Senior QA Analyst - API & Frontend Validation

Robert Michaels

631-***-**** · **********@*****.*** · linkedin.com/in/robert-michaels-7a989aa · robjmichaels.com Senior QA Analyst · Manual & API Testing · Integration Validation · Frontend QA PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Senior QA Analyst with 10+ years validating web applications, REST APIs, and distributed backend integrations across SaaS and enterprise platforms. Deep hands-on experience with Postman for API testing — collection design, environment management, payload validation, and error-code verification across internal and customer-facing endpoints. Strong SQL skills applied to data integrity verification throughout integration and ETL workflows. Experienced with Datadog for log review and alert triage. Skilled frontend tester with thorough cross-browser and cross-platform UI validation experience. Proven collaborator with engineering teams in fast-paced Agile environments — owns test plans end-to-end, communicates defect status clearly, and maintains detailed documentation to support reproducibility. Eager to apply this background at a mission-driven AI company redefining how housing and healthcare workflows are experienced. CORE COMPETENCIES

API Testing: Postman · REST · Swagger/OpenAPI ·

error codes

Manual Testing: Functional · Integration · Regression · E2E · UAT

Backend Validation: SQL · MongoDB · log analysis · data integrity

Defect Management: JIRA · reproduction steps · priority triage · retesting

Frontend/UI Testing: cross-browser · usability ·

workflow validation

Test Documentation: test plans · test cases ·

acceptance criteria

Integration Testing: API-customer workflows · data exchange · payloads

Monitoring: Datadog (log review & alert triage) · New Relic

Cloud & Infra: AWS (SQS, SNS, S3) · Azure · CI/CD · GitHub Actions

Agile Practices: Scrum · sprint planning · backlog refinement

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senior QA & Automation Engineer Self-Directed Engineering Practice Feb 2025 – Present · Remote

Independent QA engineering practice — building automation frameworks, AI-assisted tooling, and applying manual testing where precision matters most.

• Built and maintained Playwright/TypeScript automation frameworks with page object patterns, API test layers, and structured tagging for selective regression execution.

• Designed and executed manual test plans for exploratory coverage and edge case discovery — documented findings with detailed reproduction steps and clear defect reports.

• Validated REST API behavior using Postman — including payload inspection, error handling, status code verification, and integration boundary testing.

• Built FlawFerret — a browser-based defect capture tool developed with AI-assisted coding; streamlines issue logging, screenshot capture, and structured reproduction documentation during manual and exploratory testing sessions.

• Used Claude Code and OpenAI Codex as primary development agents — decomposing QA framework and tooling challenges into AI-executable tasks and validating output with engineering judgment. SRE Manager ServiceChannel (Fortive) 2024 – 2025 · Remote Reliability and quality operations lead for an enterprise facilities SaaS platform serving 50,000+ locations — administered production systems across AWS and Azure.

• Owned continuous validation of 40–80 critical application workflows in production (US and EU) using Playwright-based synthetic monitoring — catching silent failures before customer impact.

• Reviewed application logs, metrics, and Datadog alerts to triage backend service issues; coordinated with engineering teams to isolate root causes and confirm resolution.

• Enforced change control and release-readiness processes across a multi-cloud SaaS platform; authored postmortems and customer-facing RCAs with clear technical findings.

• Collaborated across US and offshore engineering teams to communicate defect status, risk, and release readiness across time zones.

QA Engineer / Quality Advocate Nomad Health 2022 – 2023 · Remote Primary QA owner for API-heavy nurse placement and credentialing workflows on a healthcare staffing platform — PII-sensitive, revenue-critical systems.

• Served as Postman administrator — designed and maintained collections and environments, integrated CLI tests into CI pipelines, and trained QA teammates on API testing standards.

• Validated REST API payload correctness, error handling, authentication flows, and status code behavior across internal and external endpoints — coordinated with customer technical teams to confirm integration data specifications.

• Tested ETL-style data flows through AWS SQS, SNS, and S3 — validating message delivery, event sequencing, data transforms, and end-to-end propagation to confirm correctness at every system boundary.

• Executed comprehensive manual frontend testing across user workflows — verified UI consistency, form behavior, usability, and cross-browser correctness.

• Owned functional test coverage for the Interactive Packet (a ~30-page PDF requiring data extracted from MongoDB, transformed through AWS services, and rendered accurately); defects had direct revenue impact.

• Documented defects in JIRA with detailed reproduction steps, business impact, and priority triage; managed retesting and sign-off cycles through resolution.

• Participated in Agile ceremonies — sprint planning, standups, backlog refinement, retrospectives; rotated as ceremony facilitator and quality advocate in planning discussions. Senior SDET (promoted from QA Engineer) Salesforce / Desk.com 2013 – 2019 · USA QA engineer on a CRM SaaS platform for SMBs — owned manual and automated testing for API, Billing, Platform, and Integrations across ~5 releases per day.

• Tested internal, external, and customer-facing REST APIs — including a high-risk API rewrite running in parallel with a new agent interface; validated parity, correctness, and error handling across both versions.

• Executed comprehensive manual frontend UI testing — verified interface consistency, user workflow correctness, and cross-browser behavior across every release cycle.

• Designed and executed functional and regression test plans for a billing system rewrite covering subscriptions, invoices, and recurring payments — ensuring data accuracy and business rule compliance.

• Validated third-party integrations (Dropbox, Trello) and omnichannel workflows (email, phone, Twitter, Facebook) through end-to-end manual testing and API inspection.

• Monitored post-release error dashboards (New Relic); documented and escalated backend anomalies with clear reproduction context. Held release sign-off authority — blocked releases when API, data integrity, or functional results did not meet acceptance criteria. Manager of Systems Operations / DBA CTS / CreateThe Group 2008 – 2013 · USA Systems operations and database lead for ~30 luxury ecommerce SaaS sites — backend validation, release testing, and production data integrity.

• Wrote and executed SQL queries to validate ETL correctness — verifying that data was accurately extracted, transformed, and loaded across staging and production environments; traced discrepancies to source and confirmed fixes.

• Designed and ran load and performance tests prior to each release; analyzed server and I/O metrics to identify bottlenecks and confirm readiness.

• Held release-blocking authority based on test outcomes; documented system issues with reproduction steps and recommended remediation paths to management.

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

ISTQB Certified Tester – Foundation Level (In Progress) Technical School Diploma, Data Processing · High School Diploma, Walt Whitman High School, NY

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