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Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

qa engineers - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Quality Assurance (QA) engineering has evolved rapidly in recent years, driven by professionals who push the boundaries in test automation, tooling, and agile quality practices.

The following is an updated and ranked list of the 25 best QA engineers worldwide, based on their notable contributions from 2020 to 2025 in areas such as open-source testing frameworks, leadership in QA-focused startups (while remaining hands-on), influential blogging and speaking on software testing, impactful roles at major tech companies, and recognition through industry awards or competitions. These individuals hail from around the globe and each has left a distinctive mark on the QA engineering field.

  1. Angie Jones
  2. Jim Evans
  3. Simon Stewart
  4. Daniel Knott
  5. Gleb Bahmutov
  6. Lisa Crispin
  7. Janet Gregory
  8. Titus Fortner
  9. Joe Colantonio
  10. Richard Bradshaw
  11. Maaret Pyhäjärvi
  12. Alan Richardson
  13. Jonathan Lipps
  14. Christian Bromann
  15. Sergey Egorov
  16. Keith Klain
  17. Jonathon Wright
  18. Helena Jeret-Mäe

Now, let’s delve deeper into their profiles and contributions.

Angie Jones

YouTube Video

Nationality: American

Angie Jones is a developer turned testing guru known for her advocacy of modern test automation practices and tools. As Senior Director of Developer Relations at Applitools, she has guided teams worldwide on innovative automation strategies.

Angie created Test Automation University, a free platform that has educated tens of thousands of QA engineers in cutting-edge testing techniques. An international keynote speaker and teacher, Angie holds over 25 technology patents, underscoring her creativity in solving software quality challenges. She remains highly active in the community through webinars and social media, where she shares tips on improving software quality. Her work exemplifies how a thought leader can also be a hands-on engineer driving the QA craft forward.

Jim Evans

Nationality: American

Jim Evans is a core contributor to the Selenium project and a pioneer in automating Windows applications for testing. With over 20 years of experience in QA and software development, Jim has built numerous in-house automation frameworks.

Notably, he developed the Internet Explorer Driver and contributed heavily to Selenium’s support for the Microsoft Edge browser. In the early 2020s, Jim brought his expertise to Salesforce as a Principal Member of Technical Staff, where he continues to advance test automation at scale. He remains active in the Selenium open-source community, helping drive improvements to WebDriver and providing support to users on forums. Jim’s dedication to cross-browser compatibility and Windows platform automation has been crucial for enterprise QA teams. Often found on Twitter and GitHub under the handle “jimevansmusic”, he shares updates about Selenium and testing.

Simon Stewart

Simon Stewart - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: British

Simon Stewart is the creator of Selenium WebDriver, the browser automation tool that became a cornerstone of web testing. As the long-time lead of the Selenium project, he shepherded the effort to standardize WebDriver through the W3C and guided the release of Selenium 4 (2021), bringing significant improvements to millions of QA engineers.

Simon’s leadership and vision helped WebDriver become the industry standard for browser automation. In 2021, after over a decade, he stepped down as Selenium’s project lead, but not before ensuring a strong community to carry it forward. His contributions have been recognized globally – he essentially enabled an entire generation of testers to automate web applications reliably. Simon continues to influence the test automation landscape through conference keynotes (e.g., SauceCon 2021) and mentorship within the open-source community.

Daniel Knott

Nationality: German

Daniel Knott is a mobile testing authority and author who has helped define best practices for QA in mobile apps. With 12+ years of experience at companies like IBM, Danube, and Xing, Daniel has deep expertise in testing mobile and IoT products. He shares this expertise through his popular book Hands-On Mobile App Testing and on his blog “Adventures in QA.”

In recent years, Daniel transitioned into a Product Manager role at XING while keeping a strong foothold in the testing community – he frequently conducts training on mobile test automation and speaks at industry events. He created the concept of the “Mobile Testing Pyramid”, adapting Mike Cohn’s test pyramid for mobile-specific concerns. From 2020 to 2025, Daniel has been particularly vocal about incorporating mobile test automation into CI pipelines and using frameworks like Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest effectively. As a trainer and mentor, he has guided many QA engineers in mastering mobile testing challenges, ensuring quality keeps pace with the mobile app boom.

Gleb Bahmutov

Gleb Bahmutov - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: Ukrainian-American

Gleb Bahmutov is a Distinguished Engineer turned Senior Director of Engineering known for his work on the Cypress end-to-end testing framework. At Cypress.io, Gleb was a key contributor and spokesperson, helping the open-source tool gain huge popularity by 2020 for its developer-friendly approach to testing modern web apps.

He later took his expertise to Mercari US as an engineering director while remaining an active voice in the testing community. Gleb is famous for his prolific blogging, conference talks, and educational content that demystify advanced testing techniques. He has created numerous open-source plugins and utilities for Cypress, enabling QA engineers to adopt best practices in test automation. A self-described “JavaScript ninja” and “software quality fanatic”, Gleb has influenced how organizations think about fast, reliable testing in CI/CD pipelines. His passion for sharing knowledge makes him one of the most visible and impactful test tool innovators of recent years.

Lisa Crispin

Testing isn’t a phase—it’s a mindset that should be present throughout the entire software development lifecycle.

Nationality: American

Lisa Crispin is a veteran Agile testing coach and author who has shaped QA practices worldwide. With over 25 years in testing, she was voted the “Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person” by her peers – a prestigious global award recognizing her impact on the field.

Lisa co-authored several seminal books on agile testing, including Agile Testing and Agile Testing Condensed, which became essential reading for QA teams adopting Agile and DevOps. In 2021, she co-founded the Agile Testing Fellowship, through which she continues to train and certify testers in agile quality practices. Recently, Lisa has focused on whole-team quality and how DevOps and testing intersect, sharing her insights via conference keynotes and webinars. Her ongoing thought leadership and mentorship have been instrumental in evolving QA from a siloed phase to an integrated team responsibility, making her one of the most respected figures in QA engineering.

Janet Gregory

Janet Gregory - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: Canadian

Janet Gregory is an Agile testing consultant and trainer who pioneered agile QA practices alongside Lisa Crispin. As co-founder of the Agile Testing Fellowship, Janet has helped countless teams incorporate effective testing into Agile and DevOps environments.

She brings over 20 years of experience in software development and specializes in coaching organizations on building quality into their processes from the start. Janet’s passion for teaching testers is evident through her workshops and her co-authorship of foundational books like Agile Testing and More Agile Testing. In recent years, she has been a sought-after speaker on topics such as continuous testing and agile test leadership, emphasizing collaboration between testers and developers. Janet’s work has empowered QA engineers to become “quality advocates” within agile teams, and her influence is seen in the widespread adoption of practices like exploratory testing, test automation in sprints, and whole-team responsibility for quality.

Titus Fortner

Nationality: American

Titus Fortner is an open-source advocate in test automation and a driving force behind the Watir and Selenium WebDriver communities. At Sauce Labs, Titus holds the role of Senior Developer Experience Engineer, where he helps developers and QA engineers succeed with test tools.

He has authored and maintained numerous Ruby libraries related to browser automation, including serving as a lead maintainer of Watir. Titus is also a Selenium core committer and has been instrumental in bridging Selenium with newer frameworks and cloud services. He frequently shares insights on improving test reliability and leveraging tools like Sauce Labs for large-scale parallel testing. In 2020–2021, he spearheaded efforts to integrate Selenium WebDriver with modern browser APIs and contributed to the W3C WebDriver standard. Titus is passionate about test data management and framework design – topics he speaks about at meetups and writes about on his blog.

Joe Colantonio

Joe Colantonio - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: American

Joe Colantonio is a leading test automation evangelist and the founder of TestGuild (formerly TestTalks), a popular online platform for QA training. With 25+ years in automation and performance testing, Joe has built a massive following by sharing actionable insights and tools for testers.

Through TestGuild, he runs weekly podcasts, virtual conferences, and blogs that spotlight the latest in testing—from AI tools to continuous delivery. Since 2020, Joe’s content has helped QA engineers stay ahead of trends like codeless automation and DevOps testing. He is particularly known for interviewing experts across the industry, effectively crowdsourcing knowledge for the community. Beyond media, Joe has hands-on experience implementing large-scale automation in enterprise environments, lending credibility to his advice. His passion for educating and connecting testers globally has made TestGuild a go-to resource, and Joe himself an influential thought leader bridging the gap between traditional QA and modern engineering practices.

Richard Bradshaw

Nationality: British

Richard Bradshaw (a.k.a. “FriendlyTester”) is a champion of modern testing and CEO of the Ministry of Testing (MoT), one of the world’s largest QA communities. With a background as a tester and test automator, Richard co-created the “Automation in Testing” methodology, which emphasizes using automation strategically to support exploratory testing.

Since taking the helm of MoT, he has expanded its reach through conferences (TestBash), online courses, and a thriving community forum. Richard is a prolific speaker and trainer, known for his entertaining and insightful talks that often debunk testing myths. In the past few years, he’s been an advocate of context-driven testing and has encouraged testers to focus on whole-team collaboration. On social media, he frequently shares practical tips with his 14k+ followers. Richard’s blend of leadership and grassroots community work has significantly elevated the status of QA engineers, proving that testers can be both skilled technologists and community influencers.

Maaret Pyhäjärvi

Maaret Pyhajarvi - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: Finnish

Maaret Pyhäjärvi is an exploratory testing expert and thought leader who has attained international recognition for her contributions to QA. Based in Finland, Maaret has over 20 years of experience and is known for blending technical and human-centric approaches to quality.

She received the EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award in 2020, one of the highest honors in the testing world, and was previously awarded the MIATPP Award in 2016. Maaret is a proponent of session-based test management and mob testing; her experiments with strong-style pair testing have gained traction in Agile teams. From 2019 through 2023, she was repeatedly named one of Finland’s Top 100 Influencers in IT, reflecting her impact beyond just QA. In recent years, Maaret has focused on teaching testers to become polyglot programmers and encouraging developers to embrace testing – she calls herself a “tester extraordinaire” and a community facilitator.

Alan Richardson

Nationality: British

Alan Richardson – widely known as the “Evil Tester” – is a test automation consultant and author with over two decades of experience. Alan has a unique ability to teach complex testing and coding concepts in an approachable way, through his books, courses, and entertaining blog posts.

In the 2020s, he has continued to be a go-to instructor for testers learning WebDriver, API testing, and technical web testing skills. Alan’s expertise spans exploratory testing, Selenium/WebDriver, and REST API automation, and he has helped many teams improve their testing by focusing on simplicity and pragmatism. Currently, he heads Digital Marketing at AG Grid (a tech company) while still contributing to testing content and tools. He remains active on YouTube and Twitter, sharing tips on everything from test design to getting the most out of browser tools. Alan’s long-standing presence and continuous output of high-quality training material have cemented his status as a top mentor for QA engineers worldwide.

Jonathan Lipps

Jonathan Lipps - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: American

Jonathan Lipps is the principal architect behind Appium, the open-source framework that revolutionized mobile app testing. As project lead for much of the last decade, Jonathan oversaw Appium’s growth into the default choice for automating iOS and Android apps, including the major Appium 2.0 release in 2022 which modularized the platform.

He also founded Appium Pro, a weekly newsletter of advanced tips, showcasing his commitment to educating QA engineers in mobile automation. In recent years, Jonathan has worked at HeadSpin and Cloud Grey, continuing to build tools and provide consulting around mobile QA. He authored the book Appium Essentials and regularly speaks at SeleniumConf and AppiumConf, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in mobile testing. Under his guidance, Appium won a Bossie Award for best open-source tool and remains entirely free – a testament to Jonathan’s belief in community-driven quality.

Christian Bromann

Nationality: German

Christian Bromann is the lead engineer of WebdriverIO and a key figure in open-source test automation. At Sauce Labs, Christian serves as a Senior Software Engineer and member of the Open Source Program Office, where he focuses on developer tools for testing.

He has been the architect and maintainer of WebdriverIO, a popular Node.js-based test framework, ensuring it stays at the cutting edge with integrations for modern frameworks and the latest WebDriver protocol. In the past few years, Christian has also represented the testing community at the W3C, contributing to the WebDriver standard evolution. He frequently writes about topics like simplifying test setup and using DevTools protocols for automation. Christian’s quality-focused engineering mindset and advocacy for open standards have made WebdriverIO a reliable choice for many QA teams.

As a speaker, he often appears at Selenium and JS conferences, sharing insights on topics like automating beyond the UI (API, mobile, etc.). His dedication exemplifies how a developer can deeply influence QA engineering across the globe through open-source leadership.

Sergey Egorov

Nationality: Ukrainian

Sergey Egorov is an innovator in test infrastructure and co-founder of AtomicJar, the company behind the popular TestContainers framework. Originally from Ukraine, Sergey created TestContainers in 2015 as an open-source Java library to simplify integration testing with throwaway Docker containers.

The project exploded in popularity around 2020 as microservices testing became crucial, and Sergey has led its expansion to multiple languages. In 2021, he launched AtomicJar to provide cloud support for TestContainers while keeping the core open-source. Sergey remains hands-on, implementing new features that allow QA engineers to effortlessly spin up databases, message queues, and browsers for testing. His work enables more reliable and faster integration and UI tests, bridging the gap between QA and DevOps. Sergey is also a frequent speaker at Java and testing conferences, advocating for better test tooling and sharing lessons on open-source entrepreneurship. By combining coding prowess with community-building, he has improved how the software industry approaches environment-dependent testing.

Keith Klain

Keith Klain - Best 18 QA Engineers to Watch

Nationality: American

Keith Klain is a QA leadership expert who has spent over 20 years building and coaching high-performance testing teams. As a director at KPMG UK and former bank executive, Keith has proven the value of investing in quality at an organizational level.

He co-founded the Association for Software Testing’s leadership SIG and served as its executive vice president, promoting education and certification in modern testing. Keith is known for his no-nonsense advocacy of context-driven testing – he has often challenged outdated testing metrics and standards, urging teams to focus on business value. In the early 2020s, he hosted a short-lived but insightful podcast discussing testing and quality culture, and he continues to share his thoughts via blogs and LinkedIn.

Keith’s influence also extends to mentorship; he has helped shape several rising stars in the QA world. His strategic perspective on quality  demonstrates how effective QA engineering is not just about tools and scripts, but about influencing people and process at all levels.

Jonathon Wright

We are not just testing software anymore—we’re validating intelligent, adaptive systems that learn.

Nationality: British

Jonathon Wright is a testing futurist and CTO who has been blending QA with emerging technologies like AI and smart devices. Currently the Co-founder and CTO of Digital-Assured in the UK, Jonathon has 25 years of experience and is known for his strategic insights into the future of testing.

He has recently focused on AI-driven testing and machine learning in quality engineering, co-authoring articles and chapters on the subject. A TEDx speaker and self-described “geek”, Jonathon often discusses how concepts like digital twins, IoT, and cognitive computing intersect with QA. In 2020, he was editor of the book AI and Software Testing, assembling knowledge from various experts. He’s also active in standards groups and has contributed to ISO guidelines on AI testing. Despite the high-level focus, Jonathon remains connected to practitioners through regular conference talks and as podcast host on QA topics. His ability to foresee and articulate the next big trends makes him a unique thought leader among QA engineers.

Helena Jeret-Mäe

Nationality: Estonian

Helena Jeret-Mäe is a Quality Strategist and coach from Estonia who has made a significant impact through testing education and community involvement. Interestingly, Helena started her career as an English major and transitioned into software testing, leveraging her communication skills to excel in QA.

She has worked as a Quality Coach at companies like Nevercode/Codemagic, where she guides development teams on how to build quality into continuous delivery for mobile apps. Helena is passionate about mentoring – she volunteers at testing conferences and often shares her experiences through her blog and speaking engagements. A self-described “ambivalent thinker”, she challenges conventional wisdom in testing, writing about topics like the psychology of testers and heuristic test design.

In 2022, she co-organized the Nordic Testing Days conference, further contributing to the regional testing community. Helena’s journey from a non-technical background to a respected QA coach inspires many in the field. By focusing on quality culture and personal development of testers, she highlights the human side of engineering excellence.

Wrap Up

These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.

Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. However, if you believe a correction or addition is needed, feel free to reach out. We’ll gladly review and update the page.

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