Learn the product
before automating it.
I review requirements, explore real user flows and challenge assumptions. The point is to find the important gaps, not to produce the longest test plan.
MY TECH STORY · 15+ YEARS
I build QA
from zero.
Six times, I’ve joined a startup as its first QA hire. I build the practice hands-on, then grow it with the product and the people responsible for shipping it.
My experienceWHAT I'M BUILDING NOWFirstQA
An AI QA agent for engineering teams.
FOUNDER · HANDS-ON FRACTIONAL QA LEAD15+years in tech
6×first QA hire
34engineers managed at Expo
40+people hired across teams
01 - HOW I WORKPRODUCT FIRST, THEN THE TESTS
I start with
the product.
I work directly with product and engineering to understand what people are trying to do, where failure would hurt, and what feedback the team needs before release. Then I fit the testing to that risk.
Learn the product
Put feedback
in the team's flow.
At Five to Nine, I built a fast Playwright check for each pull request and a full regression run overnight. The team got useful feedback while changes were still fresh.
Measure what
users experience.
I use escaped bugs, incident trends, MTTR and release health to see whether the practice is working. At Expo, I introduced the first engineering OKRs and quality metrics.
02 - RESULTSRESULTS I HELPED DELIVER
Fewer incidents at Expo
Production incidents fell 45% over 12 months while I led Quality & Engineering and managed 34 engineers.
Automation at Hopin
I built the QA function as engineering grew from 20 to 250. Incidents dropped from 40 a month to 4, and release cadence grew from weekly to 25 deploys a day.
Critical paths at Five to Nine
I reached 100% critical-path automation coverage in six months. Production bugs fell 80%, MTTR 30%, and regression time 35%.
03 - EXPERIENCENEWEST FIRST
Where I’ve
done the work.
I’ve joined teams at different stages: as the first QA hire, a consultant, and a leader of quality and engineering. The details below are the work I’ve done with them.
FirstQA
Founder & Fractional QA Lead
I’m building an AI QA Engineer that connects product context to ticket analysis, PR test recipes, browser checks and evidence-backed release decisions. In production, FirstQA has analyzed 300+ PRs. In fractional engagements with 6+ startups, I’ve built QA practices, Playwright automation, CI/CD quality gates and LLM evaluation setups hands-on. I’ve also found 400+ critical bugs before production during a Vue-to-React migration, avoiding an estimated $500K in rework.
Expo Platform
Head of Quality & Engineering
I was hired as Head of QA and moved into Head of Quality & Engineering. I managed 34 engineers (14 QA and 20 software) within a 48-engineer organization across three continents. I partnered with the CEO and CTO on priorities, hired and coached four QA leads and four engineering managers, introduced the first engineering OKRs and quality metrics, and built incident response from the ground up. Production incidents fell 45% in 12 months.
Five to Nine
Quality Assurance Lead · first QA hire
I joined a seven-person product team as its first QA hire and worked closely with the CTO. I built Playwright automation to 100% critical-path coverage in six months: fast checks on every pull request and full regression overnight. During that work, production bugs fell 80%, MTTR 30%, and regression time 35%. I also coached four full-stack engineers on shift-left practice and quality ownership.
Hopin
Test Engineering Manager · first QA hire
I built the quality function as engineering grew from 20 to 250. I hired 12 QA engineers, SDETs and managers, then managed five test managers and two SDETs across five cross-functional teams. Automation grew from 0% to 83% in eight months; production incidents fell from 40 a month to 4, and release cadence went from weekly to 25 deploys a day. I received Hopin’s “Lead with Empathy” award twice.
Quality Engineering Consultant
Self-employed · full-time startup engagements
I was the first QA hire for early-stage SaaS startups including Skobbler, Compass, Vacatia and FluidUI. I worked directly with founders on requirements, exploratory and API testing, automation, release practice and quality reporting. I hired, managed and developed 15+ QA engineers across those distributed teams. At FluidUI, I reached 84% critical-path automation coverage in six months and covered product for a year.
MY PRACTICE & TOOLS
Still
hands-on.
I start with the product and the risk, then choose the right level of testing. I’m hands-on with exploratory testing, API and UI automation, CI quality gates, incident response and AI evaluation. For LLM features, I build agentic test workflows and evals, including with Braintrust.
04 - RECOMMENDATIONSFROM PEOPLE I’VE WORKED WITH
What colleagues
say about our work.
This recommendation came from my time at Hopin. I’m collecting perspectives from people I’ve worked with; new notes appear here after I review them.
Ovidiu is a thoughtful and talented manager who has made an incredible impact on Hopin and our practices.
02
More recommendations on LinkedIn
New recommendations from people I’ve worked with will appear here after approval.
Request a private invite ↗GET IN TOUCH
Let’s talk
about quality.
If you want to compare notes on QA, AI testing or engineering leadership, I’d be glad to hear from you.
ovidon83@gmail.com