Quality · Leadership · Transformation

Sunimal Gunawardena

Director of Software Quality | Driving Engineering Excellence & Delivery Predictability

Transforming QA organizations through strategic leadership, automation excellence, and data-driven decision making. 20+ years helping engineering teams ship faster, reduce defects, and optimize costs—from ground-up builds to large-scale modernizations.

Sunimal Gunawardena - Director of Software Quality

What I Do

I specialize in QA transformation—whether that's building robust practices for growing companies, modernizing legacy operations, or optimizing mature teams. My approach combines strategic vision, people alignment, and technical execution to create sustainable quality cultures.

01

QA Strategy & Transformation

Building and evolving quality practices that scale with your business

02

Test Automation Architecture

Modern frameworks that increase coverage, speed-up feedback, and enable continuous delivery

03

Team Building & Leadership

Attracting, developing, and retaining high-performing QA teams (onsite/offshore)

04

Process Engineering

Agile coaching, CI/CD pipelines, and SDLC optimization

05

Operational Excellence

Production monitoring, incident management, and reliability engineering

06

Data-Driven Quality

KPIs, metrics, and analytics that inform decisions and demonstrate ROI

Impact & Achievements

Results speak louder than methodologies.

30%

Increased release frequency and readiness while reducing residual defects by 20%

80%

Built purpose-driven QA team achieving 80% smoke test automation coverage

30%

Reduced operational costs through strategic vendor partnerships and process optimization

Transformation

Transformed fully manual testing practice into state-of-the-art automated QA operation

Cross-Functional

Fostered meaningful interdepartmental connections between Development, Delivery, Support, and Customer Success—breaking down silos and building quality throughout the organization

Ground-Up

Established QA departments from ground-up at multiple organizations, creating valuable, high-performing teams

Innovation

Introduced operational health metrics (MTTD, MTTR, MTBI) increasing customer confidence in change management

40%

Negotiated discount on enterprise testing tools while managing successful adoption across organization

AI-Forward

Pioneered AI-assisted QA and delivery optimization initiatives

My Approach

With software becoming increasingly complex and technology taking on more responsibility in our lives, our expectations for high availability, performance, and reliability have never been higher. Quality assurance isn't just about finding bugs—it's about building confidence, enabling speed, and creating sustainable practices that grow with your organization.

01

Conceptual Vision

Understanding business goals and translating them into quality strategy

02

People Alignment

Coaching, mentoring, and fostering quality-first culture across departments

03

Technical Execution

Modern tools, automation, and measurable processes that deliver results

Expertise & Tools

Automation

  • Selenium/Appium
  • Tricentis Tosca
  • Sauce Labs
  • Custom Frameworks

DevOps & CI/CD

  • GitLab Pipelines
  • BitBucket Pipelines
  • AWS Suite
  • Atlassian/JIRA

Testing Tools

  • Postman (API Testing)
  • JMeter
  • TestRail
  • Keysight Eggplant

Monitoring & Analytics

  • Dynatrace
  • NewRelic
  • Custom KPI Dashboards
  • Synthetic Monitoring

AI & Innovation

  • AI-Assisted QA Optimization
  • Predictive Analytics
  • Smart Test Generation
  • Process Intelligence

Methodologies

  • Agile/Scrum
  • Risk-Based Testing
  • Shift-Left/Shift-Right
  • CMMi Level III

Professional Journey

2022 - Present

Sr. Director, Software Quality Assurance

Tulip Retail · Toronto, ON

Leading QA transformation for next-gen clienteling and POS software, building purpose-driven quality culture and achieving significant cost reductions while improving delivery predictability.

2018 - 2022

Director, Software Quality Assurance

RubyLife · Toronto, ON

Transformed fully manual, reactive test practice into strategically set-up, highly efficient QA group utilizing state-of-the-art automation and risk-based techniques.

2007 - 2018

Manager & Lead Roles

GuestLogix, Klick Health, AlertDriving, Aeturnum

Progressive leadership roles building QA departments, teams, and practices from ground-up across multiple high-growth technology companies.

"Sunimal is that rare professional who is very good both technically and managerially. He is exceptional as a QA & project delivery strategist and his can-do attitude makes working with him a pleasure."
Head of Program Management, Aeturnum Inc.

Let's Connect

I'd love to hear about your quality challenges and explore how we can work together.