marketplace with 90M+ MAU
400M+
Monthly Transactions
Platform handling 400M+ monthly transactions
99.99%
Uptime
Regulated payment products with 99.99% uptime
Top 1%
Software Engineer
Ranked in Top 1% across organization of 1,500+ developers

AI Engineering Impact

Leveraging AI to transform test engineering

70%
SDLC Bottleneck Reduction
Designed autonomous agents reducing SDLC bottlenecks
40%
PR Review Reduction
AI Governance Agent audits code for architectural debt and security
70%
Time-to-Market Reduction
Autonomous API Architect generates production-ready test suites from Swagger/OpenAPI
50%
Framework Maintenance Reduction
Self-Healing Runtime repairs broken locators in real-time using AI

System & Automation Architecture Expertise

AI-Augmented Engineering (Autonomous agents reducing SDLC bottlenecks by 70%)
3Ps Ownership Model (Product, People, Process/Practice)
Founding Engineer Track Record (Building SDET organizations from zero)
Distributed parallel automation (Docker-based)
CI/CD-driven automation pipelines across Multi-Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure/OneDrive)
Microservices testing automation (REST, gRPC, GraphQL)
AI-driven automation (self-healing, auto-generation, intelligent selection, LLM Governance)
Observability-integrated test systems (Grafana, Kibana, Prometheus, New Relic, Datadog)
Test Data Platform architecture & auto-generation
Universal Plug-and-Play Infrastructure (On-demand iOS/Android simulators and Selenium Grids)
End-to-End automation for Web, API, Mobile, Payments
Framework development for Web (Selenium, Selenide, Playwright, Cypress), Mobile (Appium), API (Rest Assured)
Engineering Productivity & SDLC improvements
Spec-to-Suite tool (Swagger/OpenAPI to production-ready test suites)

Let's Connect

I'm always open to discussing new opportunities, collaborations, or just having a chat about test automation and quality engineering.

Get in Touch

Email
akashaggarwal1@gmail.com
Phone
+91-9717341780
Location
Bengaluru, India
Worked:
🇮🇳🇮🇩🇯🇵
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