About me

I'm an engineering leader with 10+ years in software. I head Software Engineering at Bir ecosystem — Kapital Bank's digital business in Baku — leading a 100+ person organisation of developers, QA engineers and analysts across three product tribes. My scope is hiring, capability development, and engineering practices and standards. Delivery is owned by the tribes; I own the organisation that makes it possible.

I was promoted from Director of QA CoE after building the bank's quality organisation from scratch: company-wide Quality Gates and Zero Bug Policy that cut critical production incidents by 50%+, test automation scaled from 0% to 40% of the core regression suite, and a capability programme that trained and certified 40+ engineers. Before that I built and scaled engineering quality at Sber, Yandex, VK and international scale-ups.

Core Competencies

People Leadership & Talent Growth

Expert

Hired and grew a 100+ person engineering organisation; the Tech Mastery programme trained and certified 40+ engineers.

What I bring

  • Engineering organisations that scale

    Org design, hiring and career architecture for 100+ person engineering teams — chapters, tribes and leaders grown into multipliers.

  • Predictable, transparent delivery

    Quality gates, release governance and SDLC standards that make engineering predictable and measurable — for the team and for the board.

  • Quality functions — built from scratch or embedded

    Full quality cycles built from scratch or embedded into existing delivery: automation, SDET and performance testing functions included.

  • Metrics-driven management

    Every process instrumented, every metric tied to a decision — executive-level quality and efficiency reporting the business can act on.

  • Audits & maturity assessments

    Internal and external engineering audits and CoE maturity models that show where an organisation really stands — and a roadmap to level it up.

  • People & capability development

    High-performing teams through mentorship and certification programmes — Tech Mastery alone trained and certified 40+ engineers.

Career highlights

  • Bir ecosystem

    Bir ecosystem

    Head of Software Engineering · Apr 2026 – Present

    Head of Software Engineering · Apr 2026 – Present

    The Caucasus' first fully integrated banking, payments and e-commerce ecosystem — Kapital Bank's digital business. Launched in 2025, it brings together leading platforms across banking, payments, cash-to-digital infrastructure and online retail.


    Focus areas:

    • Leading the engineering organisation: 100+ people — developers, QA engineers and analysts — organised around three product tribes.
    • Own hiring, capability development, engineering practices and standards; delivery is owned by the tribes — I own the organisation that makes it possible.
    • Engineering standards, practices and quality gates as a company-wide system.
    • Chapter model: growing chapter leads as multipliers of engineering capability.
    • Capability programmes — Tech Mastery: 40+ engineers trained and certified.

    Director of QA CoE · Jul 2024 – Apr 2026:

    • Built a 100+ person QA organisation and Quality Center of Excellence from scratch: structure, roles, governance model and scalable operating processes.
    • Designed a QA centralisation model (Strong / Mild / Weak CoE) separating responsibilities between the central CoE and product teams.
    • Introduced company-wide Quality Gates and Zero Bug Policy — critical production incidents down 50%+.
    • Scaled test automation from 0% to 40% of the core regression suite; established SDET and Performance Testing teams.
    • Defined 10+ quality and efficiency metrics for data-driven reporting (Tableau, Jira).
    • Developed a 2-year QA strategy with full budget ownership; KPI and OKR frameworks aligned with business goals.

  • sDevives

    SberDevices

    QA Team Lead · Jul 2023 – Jul 2024

    QA Team Lead · Jul 2023 – Jul 2024

    AI-powered smart devices and platforms within the Sber ecosystem — voice assistants, AR/VR and LLMs.


    Activities:

    • Led QA across multiple cross-functional squads in the Sber ecosystem.
    • Reduced the Zero Bug Policy backlog by 86% — historically the best result for the company's highest-load team.
    • Grew automation engineering headcount 1.5x (6 to 9 engineers) with no regression in time-to-market or quality.
    • Built the testing process from scratch in one of the teams and introduced shift-left testing.
    • Improved quality of external products by integrating QA processes that had not existed before; improved testing metrics for better transparency.
  • RoboCash

    RoboFinance

    Head of QA · Mar 2022 – Jul 2023

    Head of QA · Mar 2022 – Jul 2023

    Digital startup building a fintech and e-commerce ecosystem in the Philippines. UnaBank is a business unit of RoboCash Group.


    Activities:

    • Managed multiple teams: 12 people in total (3 automation + 9 manual) across 6 teams.
    • Drove test automation to 70% coverage of the main services.
    • Implemented load testing (JMeter + Grafana).
    • Organised testing processes both from scratch and on top of existing ones.
    • Built a strong testing team; created the test strategy and test plans.

    Stack: Java + RestAssured, Charles, Postman

  • SkillBox

    Skillbox

    QA Course Developer & Mentor · 2022 – 2025 · Part-time

    QA Course Developer, Mentor & Expert · Sep 2022 – Aug 2025 · Part-time

    Skillbox — an online education platform focused on in-demand digital professions.


    Activities:

    • Improved and extended Skillbox's testing courses; developed and supervised a new QA course.
    • Trained student cohorts and provided mentorship.
    • Ran masterclasses, spoke at conferences and wrote articles for the Skillbox brand.

  • hedera

    Hedera

    QA Automation Consultant · 2020 – 2022 · Part-time

    QA Automation Consultant · 2020 – 2022 · Part-time

    Enterprise-grade public distributed ledger governed by independent global organisations — enterprises, web3 projects and leading universities.


    Activities:

    • Launched Hedera’s JavaScript/Cypress automation programme from the ground up.
    • Built modular end-to-end test frameworks for decentralised services.
    • Embedded Cypress pipelines into CI/CD for continuous delivery confidence.
    • Established regression suites guarding consensus services.
    • Mentored engineers on test automation and quality reporting.

    Stack: JavaScript + Cypress

  • MailRu

    VK (Mail.ru Group)

    QA Lead · Apr 2021 – Mar 2022

    QA Lead · Apr 2021 – Mar 2022

    CityMobil — one of Russia's two largest ride-hailing platforms and a VK business unit. I worked on platform services.


    Activities:

    • Achieved 60% API coverage with a Kotlin automation framework built from scratch.
    • Load testing surfaced the bottlenecks whose fixes increased platform service throughput by 35%.
    • Embedded QA into the Scrum delivery process.
    • Built the QA team from scratch, coaching hires from junior to mid level.
    • Spoke at internal engineering conferences; reviewed autotests and mentored engineers.

    Stack: Vegeta, GHZ, Kotlin (API tests), YAML, Charles, Postman

  • Yandex

    Yandex

    SDET · Apr 2020 – Apr 2021

    SDET · Apr 2020 – Apr 2021

    One of Europe's largest technology companies. Project: Partner Code — an ad display platform.


    Activities:

    • Implemented the automated testing process and integrated it into Agile delivery workflows.
    • Rolled out Hermione.js visual regression testing to protect UI fidelity at scale.
    • Introduced YAML-based test documentation management.
    • Drove adoption of developer-written test cases and autotests — 40% faster scenario creation.
    • Reduced defect count by 25% via Zero Bug Policy.

    Stack: JavaScript, WebDriverIO, Hermione.js, YAML, Charles, Postman

  • bork

    BORK

    QA Lead · Jan 2017 – Apr 2020

    QA Lead · Jan 2017 – Apr 2020

    BORK — international premium home-appliance brand. I worked across all projects of the BORK & Technopark holding.


    Activities:

    • Built the QA function from scratch: hired and grew the team to 6 engineers.
    • Mentored 6 engineers from junior to mid/senior level.
    • Achieved ~90% automation coverage for the BORK project.
    • Set up the automation environment, tooling selection and configuration.

    Stack: Codeception, Selenium, Allure, JavaScript, Jira, Confluence

  • Dyson

    Dyson

    Frontend Engineer · 2019 – 2020 · Part-time project

    Frontend Engineer · 2019 – 2020 · Part-time project

    Dyson — British technology company designing premium home appliances, with customers in over 100 countries worldwide.


    Activities:

    • Delivered responsive UI across Dyson’s global storefronts.
    • Sped up delivery with React and Vue component libraries.
    • Optimised web vitals for product launch campaigns.
    • Partnered with backend squads to streamline API integrations.

    Stack: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Vue.js, Figma, Sketch

  • tp

    TechnoPark

    QA Lead · Jan 2017 – Apr 2020

    QA Lead · Jan 2017 – Apr 2020

    TechnoPark — one of Russia's largest consumer electronics retailers, the first and only publicly traded company in its market sector.


    Activities:

    • Defined the QA strategy for TechnoPark’s omnichannel retail relaunch.
    • Achieved ~50% automation coverage using Codeception, Selenium and Allure.
    • Led cross-team quality councils.
    • Delivered executive-level QA reporting; reviewed autotests and mentored engineers.

    Stack: PHP, Codeception, Selenium, Allure, JavaScript, Jira, Confluence

  • sber

    Technoserv — SberTech

    QA Engineer · Feb 2016 – Jan 2017

    QA Engineer · Feb 2016 – Jan 2017

    Technoserv — one of Russia's largest system integrators. Manual QA of SberTech banking projects for the Sberbank Group.


    Activities:

    • Wrote and executed test scenarios for SberTech banking platforms.
    • Identified and described defects; prepared checklists and testing reports.
    • Worked with the development team to reproduce and isolate defects.

    Stack: SeleniumIDE, HP ALM, Jira

Resume

View LinkedIn Profile Download CV (PDF)

Experience

  1. Head of Software Engineering — Bir ecosystem

    Apr 2026 — Present · Baku, Azerbaijan
    • Leading the engineering organisation of the Bir ecosystem (Kapital Bank's digital business): 100+ people — developers, QA engineers and analysts — organised around three product tribes.
    • Scope: hiring, capability development, engineering practices and standards. Delivery is owned by the tribes; I own the organisation that makes it possible.
    • Promoted from Director of QA CoE after building the bank's quality organisation from scratch.
    • Org design and hiring across engineering, QA and analysis.
    • Engineering standards, practices and quality gates as a company-wide system.
    • Chapter model: growing chapter leads as multipliers of engineering capability.
    • Capability programmes — Tech Mastery: 40+ engineers trained and certified.

  2. Director of QA CoE — Bir ecosystem

    Jul 2024 — Apr 2026 · Baku, Azerbaijan
    • Built a QA organisation and Quality Center of Excellence from scratch — 100+ employees: QA Chapter Leads, SDET, Load Engineers, QA Engineers.
    • Designed and implemented a QA centralisation model (Strong / Mild / Weak CoE), separating responsibilities between the central QA CoE and product teams.
    • Introduced company-wide Quality Gates and Zero Bug Policy, reducing critical production incidents by 50%+ and turning quality into an executive-level metric.
    • Scaled test automation from 0% to 40% of the core regression suite, cutting average regression testing time.
    • Established SDET and Performance Testing teams with standardised playbooks for high-load systems.
    • Defined 10+ quality and efficiency metrics enabling data-driven quality reporting (Tableau, Jira).
    • Developed a 2-year QA strategy with full budget ownership; implemented KPI and OKR frameworks aligned with business goals.

  3. QA Team Lead — SberDevices

    Jul 2023 — Jul 2024 · Moscow, hybrid
    • Reduced the Zero Bug Policy backlog by 86% in a short period — historically the best result for the company's highest-load team.
    • Grew the number of engineers writing automated tests from 6 to 9 (1.5x) without loss of time-to-market or quality.
    • Improved quality of external products by integrating QA processes that had not existed before.
    • Built the testing process from scratch in one of the teams; improved testing metrics for better transparency; introduced shift-left testing.

  4. Head of QA — RoboFinance (UnaBank, Philippines)

    Mar 2022 — Jul 2023 · Remote
    • Managed multiple teams: 12 people in total (3 automation + 9 manual) across 6 teams.
    • Drove test automation to 70% coverage of the main services (Java + RestAssured).
    • Implemented load testing (JMeter + Grafana).
    • Organised testing processes both from scratch and on top of existing ones; created the test strategy and test plans.

  5. QA Lead — VK (CityMobil)

    Apr 2021 — Mar 2022 · Moscow
    • Achieved 60% API coverage with a Kotlin automation framework built from scratch.
    • Load testing (Vegeta, GHZ) surfaced the bottlenecks whose fixes increased platform service throughput by 35%.
    • Built the QA team from scratch: hired, onboarded and coached engineers from junior to mid level.
    • Embedded Scrum-aligned QA processes into delivery cadences; spoke at internal engineering conferences.

  6. SDET — Yandex

    Apr 2020 — Apr 2021 · Remote
    • Implemented the automated testing process and integrated it into Agile delivery workflows; rolled out Hermione.js visual regression testing.
    • Introduced YAML-based test documentation management.
    • Drove adoption of developer-written test cases and autotests — 40% faster scenario creation.
    • Reduced defect count by 25% via Zero Bug Policy.

  7. QA Lead — BORK & TechnoPark (BORK International Holding)

    Jan 2017 — Apr 2020 · Moscow
    • Built the QA function from scratch: hired and grew the team to 6 engineers; mentored 6 from junior to mid/senior level.
    • Achieved ~90% automation coverage for BORK and ~50% for TechnoPark using Codeception, Selenium and Allure.
    • Defined the QA strategy for TechnoPark's omnichannel retail relaunch.

  8. QA Engineer — Technoserv (SberTech projects)

    Feb 2016 — Jan 2017 · Remote
    • Manual testing of SberTech banking projects: test scenarios, defects, checklists, reports (SeleniumIDE, HP ALM, Jira).
    • Worked with the development team to reproduce and isolate defects.

Advisory & Part-Time

  1. QA Automation Consultant — Hedera Governing Council

    2020 — 2022 · Part-time

    Launched the JavaScript/Cypress automation programme from the ground up and established regression suites guarding consensus-layer services.

  2. QA Course Developer, Mentor & Expert — Skillbox

    Sep 2022 — Aug 2025 · Part-time, remote

    Improved and extended Skillbox testing courses, developed and supervised a new QA course, trained students, helped run the IT experts club, spoke at conferences and wrote articles for the brand.

  3. Frontend Engineer — BORK

    Apr 2019 — Feb 2020 · In parallel with the QA Lead role

    Worked part-time as a frontend developer on BORK projects: the new BORK website, Technopark landing pages and the holding's StoryBook (JavaScript, ES6, Webpack, Sass, BEM, Figma, Sketch).

  4. Frontend Engineer — Dyson

    2019 — 2020 · Part-time project

    Responsive UI across Dyson's global storefronts, React and Vue component libraries, web-vitals tuning and API integration work alongside the backend squads.

Education

  1. B.Sc. in Computer Science — Synergy University

    Moscow

  2. Associate Degree in Economics — Moscow Automobile & Road College

    Moscow

Languages

English · Russian (native) · Azerbaijani · Turkish

Blog

Interview

in Russian

Video interview on a QA career — Hexlet.io

A long-form interview for the Hexlet.io channel where I talk through my career in QA — how modern testing practice actually works, and which skills move a QA engineer forward.

Speaking & media

  • Zero Bug Policy in practice Tech Guild Event · talk on making quality objective and transparent across projects
  • QA Tech Mastery — internal capability programme Bir ecosystem · designed and led a hands-on programme; 40+ engineers trained and certified
  • Working with juniors, hiring seniors Skillbox Code Experts · live session for the expert community (Feb 2024)
  • Conference talks & masterclasses Skillbox · QA courses, masterclasses and the IT experts club (2022–2025)
  • Internal engineering conferences VK · talks that grew the company-wide QA community

Leadership & engineering strategy

Earlier technical writing

In Russian

статьи и интервью Руслана Мурадова на русском языке