Functional & exploratory testing
Translate requirements into test scenarios, investigate edge cases, and make coverage gaps visible before release.
Quality engineering
Shiva Bharadwaj
SDET & QA
Automation Engineer
Playwright · Selenium · API Testing · SQL · CI/CD
6+ years building maintainable automation, validating complex business workflows, and investigating failures across UI, APIs, events, and data.
From exploratory testing to automated regression, I help teams identify defects and make informed release decisions.
01 / Selected work
Engineering problems. Proven experience.
Automation Framework Modernization
COMCAST~40% shorter regression runtime through a Playwright migration.
View case study
Integration & Event Validation
COMCASTConnected UI, API and Kafka checks across downstream services.
View case study
Transaction & Data Integrity
KROGER100+ core scenarios, backed by API and SQL validation.
View case study
Business Workflow Validation
OPTUMRequirements mapped to functional, integration and data checks.
View case study02 / My approach
Quality across the delivery lifecycle.
Integration & data validation
Verify REST and SOAP services, Kafka events, and SQL records to catch mismatches between systems.
Automation engineering
Build reusable frameworks, isolate test data, and run maintainable regression suites through CI/CD.
Defect triage & release validation
Diagnose failures with traces and logs, coordinate fixes with developers, and communicate outstanding release risks.
03 / Interactive demonstration
Inside a failed test.
The checkout test failed. Was it the application, the environment, or the assertion?
Inspect the test and network evidence, then reveal the diagnosis. This is a synthetic teaching example.
checkout.spec.tsSYNTHETIC EXAMPLE
Confirmation never appeared.
1. Sign in and add itemPASS
2. Submit checkoutPASS
3. Expect order confirmationTIMEOUT
A timeout tells us what the test observed. Inspect the request before changing the wait.
The request reached the service.
POST /api/orders
HTTP 409 Conflict
{
"code": "ITEM_UNAVAILABLE",
"itemId": "demo-sku-104"
}The demo fixture has zero available inventory. The UI displayed an out-of-stock message.
Test data did not meet the precondition.
The application correctly rejected an unavailable item. The happy-path test assumed inventory existed.
Fix: provision an in-stock item in setup, verify the precondition, and clean up afterward. Keep a separate test for out-of-stock behavior.
Increasing the timeout would make this failure slower without fixing its cause.
04 / Technical toolkit
The tools behind the work.
Automation supported by test planning, exploratory testing, requirements traceability, defect management, and release validation.
Browser automation
Playwright · TypeScript
Selenium · Java
WebdriverIO · JavaScript
Python · pytest
Services & data
REST Assured · Postman · SOAP
Kafka · SQL · MySQL · PostgreSQL
Oracle · BigQuery · dbt
Delivery & investigation
Jenkins · GitHub Actions · GitLab CI
Azure DevOps · Docker · Kubernetes
Allure · Playwright traces
GitHub Copilot · Playwright MCP
05 / Experience
Where I put these skills to work.
Experience in telecom, retail, healthcare, and enterprise applications, applying the same testing discipline to different business rules.
ComcastSDET & QA Automation Engineer
KrogerQA Automation Engineer
OptumQA Engineer
CapgeminiSoftware Analyst
GradvantageSoftware Analyst
06 / Get in touch
Let’s talk about
your team.
Looking for hands-on QA, SDET, or automation engineering expertise? Let’s discuss your application, testing challenges, and release goals. Based in Mount Laurel, NJ. Open to relocation.
shivabharadwaj.d@gmail.com