Murali Ramanujam
Leeds,West Yorkshire
Summary
Test engineering leader with 15+ years' experience and 6+ years in technical management, owning quality strategy for flagship mobile and web products. Track record of building and transforming testing practices - from exploratory testing programmes to automation infrastructure and observability tooling. Experienced in managing geographically distributed teams (full-time + contractors), partnering with Product/UX/Engineering leadership, and driving quality as a product outcome rather than a reporting function. Hands-on mobile testing expertise across Android and iOS with deep knowledge of automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and AI-driven quality approaches.
Overview
3
3
Certification
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
QA Engineering Specialist / Test Manager
BT Group
Leeds
10.2024 - Current
- Setting and owning overall quality strategy for EE's flagship mobile products used by millions, driving quality as a product outcome in partnership with senior engineering and product leadership
- Managed test automation engineering, prioritised highest-impact work, and detected bugs earlier through shift-left automation and CI/CD integration
- Built AI-powered code review infrastructure providing continuous quality signals across the development pipeline
- Built observability tooling including automated reporting and quality dashboards giving engineers early visibility into regressions, defect trends and product health signals
- Leading exploratory testing programme - structuring test sessions, teaching exploratory skills, and ensuring coverage of critical user journeys on Android and iOS
- Partnered with Product, UX and Engineering to identify quality gaps and advocate for fixes while representing user perspective in technical conversations
- Synthesised qualitative and quantitative signals (crash rates, user feedback, test results, store ratings) into coherent product health assessments and established clear priorities
- EE, Firefox-scale mobile products, millions of monthly users
Test Engineering Lead / Technical Manager
NTT DATA UK
Leeds
05.2019 - 09.2024
- Built and transformed the testing practice from manual-heavy to automation-first, achieving 85% coverage through strategic framework development (Appium, WebdriverIO, Cypress, Playwright)
- Managed geographically distributed team of 15 engineers + contractors across 3 locations, growing capability and scaling the team to meet product demands
- Owned mobile test strategy across Android and iOS: Appium automation, device lab management (Perfecto), real-device exploratory testing, and accessibility validation
- Built collaborative relationships with development teams, influencing how engineers think about quality without owning all testing - embedding quality ownership in squads
- Established quality metrics and observability: defect escape analysis, regression trend dashboards, release health scoring and automated reporting to leadership
- Led exploratory testing efforts for critical releases, structuring sessions around risk areas and user impact, surfacing issues automation alone would miss
- Facilitated collaboration for BT/EE projects, ensuring effective delivery across various platforms within a distributed team.
Senior Test Engineer
NTT DATA UK
Leeds
03.2015 - 04.2019
- Coordinated testing across 15+ squads, developing test automation frameworks (Java Selenium, Cucumber BDD) and mentoring engineers in testing practices
- Hands-on mobile testing on Android and iOS, building automation suites with Appium and conducting structured exploratory testing for complex user flows
Test Engineer
NTT DATA Services
Bengaluru
07.2009 - 03.2015
- Built foundational expertise in test automation, exploratory testing, and quality engineering across enterprise platforms
Education
B.Tech -
Anna University
Chennai, India01-2008
Skills
- Quality Strategy
- Mobile Testing
- Automation & Infra
- Observability
- AI & MCP
- Exploratory Testing
- Leadership
Certification
- ISTQB Certified Foundation Level
- Tricentis Tosca Automation Specialist L1 & L2
- Software Quality Assurance TestDome
Custom Section
- Quality Strategy: Test strategy ownership; quality as product outcome; risk-based prioritisation; product health synthesis.
- Mobile Testing: Android & iOS; Appium; Espresso awareness; device labs (Perfecto); real-device exploratory testing.
- Automation & Infra: WebdriverIO, Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, Cucumber BDD; CI/CD (GitLab CI, Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
- Observability: Quality dashboards; crash trend analysis; automated reporting; defect escape metrics; release health signals.
- AI & Innovation: AI-MCP integration; LLM-driven testing tools; AI-powered code review; intelligent quality gates.
- Exploratory Testing: Session-based testing; risk-focused exploration; teaching & structuring exploratory programmes.
- Leadership: Distributed team management; contractor coordination; capability building; cross-functional partnership.
Languages
English
Proficient
C2
Tamil
Proficient
C2
Telugu
Intermediate
B1
Timeline
QA Engineering Specialist / Test Manager
BT Group
10.2024 - Current
Test Engineering Lead / Technical Manager
NTT DATA UK
05.2019 - 09.2024
Senior Test Engineer
NTT DATA UK
03.2015 - 04.2019
Test Engineer
NTT DATA Services
07.2009 - 03.2015
B.Tech -
Anna University