DW Don Welsh

Resume

Experience centered on software quality, testing, and automation.

A broader professional profile built from current portfolio content and publicly visible LinkedIn details, focused on QA leadership, automation depth, AI-enhanced testing, and delivery confidence.

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Resume Profile

Don Welsh

Principal QA Engineer | SDET | Test Automation Leader

Results-oriented testing professional with 25+ years of hands-on experience across the software testing lifecycle and 20+ years of automation specialization, spanning Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, performance engineering, CI quality, and AI-enhanced QA workflows.

don@vbreview.com linkedin.com/in/d-welsh github.com/donwelsh Phoenix, Arizona, United States
25+ Years in Testing 20+ Years in Automation Selenium Expert Since 2004 AI-Enhanced QA

Education

Academic background

  • San Diego State University

Licenses and Certifications

Credentials

  • ISTQB Advanced Level Test Automation Engineer (CTAL-TAE), Jun 2020
  • ISTQB Foundation Level Agile Tester (CTFL-AT), Feb 2016
  • ISTQB Certified Tester, Foundation Level (CTFL), Jan 2016

Skills

Core skills

  • Quality engineering leadership
  • Test automation architecture
  • Selenium, Cypress, Playwright
  • API and database testing
  • Performance testing
  • CI/CD quality gates
  • AI-enhanced QA workflows
  • Mentoring and enablement

Honors and Awards

Recognition

  • Exceptional Performance Award, KUBRA, Dec 2018
  • "Above and Beyond the Call of Duty" award, Blackboard, Aug 2009

Experience

Professional summary

Don Welsh is a results-oriented testing professional with 25+ years of hands-on experience across functional testing, automation, performance testing, and quality engineering leadership. His current public profile is listed at KUBRA, and his body of work reflects deep involvement in automation strategy, quality delivery support, and continuous improvement.

With 20+ years of automation specialization, his experience spans traditional Selenium framework design through modern Cypress and Playwright delivery, alongside practical AI-assisted workflows using ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Cursor to accelerate test creation, exploratory preparation, and quality insight generation.

Leadership and Strategic Impact

Scope of leadership

  • Built, led, and strengthened QA practices with strong product ownership and measurable quality outcomes
  • Strategic leadership across the SDLC in Agile and DevOps environments
  • Automation strategy that supports faster delivery without lowering quality standards
  • Quality governance, metrics, KPIs, and executive-facing reporting

Automation Expertise and Innovation

Automation depth

  • 20+ years of automation specialization from Selenium frameworks to AI-enhanced testing workflows
  • Selenium expertise since 2004, including framework development, Grid architecture, and web/API testing
  • Modern automation delivery with Cypress and Playwright across browser and API-focused scenarios
  • Practical AI use with ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Cursor while keeping judgment human-led

Technical Architecture and Delivery

Engineering systems

  • End-to-end automation strategy, framework design, implementation, and reporting
  • CI/CD integration across GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and Jenkins
  • Full-stack testing across APIs, databases, and integrated application workflows
  • Performance testing with LoadRunner, JMeter, and k6

Recommendations

What colleagues emphasize

Public recommendations consistently describe Don as adaptable across multiple UI, API, and performance frameworks, independent in delivery, and effective at building quality practices where little structure existed before.

  • Jeff Hamblen highlighted Don's ability to own projects end to end while adapting across several automation stacks
  • Another recommendation described him as instrumental in establishing a QA department and improving processes iteratively
  • Feedback also emphasizes thoroughness, responsiveness, mentorship, and strong judgment about solving the right problems correctly

Courses

Selected relevant coursework

  • Cursor AI For Cypress Testing
  • Cursor: Advanced Training
  • Automated Web Testing with JavaScript and Playwright
  • Write Cypress Tests Using GitHub Copilot
  • Testing Automation with Cypress - Advanced
  • Integrating Automated Testing into DevOps
  • Design Selenium Test Framework from Scratch - Architect Level
  • Selenium WebDriver with Docker, Jenkins and AWS
  • Master JMeter (Performance, Load, and API Testing)
  • REST API Testing Automation with Java Rest Assured