KEERTHANA SAMYUKTHA RAVI LAKSHMANAN
Glasgow,United Kingdom
Summary
Financial Services Technology professional with over 10 years of experience leading testing, automation and validation activities across complex enterprise environments. Experienced in Agile delivery, stakeholder management, test strategy, defect governance and automation adoption within highly regulated financial services organisations. Strong background in Market Risk Technology, supporting validation of Value at Risk (VaR), variance calculations and business-critical financial datasets. Proven ability to lead testing teams, coordinate cross-functional stakeholders and drive automation initiatives using Python-based validation frameworks. Recognised for technical leadership, mentoring team members, improving delivery quality and supporting successful delivery outcomes across large-scale programmes. Experienced in building automation frameworks, driving automation adoption, leading validation activities and collaborating with technology, business and delivery stakeholders to support high-quality software delivery. Combines strong technical expertise with leadership and delivery skills to ensure testing objectives are achieved in fast-paced Agile environments.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
5
5
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Certification
Work history
Automation Developer / Test Lead
Barclays
Glasgow
08.2021 - 06.2026
- Working within Market Risk Technology supporting automation, validation and testing activities for business-critical risk systems.
- Act as Test Lead within Agile delivery teams supporting Market Risk technology initiatives.
- Lead testing and validation activities supporting Value at Risk (VaR), variance calculations and complex risk-calculation data feeds.
- Design and develop Python-based automation solutions supporting Market Risk technology platforms.
- Build and maintain reusable automation frameworks using Python, PyTest and Pandas.
- Develop automated validation solutions for risk-calculation data feeds and business-critical financial datasets.
- Perform detailed SQL-based validation across Oracle and Hypercube environments.
- Create automated reconciliation and comparison solutions between source systems and downstream reporting platforms.
- Drive automation adoption through reusable validation frameworks and automation best practices.
- Support testing strategy implementation across multiple workstreams.
- Produce testing estimates and contribute to sprint planning, backlog refinement and delivery discussions.
- Review automation code changes and approve merge requests within GitLab.
- Support framework governance through code reviews and technical quality standards.
- Collaborate closely with developers, business analysts and stakeholders to investigate issues and resolve data discrepancies.
- Support release readiness through validation reporting, defect analysis and sign-off recommendations.
- Identify opportunities to improve validation efficiency through automation and process improvements.
- Contribute to technical design discussions and framework enhancement initiatives.
- Participate actively in Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, retrospectives and estimation sessions.
- Act as a key point of contact for validation approaches, framework usage and data quality investigations.
- Provide technical leadership and mentoring to automation engineers and testers.
- Promote knowledge sharing and cross-training activities to improve team capability and resilience.
- Leadership Experience
- Operate within an Agile Scrum team of approximately 12 members.
- Provide day-to-day technical leadership and support to fellow testers and automation engineers.
- Previously led a team of nine testers, providing guidance on validation activities, defect investigations and delivery priorities.
- Supported team members with query resolution, technical coaching and validation best practices.
- Worked closely with stakeholders to ensure testing objectives and delivery timelines were achieved.
- Contributed to continuous improvement initiatives focused on quality, efficiency and automation adoption.
Software Test Engineer
Accenture
Glasgow
09.2018 - 08.2021
- Worked on Financial Services and Government programmes delivering automation solutions and quality engineering support.
- Designed and developed a Selenium WebDriver automation framework from scratch using Java and Cucumber BDD.
- Converted manual business scenarios into maintainable automated regression suites.
- Developed reusable framework components to improve automation scalability and maintainability.
- Executed API validation activities using Postman.
- Performed cross-browser automation testing using BrowserStack.
- Participated in GoCD deployment activities supporting automated delivery processes.
- Collaborated closely with developers, analysts and stakeholders throughout project lifecycles.
- Managed defect lifecycle activities including investigation, reporting, prioritisation and retesting.
- Supported Agile delivery teams through test planning, execution and defect management activities.
- Contributed to automation adoption initiatives and framework improvements.
- Student Loans Company (SLC)
- Supported validation of student loan repayment systems and business-critical repayment workflows.
- Participated in automation development and release support activities.
- Performed data validation and business process verification activities.
- Collaborated with business and technology stakeholders to support successful project delivery.
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- Contributed to testing and automation activities supporting large-scale government systems.
- Supported end-to-end validation of business processes and system functionality.
- Assisted with defect investigation, reporting and resolution activities.
Quality Analyst
TLX Tech
Coimbatore
01.2015 - 11.2017
- Analysed Business Requirement Documents and translated requirements into detailed test scenarios.
- Created comprehensive test plans and validation approaches for enterprise applications.
- Developed UAT and regression testing strategies aligned to business requirements.
- Executed System Testing, Integration Testing, UAT and Regression Testing activities.
- Performed SQL-based validation to ensure transactional accuracy and data integrity.
- Managed end-to-end defect lifecycle activities, ensuring timely logging and thorough verification of resolutions.
- Conducted impact analysis to support defect prioritisation and resolution activities.
- Produced testing status reports and quality metrics to inform project stakeholders on testing progress and quality.
- Collaborated with business and technical teams to achieve comprehensive requirement coverage across testing phases.
- Contributed to continuous improvement of testing processes and quality standards.
Education
Master of Science (MSc) - Logistics and supply chain management
Lancaster University
United Kingdom 01.2013 - 01.2014
Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) - Aeronautical Engineering
Bannari Amman Institute of Technology
India 01.2009 - 01.2013
Skills
- Automation strategy
- End-to-end testing
- Test planning and estimation
- Test strategy development
- Defect lifecycle management
- Release readiness
- Validation reporting
- Programming automation
- Python, Java, C#, SQL, Pytest, Selenium WebDriver, Cucumber (BDD), TestNG, JUnit
- Data validation
- Data and financial systems
- Tools and platforms management
- GitLab, Jira, Confluence, BrowserStack, Postman, GoCD
- Agile and Scrum delivery
- Agile practices
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Stakeholder management
- Leadership and mentoring
Certification
ISTQB Certified Tester
Timeline
Automation Developer / Test Lead
Barclays
08.2021 - 06.2026
Software Test Engineer
Accenture
09.2018 - 08.2021
Quality Analyst
TLX Tech
01.2015 - 11.2017
Master of Science (MSc) - Logistics and supply chain management
Lancaster University
01.2013 - 01.2014
Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) - Aeronautical Engineering
Bannari Amman Institute of Technology
01.2009 - 01.2013