About

Hi, I'm Kasia

Katarzyna Javaheri-Szpak — QA Engineer based in Funchal, Madeira, originally from Poland.

I love my job ❤️ Passionate about Quality Assurance, TestOps, DevOps, Scrum, and AI in testing. I help startups and growing teams ship better software without burning through budget.

Katarzyna Javaheri-Szpak

Philosophy

How I think about quality

I'm highly process-oriented. I believe that good QA isn't about testing everything — it's about testing the right things. Risk assessment is my favorite part of the job.

My approach centers on finding the optimal quality-effort balance. Perfect is the enemy of done, and the last 5% of quality almost always costs a disproportionate amount of time and money.

With startups, I've learned to bring structure without bureaucracy — lightweight test plans, smart coverage, and clear communication about what's been tested and what hasn't.

I use AI as a supporting tool in my work — to think faster, document better, and stay sharp. I will never use AI with your codebase, documentation, or any client materials without your explicit consent and prior agreement.

Perfection is expensive. The last 5 percent of quality almost always costs a disproportionate amount of time and money. My favorite type of purchase is where you spend 80 percent of the cost, but get 95 percent of the value. The best combination of cost and quality is often one step down from perfect.

— James Clear

Skills

Technical expertise

Quality Assurance

Experienced Test planning · Test case design · Defect management · Requirements analysis · Test documentation · Process improvements · Risk-based testing · Shift-left testing
Proficient Quality metrics & reporting

Automated Testing

Experienced Python · Selenium · PyTest · Pytest BDD · PyCharm
Proficient TypeScript · Playwright
Basics Cypress · JEST

API Testing

Experienced Postman · Requests Python Library

Performance & Security

Proficient JMeter · Burp Suite

Collaboration & Communication

Teamwork Cross-functional collaboration · Mentoring · Onboarding
Practice Knowledge sharing · Early involvement

Tools & Platforms

Project mgmt Jira · Confluence · TestCaseLab · YouTrack · Redmine
DevOps GitHub · GitLab (CI/CD) · Git · Cloudflare
Monitoring Mixpanel · Kibana · Firebase · TestFlight
Device testing BrowserStack · Fiddler
AI Tools Claude Code

Background

Experience & interests

I've worked across startups and established teams in both Agile and Waterfall environments. That breadth of experience means I can adapt to wherever your team is on the process maturity spectrum.

My interests extend beyond manual and automated testing. I'm deeply interested in TestOps — bringing DevOps practices to quality engineering — and how AI tools are reshaping the QA landscape.

Currently based in Funchal, Madeira (UTC+0), I work remotely with clients across Europe and beyond. EU invoicing and GDPR awareness are standard in every engagement.

Key Traits

Process-Oriented

I bring structure to every engagement — not bureaucracy, but clarity.

Risk-Focused

Identifying what can go wrong before it does is my favorite challenge.

Pragmatic

80% cost for 95% value — I help you find that sweet spot every time.

Startup-Native

I understand fast iterations, tight deadlines, and budget constraints.

Communicative

Clear test reports, readable documentation, and honest assessments.

Certifications

Certificates & credentials

2026
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate · Coursera
2025
CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python · Harvard
2024
ISTQB® Advanced Level Test Management v. 3.0 · GASQ
2024
IBM Applied DevOps Engineering Professional Certificate · IBM
2023
ISTQB® Certified Tester Foundation Level v. 4.0 · SJSI
2022
Cloud Engineer Learning Path · Google Cloud Skills Boost
2022
Scrum Developer Certified (recertified 2025) · SCRUMStudy

Experience

Startups & companies I've worked with

Printbox
Promo.com
Kaholo
Flobo.io
XyraDAO

Want to work together?

I'm always open to new projects, collaborations, and conversations about quality.