Ivan Plekhanov

Lead QA Automation Engineer | Quality Strategy | 10+ Years | Java, Kotlin, Selenium, API, CI/CD | AI-Driven Testing | Open to Remote

St Petersburg, St Petersburg City, Russia

About

- Lead QA Automation Engineer with 10+ years of experience in test automation, quality strategy, and team leadership across fintech, e-commerce, and healthcare. I build scalable automation frameworks, improve release confidence, and help teams embed quality into delivery from the start. - My core stack includes Java, Kotlin, Selenium, REST Assured, JUnit/TestNG, Allure, CI/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes. I also work with AI-driven testing approaches, including automation workflows, smarter regression selection, and tooling that improves engineering efficiency. - As a lead, I mentor engineers, shape quality standards, and translate technical risks into clear business impact. In 2026, I also completed advanced Yandex EdTech training in Computer Vision and Machine Learning, expanding my expertise in AI-driven systems and production-oriented ML workflows. - Currently open to remote opportunities where I can contribute to quality engineering, automation leadership, and modern AI-enhanced testing practices.

Experience

  • Yandex (St Petersburg, St Petersburg City, Russia · Remote)
    • QA Automation Lead
      Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr

      - Lead QA Automation for Yandex Documents, combining hands-on automation work with quality strategy, release support, planning, and team coordination. - Deliver automated coverage for major product functionality and maintain stable nightly runs with near-zero flaky noise and reliable screenshot baselines. - Introduce QA metrics and sprint planning practices that improve prioritization, reduce operational chaos, and make quality delivery more predictable. - Build internal quality solutions, including Comparator, a rendering validation platform with automated document comparison, moderation workflows, quality metrics, and API integrations. - Develop stress-testing frameworks for CRDT-based collaborative editing and competitor online editors, enabling scalable benchmark and resilience analysis. - Drive AI-assisted testing workflows and MCP-based integrations that accelerate test creation, reduce manual effort, and improve the team’s automation scalability. - Mentor engineers, review technical solutions, support release planning, improve documentation practices, and contribute to hiring and technical evaluation.

    • Senior Quality Assurance Automation Engineer
      Apr 2024 - Jul 2025 · 1 yr 4 mos

      - Delivered automation coverage for major product features in Yandex Documents, including AI-powered content generation, PDF export, font loading, document navigation, and full-text search. - Optimized the test framework significantly: introduced parallel test execution that reduced run time from 60 to 30 minutes per pipeline, implemented async node acquisition to eliminate flaky tests, and improved screenshot handling. - Added clipboard emulation and PDF baseline comparison mechanisms to the framework, enabling reliable cross-format regression testing. - Ensured stable production releases of Yandex Documents, contributing to user base growth and positive feedback through comprehensive regression automation. - Automated traceability matrix management as a universal solution across all projects, reducing manual effort and improving coverage transparency. - Significantly expanded automated test coverage and contributed multiple pull requests focused on framework improvements and release cycle acceleration. - Mentored new team members and served as a mentor for four mentees in the Yandex School of Quality Assurance. - Developed algorithmic interview tasks and introduced QA best practices including checklist management and requirement coverage tracking. - Organized regular internal knowledge-sharing meetups to improve team engineering culture.

  • Senior Quality Assurance Automation Engineer at Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)
    Jan 2020 - Apr 2024 · 4 yrs 4 mos

    - Built and maintained automated tests for enterprise systems in a high-reliability environment. - Improved quality control processes and supported stable delivery through automation and structured testing practices. - Collaborated with cross-functional teams to validate business-critical workflows and reduce regression risks.