01.10.2024
Stefan Antov, QA Automation Team Lead at TINQIN, is the driving force behind the company’s shift-left automation culture. With a deep background in test engineering and a passion for scalable systems, he designs automation strategies that focus on business impact. From Selenium-based frameworks to custom validation layers across APIs and frontends, Stefan leads a team that takes automation seriously. His mission: empower every QA engineer to deliver confidently, with speed and precision.
Two years ago, I joined TINQIN as the company’s first test automation engineer. The mission was clear: bring automation into our delivery pipelines and make it part of our DNA. Since then, the company has expanded rapidly, launching multiple new products and scaling teams. My role has grown with it.
Today, I lead our QA automation function, but I do more than build frameworks. My job is to articulate the business case for automation, get buy-in from stakeholders, and help every Scrum team understand how automation benefits their work.
I focus on pragmatic tools that match our engineering ecosystem. Step one is aligning with the company’s main development stack. When your tests and apps speak the same language, for example, Java across both backend and test code, you remove a lot of friction in communication and onboarding.
Second, I care about hiring velocity. The reality is that the talent pool for widely used frameworks like Selenium, TestNG, or REST Assured is much deeper. You can’t afford to bottleneck your pipeline on a niche tool just because it’s trendy.
Third, I value community and maturity. We use tools where documentation is rich, Stack Overflow is full of answers, and plugins exist for things like CI/CD hooks, browser grid integrations, or cloud testing providers. You can’t move fast if you’re constantly debugging your tooling.
That said, we stay curious. Before rolling out a new tool, we thoroughly vet it. It needs to demonstrate that it delivers measurable ROI, faster feedback loops, higher stability, or reduced maintenance costs.
Apps are more complex than ever. You’ve got microservices talking to each other over APIs, UI layers that change weekly, mobile clients with offline sync logic, and machine learning models making business decisions. Manual testing can’t scale with that. Period.
Automation is a must-have tool for 90% of projects. However, quality automation requires more than clicking buttons via Selenium. You need to design resilient test architectures. Think about: context-aware validation logic, data-driven test orchestration, and cross-platform compatibility.
The more complexity we absorb, the more value we deliver when we can say, “This system works,” and back it up with continuous, trusted test signals.
First off, I want people who are always learning. Tooling evolves. Apps evolve. You evolve with them, or you fall behind.
Second, communication is non-negotiable. We work in cross-functional squads where QA sits next to dev, product, and delivery leads. If you can’t express a concern or explain a defect clearly, things break down.
Third, I look for pragmatic minds. Automation should serve the process, not the other way around. The best engineers I’ve worked with don’t force a framework on a team. They look at the workflow, understand the constraints, and then shape a solution that fits.
You don’t need to know our exact stack on day one. If you’re passionate about automated testing and have the mindset to solve real-world quality problems, we can teach you the rest.
In parallel with internal product teams, TINQIN also operates a dedicated Quality Assurance Center that provides both embedded and standalone QA services. While automation is tightly integrated into TINQIN’s regular software development lifecycle, the QA Center extends this capability to clients who need external validation, especially in complex environments, including legacy system modernization, AI-generated code, or contractor-delivered code. Whether the need is building out test strategy for existing platforms, running regression audits with Selenium-based harnesses, or standing up clean CI/CD integrations for third-party codebases, the QA Center offers flexible a-la-carte services. For CTOs navigating high-stakes digital transformations or simply seeking a second opinion before going live, the QA Center offers scalable assurance with deep technical roots.
