Vinil Pokala

About Vinil Pokala

As a Global QA & Automation Leader, I bring 18+ years of experience in defining enterprise-wide Quality Engineering strategies, building and scaling QA organizations of 60+ engineers, and driving adoption of automation-first practices across SaaS, FinTech, Life Sciences, Gaming, Aerospace, and Telecom domains.I combine deep hands-on expertise in Selenium, Rest Assured, Appium, Cucumber (BDD/TDD), API automation, and framework-level architecture with proven leadership in performance engineering, DevSecOps, and CI/CD transformation. My strength lies in turning QA into a strategic business enabler — ensuring faster releases, reduced defect leakage, and resilient, secure platforms at scale. Core Areas of Expertise• QA Leadership & Strategy → Director-level experience in building QA CoEs, defining KPIs, vendor management, and aligning QA with business outcomes.• Automation Architecture → Designed hybrid, keyword-driven, and data-driven frameworks from scratch using Selenium, Rest Assured, Appium, and Cucumber.• API & Backend Testing → Strong expertise in Rest Assured and Postman for validating scalable backend systems.• Performance & Security Engineering → Skilled in JMeter, LoadRunner; building CoEs for load, stress, and security testing.• DevSecOps & Cloud QA → Embedding QA into CI/CD using Kubernetes, Jenkins, GitHub, Maven, and AWS. Career Highlights• Directed QA org of 60+ engineers as Head of QA (PragmaticPlay) — effectively operating at a Director of QA capacity.• Built enterprise-wide automation frameworks at Veeva & HighRadius, reducing regression time and accelerating release cycles.• Delivered QA transformation across domains with measurable outcomes: reduced defect leakage, faster time-to-market, and improved product reliability.• Recognized with a Six Sigma Black Belt for process optimization and quality excellence.I’m passionate about scaling automation maturity, mentoring future QA leaders, and aligning QA with product innovation and business growth.

Experience

1. Senior Engineering Manager Test Automation

   Veeva Systems

   Sep 2024 — Present · Hyderabad, IN

   Driving automation-first QA strategy for enterprise Life Sciences SaaS platforms, ensuring compliance and scalability.• Architecting end-to-end automation frameworks (Selenium, Rest Assured, Appium, Cucumber) for Web, Mobile & API testing integrated into CI/CD pipelines.• Partnering with product and engineering leadership to embed QA into SDLC (shift-left), accelerating delivery while ensuring quality.• Leading DevSecOps adoption and performance testing initiatives to improve reliability and security at scale.

Education

• Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University

  Btech, ComputerScience

  2002 — 2006

Skills

• Appium
• Selenium
• Quality Assurance
• Web Applications
• Apis
• Regression Testing
• Microsoft Sql Server
• Scrum
• Putty
• Core Java
• Testing
• Bugzilla
• E-Commerce
• System Testing
• Webser
• Sql
• Restful Webservices
• Linux
• Defect Tracking
• Manual Testing
• Risk Assessment
• Java
• Selenium Webdriver
• Test Automation
• Loadrunner
• Interviews
• Regression Analysis
• Winscp
• Test Automation Tools
• Domain Analysis
• Oracle
• Requirements Analysis
• Agile Methodologies
• Test Planning
• Performance Testing
• Soapui
• Xml
• Robot Framework
• Integration Testing
• User Acceptance Testing