QA Staff / QA Lead CV
Tiago Silva
Quality Engineering Lead / Staff QA
AI-Augmented Delivery Systems · Automation Architecture · Shift-Left Quality Strategy
Quality Engineering Lead with Senior, Staff and Lead QA experience across SaaS, fintech, marketplace, ecommerce, media, open banking and enterprise platforms. I help teams improve release confidence by turning quality into an engineering system: clearer risk visibility, stronger automation architecture, faster CI feedback, better test ownership and practical AI-assisted workflows.

Leadership Summary
Leadership impact at a glance
Quality Leadership
Owns quality strategy, risk visibility, release confidence and engineering standards.
Staff-Level Engineering Impact
Designs validation architecture across UI, API, contract, integration, CI/CD and production feedback layers.
AI-Augmented QA
Uses AI-assisted workflows to support test analysis, automation improvement, knowledge retrieval and delivery diagnostics.
Delivery Systems
Improves how teams validate change, shorten feedback loops and prevent false confidence from green builds.
Professional Profile
Professional profile
I am a hands-on Quality Engineering Lead / Staff QA with deep experience building automation platforms, validation architecture, CI/CD quality gates, API and UI test strategies, and shift-left practices.
My strongest value is helping engineering teams understand what should be tested, where it should be tested, how risk should be exposed, and how validation should support delivery speed instead of slowing it down.
I have led QA strategy, mentored QA and engineering teams, created automation frameworks from scratch, improved CI/CD feedback loops, introduced contract and integration testing approaches, supported accessibility and security validation, and explored AI-assisted workflows for engineering support. I work as a multiplier across QA, engineering, product and design rather than as an isolated test owner.
Leadership Strengths
Leadership strengths
Quality strategy ownership
Owns practical quality direction across teams: risk, test layers, automation standards, release confidence, CI/CD integration and engineering alignment.
People leadership
Line-managed QA engineers, supported career development, recruitment, performance, team morale and distributed team coordination.
Shift-left execution
Moves validation earlier through better story definition, API-first checks, component/system tests, seeded environments, mocks/stubs, contract checks and PR-level feedback.
Automation architecture
Builds scalable automation frameworks across Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, CodeceptJS, TestCafe, Appium, REST APIs, GraphQL, Pact, Postman/Newman and CI/CD pipelines.
AI-assisted engineering
Applies AI and local LLM experimentation to quality workflows, including test analysis, automation support, knowledge retrieval, delivery diagnostics and engineering productivity.
Delivery reliability
Focuses on reducing false confidence, flaky feedback, long execution times, unclear ownership, production escapes and release hesitation.
AI-Assisted Quality Engineering
AI-assisted quality engineering
My AI work focuses on practical engineering leverage: faster investigation, better project context, stronger automation support and more scalable QA workflows.
Local AI assistant architecture
Designed a local AI assistant direction using local LLMs, voice interaction, structured memory, project context and tool-oriented orchestration.
AI-assisted QA workflows
Explored AI support for test analysis, failure investigation, test review, automation improvement and delivery diagnostics.
RAG and knowledge systems
Worked on structured knowledge ingestion, embeddings, retrieval and source-aware project context for engineering support.
QA MCP / tool orchestration
Explored tool orchestration patterns connecting QA workflows with Playwright, databases, Jira, Git providers, Datadog, Slack and local project context.
AI for delivery intelligence
Uses AI-assisted analysis to detect weak signals such as unclear requirements, CI blind spots, flaky tests, environment mismatch and production feedback gaps.
Professional Experience
Selected experience
TeamStation
Aug 2024 — PresentSenior QA / Quality Systems Lead · Remote
Designing validation architecture and delivery reliability systems for large-scale web, backend and mobile-adjacent product areas.
Key contributions
- Owns quality practices, risk mitigation and automation strategy for the web team.
- Created and evolved E2E automation using CodeceptJS, Puppeteer and Playwright.
- Implemented REST API test framework and early API validation coverage.
- Built supporting infrastructure including mail helpers, SQL helpers and Page Object patterns.
- Integrated automated checks into Jenkins CI/CD to improve feedback speed and reduce manual dependency.
- Applied AI-assisted thinking to test analysis, delivery diagnostics and automation improvement opportunities.
Focus areas
Scalis
Apr 2024 — Jun 2024Lead QA · Remote
Formal QA LeadershipLed the creation of a modern validation foundation across frontend, API, CI/CD, security and accessibility.
Key contributions
- Owned quality strategy, automation direction and CI/CD test integration.
- Created Python + Playwright E2E framework from scratch.
- Dockerised the framework and integrated it with GitHub Actions.
- Implemented REST API E2E tests in Python.
- Added security and accessibility checks across XSS/SQL injection risk, keyboard navigation and contrast.
Focus areas
Klir
Aug 2023 — Apr 2024Senior QA / Automation Strategy · Remote
Led quality improvements around PR-level feedback, automation architecture and cross-platform validation for web, mobile and APIs.
Key contributions
- Owned web quality practices, risk mitigation and automation strategy.
- Mentored and contributed across Web, Mobile and API integration frameworks.
- Reassessed an existing C# + Playwright approach and moved the team toward Cypress based on maintainability and team skillset.
- Implemented Web + API tests, Docker Compose setup and Azure Pipeline configuration.
- Added Cucumber to WebdriverIO mobile tests and integrated BrowserStack.
- Created PR-level validation environments using account creation and SQL seeding for isolated integration testing.
Focus areas
Depop
Mar 2022 — Aug 2023Senior QA / Delivery Quality · London
Improved release confidence and engineering feedback loops through audits, CI validations, accessibility, visual testing and operational quality practices.
Key contributions
- Owned quality practices, risk mitigation and product standards for the web team.
- Led a quality audit that produced aligned team actions to reduce production risk.
- Helped the team use quality and operational feedback to prioritise engineering effort and reduce production risk.
- Added DangerJS CI checks to enforce ticket traceability before code entered the system.
- Integrated visual comparison testing with Percy / BrowserStack.
Focus areas
Hopin
May 2021 — Mar 2022Staff Test Engineer · Remote
Formal QA LeadershipSupported high-velocity delivery by helping teams test earlier, choose the right validation layer and become more self-sufficient.
Key contributions
- Maintained E2E framework using TestCafe, JavaScript and TypeScript.
- Guided teams on testing best practices and shift-left validation.
- Helped teams become self-sufficient in choosing the right validation layer and owning test decisions earlier in delivery.
- Implemented Rails system tests using Capybara, Selenium and RSpec to validate before deployment.
- Used factories and traits to improve speed and reliability without compromising coverage.
Focus areas
Yapily
Aug 2020 — Apr 2021Senior QA / API Integration · London
Built integration validation for API-heavy open banking flows with stronger CI feedback and controlled dependency testing.
Key contributions
- Implemented integration test framework using Java, Rest-Assured, Serenity and Selenium.
- Added Postman/Newman validation into CI.
- Introduced Hoverfly mocks to reduce dependency on live consent flows and external service availability.
Focus areas
Travelex
Oct 2019 — Jun 2020Lead QA · London
Formal QA LeadershipOwned backend-platform QA strategy while leading QA engineers across delivery, CI/CD refinement, contract testing and distributed team coordination.
Key contributions
- Managed QA engineers across career development, recruitment, performance, morale and team structure.
- Owned QA strategy across the backend platform, aligning quality expectations with engineering delivery.
- Worked with external QA teams to ensure the right skills, mindset and execution standards were in place.
- Mentored QA and backend engineers on test strategy, automation practices and quality ownership.
- Refined CI/CD validation and backend test execution to improve release confidence.
- Worked across component, integration and contract testing using Pact.
- Improved coordination between London and Moldova teams.
- Reduced test execution time without compromising coverage.
Focus areas
Farmdrop
Mar 2019 — Oct 2019Senior QA / Framework Builder · London
Built validation foundations for REST, GraphQL and web flows, integrating automated checks into CI/CD.
Key contributions
- Created frameworks from scratch for GraphQL, REST APIs and web validation.
- Integrated test execution with Docker and CI pipelines.
- Migrated Cypress JavaScript tests to Ruby/Selenium where appropriate.
Focus areas
Rated People
Nov 2017 — Jan 2019Senior QA / Automation Mentor · London
Built automation frameworks, supported continuous delivery and mentored QA engineers across UI, API and mobile testing.
Key contributions
- Developed functional UI and REST API automation using Ruby, Selenium, Capybara, Cucumber and HTTParty.
- Created Appium framework for iOS and Android testing in a continuous delivery environment.
- Mentored junior and senior QAs while supporting builds, deployments, AWS, SQL and Docker tasks.
Focus areas
Elsevier / Mendeley / ScienceDirect
Mar 2016 — Jun 2017Senior QA · London
Built early automation foundations across web and API validation while supporting accessibility, exploratory testing and security testing.
Key contributions
- Created test frameworks using Ruby, Cucumber, RSpec, HTTParty, Page Objects, Selenium and Watir.
- Worked with JavaScript, CucumberJS, Mocha, Chai, Java 8 and Spring.
- Supported exploratory testing, accessibility testing, security and penetration testing with Burp Suite.
Focus areas
Porto Tech Center
Jan 2015 — Mar 2016Junior QA · Portugal
Started automation engineering foundations across Ruby, Selenium, Watir and BDD-style frameworks.
Key contributions
- Created testing frameworks using Ruby, Cucumber, RSpec, HTTParty, Page Objects, Selenium and Watir.
- Worked in Scrum and Kanban environments with Git and Jira.
Focus areas
Selected Systems Work
Selected systems work
Validation architecture
Designed test strategies that separate validation concerns across unit, component, API, contract, integration, UI and production feedback layers.
Outcomes
- Clearer ownership
- Faster feedback
- Lower release risk
CI/CD quality gates
Embedded automated checks into Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines and other delivery systems to improve confidence before release.
Outcomes
- Earlier defect discovery
- Safer deployments
- Better engineering alignment
PR-level test environments
Created isolated validation environments using seeded accounts, SQL data setup, mocks and deterministic test flows.
Outcomes
- Less dependency friction
- Better shift-left feedback
- More reliable integration checks
Contract and integration testing
Applied API, component, integration and contract validation approaches to reduce risk between services and teams.
Outcomes
- Earlier compatibility checks
- Lower integration risk
- More controlled dependencies
Automation platform design
Built frameworks from scratch across multiple stacks with CI/CD integration, reporting, Docker support, parallel execution, cloud/browser execution and maintainable patterns.
Outcomes
- Lower maintenance cost
- Faster execution
- Scalable test ownership
AI-assisted quality workflows
Explored local AI, RAG, tool orchestration and project-aware assistants to support test investigation, delivery diagnostics and automation productivity.
Outcomes
- Faster analysis
- Better project context
- More scalable QA support
Technical Stack
Technical stack
Languages
Automation
API / Integration
Architecture context
CI/CD and DevOps
Observability / Quality
AI / Engineering Productivity
Education
Academic background
Computer Engineering
Polytechnic Institute of Guarda
2008 — 2013
Erasmus Exchange
Anadolu University, Turkey
2012
Level 3 Computer Technician Course
Technical Education
