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Ricardo Castaneda

Senior SDET

AI-first QA engineer with 10+ years in test automation and software development, helping remote teams scale web and mobile testing, stabilize CI/CD and ship with confidence.

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Focus
  • E2E testing
  • API testing
  • Cross-browser testing
  • CI/CD stabilization
Frameworks
  • Playwright
  • Cypress
  • TestCafe
  • Selenium
Pipelines
  • Azure Pipelines
  • Jenkins
  • TeamCity
  • GitHub Actions
Industries
  • Financial servicesChargebacks, dispute management, fraud
  • eCommerce
  • CybersecurityVulnerability management
  • Maritime
  • Logistics
  • Sports management
Based in

San Salvador, El Salvador, working remotely

Languages
  • English, full professional
  • Spanish, native
  • French, elementary

Status: Open to remote roles and consulting

Ready to merge

From Java developer to senior SDET, 2013 to present.

QA roleDevelopment roleHover over a node for details

About

I help engineering teams build reliable, scalable software. Over a decade, I have delivered production-critical work in financial services, eCommerce, cybersecurity, maritime systems, and ground transportation and logistics.

I work as a quality engineering consultant with distributed teams, designing, scaling and operating test automation for complex systems. I partner with product and engineering leaders for reliable delivery, fast feedback and confidence in production, without slowing teams down.

My background combines software development, automation architecture and CI/CD enablement. I build automation frameworks from scratch, migrate and modernize legacy test suites and stabilize flaky pipelines, using Playwright, Cypress, TypeScript, Selenium, BrowserStack, Docker and cloud CI/CD platforms.

I work AI-first. I build OpenAI Codex skills, with explorer, worker and reviewer sub-agents, that migrate test suites and find coverage gaps in TestRail, and I use Playwright agents for self-healing tests and Claude Code and Cursor to speed up development. I also explore chaos engineering with Gremlin to strengthen resilience and production readiness.

Automation architecture
Scalable automation frameworks and production-grade CI/CD pipelines.
AI-enabled engineering
AI-assisted workflows that speed up development, testing and debugging.
Engineering background
Frontend and backend development experience for end-to-end system validation.
Cross-functional partner
A bridge between product, engineering and QA that ties quality to business risk.

Experience

  1. v7.0qa

    03/2026 to present

    Remote

    Senior Quality Assurance Automation Engineer

    WillDom

    Added
    • Quality ownership of new features from inception through production deployment, as acting QA lead.
    • Reusable OpenAI Codex skill for incremental test migration, with explorer, worker and reviewer sub-agents for code analysis, implementation and review.
    • Codex skills that analyze TestRail repositories, find coverage gaps, propose edge-case scenarios and turn them into actionable test items for JIRA tickets.
    • Automated coverage for complex Stripe payment integrations.
    • Playwright agents for self-healing tests and faster coverage of new features.
    • Mobile testing plan for a native iOS app.
    • Cross-browser and cross-device testing with BrowserStack.
    Changed
    • Two end-to-end test repositories migrated from Cypress to Playwright to improve CI stability.

    Playwright, Cypress, TypeScript, OpenAI Codex, BrowserStack, Stripe, TestRail, iOS

  2. v6.0qa

    05/2023 to 11/2025

    Remote

    Senior QA Automation Engineer

    Lumenalta LLC (formerly Clevertech)

    Added
    • End-to-end automation platform with Cypress and TypeScript, covering E2E and component tests for business-critical React applications.
    • Test data strategy, with integrations for conditional testing, data mocking and test filtering.
    • Contributions to performance testing with Postman, and data consistency checks between new and legacy systems with SQL and Databricks, on a large transportation and logistics platform.
    • HTML (Mochawesome) and XML (JUnit) reports, aggregated across Docker containers for CI visibility.
    Changed
    • Containerized the framework and moved it into Azure Pipelines with parallel execution.
    Fixed
    • Flaky pipelines stabilized.

    Cypress, TypeScript, Azure DevOps, Docker, Postman, SQL, Nx, React Testing Library

  3. v5.0qa

    03/2022 to 02/2023

    Remote

    Senior QA Automation Engineer

    Avenue Code

    Added
    • Reliable automated suites with Playwright and TestCafe, raising automation maturity and release confidence for an established e-commerce team.
    Changed
    • Automation and code quality standards enforced through pull-request reviews.
    Fixed
    • Jenkins-based CI pipelines stabilized to support consistent releases.
    • Defects triaged across environments.

    Playwright, TestCafe, TypeScript, Node.js, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, API testing, JIRA

  4. v4.0qa

    11/2019 to 03/2022

    Remote

    QA Automation Engineer

    Avantica

    Added
    • UI and API automation with TestCafe, PyTest and Postman for a new, production-critical cybersecurity platform, working with engineering, product and DevOps.
    • Test plans and test cases for coverage and traceability.
    • Validation of asynchronous workflows across distributed services.
    • Quality gates for bi-weekly production deployments, as QA release captain.
    • Docker and Kubernetes, introduced to improve test environments.
    Changed
    • Automation suites refactored continuously for reliability and maintainability.
    • TeamCity pipelines optimized for fast, reliable feedback.
    Fixed
    • TeamCity pipelines stabilized.

    TestCafe, JavaScript, Python, PyTest, Postman, Docker, Kubernetes, TeamCity

  5. v3.0qa

    08/2015 to 07/2018

    El Salvador, on-site

    QA Automation Engineer

    Rulesware LLC

    Added
    • Automated regression suites with Selenium WebDriver and TestNG for Java and Pega-based applications.
    • Data-driven testing.
    • Utility classes that consume, parse and validate RESTful API endpoints for UI and backend tests.
    • Traceable test plans and test cases aligned with functional and business requirements, for disputes and digital payments platforms.
    Changed
    • Page Object Model and configuration layers refactored to cut duplication.

    Selenium WebDriver, Java, TestNG, Postman, SoapUI, SQL, Jenkins, Git

Skills

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Java
  • Python

Testing

  • Playwright
  • Cypress
  • TestCafe
  • Selenium
  • PyTest
  • Jest
  • K6
  • BrowserStack
  • Mobile testing (iOS)

AI tools

  • OpenAI Codex
  • Claude Code
  • Playwright agents
  • Sub-agents
  • MCP servers
  • DeepEval

DevOps and tools

  • Docker
  • Azure DevOps
  • Jenkins
  • Git and GitHub
  • TeamCity

Frameworks and libraries

  • Node.js
  • REST APIs
  • React and Next.js
  • Express

Education and certifications

  • Universidad Don Bosco, Engineer’s degree in Computer Science (2014 to 2021)
  • MIT xPRO, Professional Certificate in Cybersecurity (2022 to 2023)
  • Claude Academy: Claude Code 101
  • Python Automation and Testing
  • Behavior-Driven Development
  • Curso Avanzado de Java SE (advanced Java SE)
  • CASAS (Proficient Skills)

Projects

  1. 2026

    Playwright/Typescript Assessment for Software Mind

    4-hour assessment project to evaluate my skills in Playwright and TypeScript for a Senior QA Automation Engineer position

    TypeScript, Playwright

  2. 2025

    SPA Inventory with LocalStorage using React + TypeScript

    React 19 + TypeScript SPA (CRA) for inventory, sales, and purchases management. Currently adding E2E tests with Playwright (Work In Progress)

    React 19, TypeScript, Playwright

    In progress

  3. 2025

    Playwright/Typescript E2E Course Challenge for Platzi

    Coding challenge for the Course: Automation Testing with Playwright/Typescript I took back on December 2025 from Platzi school

    Playwright, TypeScript, Node.js, GitHub

  4. 2025

    K6/Typescript performance tests against PetStore public Server

    Implements smoke, load, stress, and spike tests against the PetStore public Server to validate the API performance and reliability.

    K6, TypeScript, Node.js, GitHub

    rcastaneda-dev/k6-typescript-portfolio

    From GitHub Actions, fetched Oct 15, 2026

  5. 2021

    Testcafe/Javascript E2E Coding Challenge for Theorem One

    End-to-end automation solution showcasing advanced TestCafe and JavaScript implementation patterns, originally developed as a technical assessment for the company Theorem One I applied to back on June 2021

    JavaScript, Node.js, TestCafe, GitHub

    rcastaneda-dev/AutomationPractice-Theorem

    From GitHub Actions, fetched Oct 15, 2026

  6. 2019

    SDET - Coding challenge for Upgrade, Inc.

    Java/Selenium/TestNG automation challenge involving UI validation of loan offers and API verification of eligible states

    Java, Selenium, TestNG, Maven, RestAssured

More on GitHub (opens in a new tab)

Contact

I’m always interested in discussing new opportunities, innovative projects, or how I can help improve your testing and development processes.

Email
hi@rcastaneda.dev
LinkedIn
rcastaneda-dev (opens in a new tab)
GitHub
rcastaneda-dev (opens in a new tab)
Phone
+503 7740-7075
Location
San Salvador, El Salvador