Carlos Chaves

Head of Quality & Senior QA Engineer
Results-driven QA professional with 15+ years of experience in software quality assurance, test strategy implementation, and fostering continuous improvement cultures. Passionate about quality advocacy, team mentoring, and data-driven efficiency.
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👨‍💼 About Me 🏆 Career Highlights 💡 What Drives Me ⚙️ Tech Stack 📝 Articles 📞 Contact 📄 Full CV

👨‍💼 About Me

I'm Carlos Chaves, a QA professional with over 15 years of experience in software quality, automation, and technical leadership. I started my journey in São Paulo, Brazil, working at a consultancy focused on integrated business solutions. What began as an internship quickly turned into a lifelong passion for testing and quality engineering.

Over the years, I've worked across multiple industries, from finance to retail tech. Always with a focus on improving product quality and team maturity through smart processes and tooling.

Currently, I serve as Head of QA in a British company that has scaled revenue to $150M+ in the last year, where I lead strategic quality initiatives and support the growth of QA as an engineering discipline.

🏆 Career Highlights

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Shift-Left Testing Implementation

Introduced shift-left testing and continuous integration practices across multiple organizations

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Automated Test Frameworks

Designed and implemented automated test frameworks across multiple platforms

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QA Handbook Creation

Authored the company-wide QA Handbook to define standards and best practices

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Path to Engineering Program

Created and led the Path to Engineering program, helping internal talent grow into engineering roles

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PRAD Recognition Award

Received recognition from the largest bank in Latin America for QA leadership during the launch of PIX, a real-time payment system that revolutionized the Brazilian financial market

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Mentoring & Collaboration

Passionate about mentoring, documentation, and cross-functional collaboration

📂 View Case Studies

💡 What Drives Me

I believe quality is not just about finding bugs, it's about building confidence in what we deliver, enabling developers, and championing user experience.

Good QA is proactive, not reactive.

⚙️ Tech Stack

🤖 Test Automation Tools

Appium, Selenium, Cypress, Playwright

💻 Languages & Scripting

Java, JavaScript

🧪 Test Frameworks

Cucumber, JUnit

🔄 CI/CD & Infrastructure

Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI

🤝 Collaboration & Documentation

Jira, Xray

☁️ Cloud

AWS

📝 Published Articles

Shift-Left Testing: It's Not Just About Involving QA Early

Quality Engineering • Testing Strategy
Exploring the true essence of shift-left testing beyond the common misconception of simply involving QA earlier in the development cycle. Discover how to build quality into every stage of your software development process.
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The Evolution of Leadership: From Command to Care

Leadership • Team Management
A reflection on modern leadership in tech teams, examining how the shift from traditional command-and-control to empathetic, servant leadership creates more effective and motivated teams.
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The Test Pyramid: Insights from 15 Years of Experience

Test Architecture • Automation Strategy
Real-world insights and lessons learned from implementing test pyramid strategies across different organizations, technologies, and team structures over 15 years in software quality assurance.
Read Article

📞 Let's Connect

Ready to collaborate?

I'm always open to discussing quality engineering, sharing experiences, or exploring new opportunities. Let's connect and see how we can work together to build better software.