Papuna is available for hire

Papuna Gagnidze

Verified Expert in Engineering

QA Automation and DevOps Engineer and Developer

Tbilisi, Georgia

Toptal member since November 21, 2019

Expertise

Quality Assurance Engineering API AWS DevOps Cloud Architecture Linux DevOps AWS Agile Development JavaScript Test Automation SQL Node.js QA Testing Python Selenium

Bio

Papuna is a QA automation and DevOps engineer passionate about solving tech challenges. He became a CCNA at 16 and created the Georgian programming language "Ena" to help others learn. He also founded Loopback, an open-source tool for DevOps and automation. As a co-founder of GeoSTQB, he works to improve software testing standards in Georgia. Papuna enjoys building high-quality tests and scalable systems and fostering a positive team environment.

Portfolio

Anova Sports

Sports, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Architecture, AWS ECS Fargate...

Cleardoc Inc.

JavaScript, DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, TypeScript, Cloud Services, Amazon RDS...

GeoSTQB

Test Automation, Software Testing, Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Control (QC)...

Experience

Linux - 10 years
DevOps - 7 years
JavaScript - 6 years
QA Automation - 6 years
Docker - 5 years
Bash - 5 years
Network Engineering - 3 years
Java - 2 years

Preferred Environment

Docker, Git, Unix, Fedora, Amazon Web Services (AWS), JavaScript, Lua, Go, Kubernetes, Firebase

The most amazing...

...project I've created is Ena, a Georgian programming language. Mentored by Lua creator Roberto Ierusalimschy, I learned to design programming languages.

Work Experience

DevOps Engineer

2026 - PRESENT

Anova Sports

Designed and built the AWS infrastructure for a GPU-backed ML inference pipeline from scratch, retiring a legacy Terraform monolith for a modular Terragrunt setup.
Parallelized video segment inference across threads with shared model loading on a single GPU, delivering a 1.7x speedup per job.
Rolled out Spot GPU on AWS Batch with SIGTERM-aware shutdown and Batch retry, cutting per-job GPU cost 60% with no dropped runs.

Technologies: Sports, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Architecture, AWS ECS Fargate, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

DevOps Engineer

2021 - PRESENT

Cleardoc Inc.

Achieved 25% overall cost savings and 75% S3 cost reduction by analyzing access patterns, implementing lifecycle policies, and auto-scaling for video transcoders.
Enhanced database security and management using advanced measures through AWS CDK, improving data protection and simplifying migrations.
Streamlined AWS resource management and improved disaster recovery by migrating the webinar application infrastructure to IaC.

Technologies: JavaScript, DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, TypeScript, Cloud Services, Amazon RDS, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Continuous Integration (CI), GitHub, Cloud Architecture, Automated UI Testing, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), SDKs, API Gateways, Google Workspace, DevSecOps, Release Management, Terraform, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Redis, SQL, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Disaster Recovery Consulting, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), AWS IAM, AWS CloudFormation, Scrum, Python, MySQL, AWS Deployment, NestJS, MongoDB, Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, Amazon CloudWatch, Architecture, AWS ECS Fargate, AWS CodeBuild, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

Co-founder

2019 - PRESENT

GeoSTQB

Participated in conferences, cooperating with the industry’s financial sector and public institutions.
Administered accreditation of training providers to supply courses that meet the syllabi of ISTQB.
Certified over 100 IT professionals in Georgia according to ISTQB standards within the first two years.

Technologies: Test Automation, Software Testing, Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Control (QC), Quality Auditing

DevOps Engineer

2025 - 2025

Klipy

Architected multi-region infrastructure serving billions of API requests, achieving 95% latency reduction and 20x performance improvements across APAC, European, and American markets.
Established monitoring and observability framework with ECS monitoring, composite CloudWatch alarms, and cross-region Slack notifications, improving incident response and reducing operational overhead.
Implemented Infrastructure as Code using AWS CDK with TypeScript, enabling parallel multi-region deployments and reducing region expansion from engineering projects to configuration changes.

Technologies: DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure Security, Observability, Architecture, AWS ECS Fargate, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

AI Developer

2023 - 2023

OctoML, Inc.

Developed and integrated a custom endpoint with the front-end project to verify and improve platform functionality.
Conducted usability tests and provided feedback, significantly improving clarity around public access and health checks.
Identified critical bugs and issues with endpoint management, leading to important system fixes.

Technologies: Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Automation, Agentic AI

QA Screener

2021 - 2022

Toptal

Conducted over 170 interviews for manual and automation QA engineers.
Contributed to developing interview techniques that enhanced the quality of candidate selection for QA roles.
Helped design and implement technical assessments for QA candidates, including live coding tasks and technical projects.

Technologies: Interviewing, Test Automation, Manual QA

QA Engineer

2020 - 2021

Cleardoc Inc.

Automated smoke testing for a real-time remote video creation application using a hybrid Cypress, Puppeteer, and FFmpeg framework.
Created load tests using k6 for critical WebSockets and executed them from k6 cloud load generators.
Trained team members in testing methodologies and testing principles.

Technologies: QA Automation, Quality Assurance (QA), iOS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Documentation, Mobile App Testing, Web App Testing, CI/CD Pipelines, Cloud Architecture, Automated UI Testing, Automated Testing, E2E Testing, Release Management, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Manual Testing, Regression Testing, Test Planning, Smoke Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Test Cases, Jira, Scrum, MySQL, Cucumber, Angular, NestJS, Gherkin, Functional Testing, Website QA, Automation

QA Engineer

2019 - 2020

Casting Networks

Managed a team of five senior QA automation engineers.
Maintained UI, API, Load, and Database testing frameworks for a large-scale application with 3 million users.
Implemented optimized tests for validating large datasets up to 4 million records.

Technologies: QA Leadership, JavaScript, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, TestRail, WebdriverIO, Cloud Services, Testing, GitLab CI/CD, Cloud Architecture, Automated UI Testing, E2E Testing, Release Management, SQL, Manual Testing, Manual Software Testing, Regression Testing, Test Planning, Smoke Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Test Cases, Jira, Scrum, Test-driven Development (TDD), MySQL, Cucumber, Gherkin, Functional Testing, Website QA, Automation

Mobile Automation Engineer

2019 - 2020

Switch Four

Analyzed business and functional requirements and developed test scripts for iOS and Android Native applications. Automated test coverage of the core functionality increased by 75%.
Implemented a simplified flow for the application version management by integrating a framework with the Bitrise API.
Set up a CI/CD pipeline on a TeamCity server with parametrization to run tests using specific builds on Sauce Labs cloud devices. Built reporting with Allure reporter and integrated results with TeamCity.

Technologies: JavaScript, WebdriverIO, Cloud Services, Cloud Architecture, Automated UI Testing, Automated Testing, E2E Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Cucumber, Gherkin, Website QA, Automation

QA Engineer

2018 - 2019

TBC Bank Group

Managed a team of QA engineers (ten testers) as a chapter lead.
Created JMeter scenarios and scheduled the virtual users to generate a realistic load on the server.
Developed UI and API automation scripts using Selenium WebDriver, Java, JUnit, and SoapUI.

Technologies: Jenkins, Apache JMeter, SoapUI, Java, Cloud Services, Automated UI Testing, Automated Testing, E2E Testing, SQL, Manual Testing, Manual Software Testing, Regression Testing, Test Planning, Smoke Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Test Cases, Jira, Jest, Scrum, API Testing, Test-driven Development (TDD), MySQL, Cucumber, Gherkin, Accessibility Testing, Functional Testing, BitBucket Pipelines, Bitbucket, Website QA, Automation

QA Engineer

2017 - 2018

Product Savvy Consulting

Led a project team for developing highly available event management software.
Designed and implemented a scalable system using Dockerized microservices on AWS ECS.
Set up Jenkins for continuous delivery, including automated builds, E2E testing, and multi-environment deployments.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bash, TypeScript, Jenkins, Cloud Services, Cloud Architecture, Automated UI Testing, Automated Testing, E2E Testing, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), SQL, Manual Testing, Manual Software Testing, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS IAM, AWS CloudFormation, Regression Testing, Test Planning, Smoke Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Test Cases, Jira, Scrum, Test-driven Development (TDD), MySQL, AWS Deployment, Cucumber, Angular, Gherkin, BrowserStack, Functional Testing, AWS Lambda, Website QA, Automation, Architecture, AWS ECS Fargate, AWS CodeBuild

Experience

Anova Sports

https://www.anovasports.com/

Anova Sports is an AI-powered basketball scouting platform that automates game preparation for coaches and analysts. It generates scouting reports, runs simulated matchups, and surfaces tactical recommendations, helping coaching staff cut manual film review and arrive at data-backed game plans faster.

Klipy

Klipy is a GIF, sticker, meme, and short video clips API platform that lets developers embed dynamic visual media into messaging, social, and media applications. It includes a built-in ad monetization layer that enables integrators to generate revenue from the content they serve.

OpenReel

https://openreel.com

OpenReel is an AI-powered remote video production platform used by marketing, sales, and L&D teams to record, edit, and distribute professional branded videos at scale. It enables distributed teams to capture high-quality footage across devices and automates post-production through intelligent editing tools, centralizing the entire video workflow in one platform.

Casting Networks

https://castingnetworks.com/

Casting Networks is the leading provider of casting and audition management software to the casting industry. Casting directors and agents worldwide use Casting Networks to source and manage talent across film, television, digital, and commercial projects, facilitating over a million auditions per year.

T-Pay

https://tpay.ge/

TPay is an innovative payment method using QR payments and simple online checkout procedures. QR payments can be made with Android and iOS applications, while online checkout is available on the web for stores.

TBC Web

https://www.tbcbank.ge/web/en/personal-banking

TBC Bank's internet banking allows customers to check balances and view statements and transfers between their accounts and the accounts of others, legal entities, or the state treasury. TBC Bank's internet banking was declared the best four times by Global Finance magazine in the years from 2012 to 2015.

TBC Mobile

https://www.tbcbank.ge/web/en/web/guest/mobile-banking-for-iphone

TBC Mobile is a mobile banking app that offers customers the most innovative and easy way to manage their money on the go. It was a global winner and Global Finance magazine named it the best in the mobile banking category in 2019.

ParkMyCloud

ParkMyCloud is a policy-driven cloud cost optimization platform that turns utilization data into automated action. It provides an easy-to-use platform that helps enterprises automatically identify and eliminate wasted cloud spend.

Speaker at EXTENT Talks

https://extent.exactpro.com/extent-talks/extent-talks-20-april-2019

I spoke at EXTENT Talks, a conference for IT specialists in various industries seeking professional growth. The meeting was held at Tech Park in Tbilisi, Georgia. I discussed a possible solution for successful test automation.

Speaker at DevOps Con Tbilisi

As an emerging technology speaker, I was invited to present unikernels at the DevOps Con conference at Ilia State University in Tbilisi. My lecture, Unikernels: Building Blocks of Future Applications, explored the concept of unikernels and their potential impact on the future of software development. Using real-world examples and technical demonstrations, I showcased the unique features of unikernels and how they can improve performance, security, and efficiency in modern applications.

Panel Discussions at TMPA Conference

These discussions have allowed me to share my insights and perspectives on the latest advancements and challenges in software testing while providing a platform for meaningful dialogue between academia and industry experts. Through these discussions, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from thought leaders in the field, furthering my understanding and contributing to the advancement of the industry.

Panel Discussions at the A4Q World Congress

https://a4qtestingsummit.com/a4q-world-congress-2021-edition-1/

I participated in panel discussions about challenging quality engineering practices at the A4Q World Congress, discussing use cases for accessibility, biometrics, location-based applications, and real-time application testing.

Browserbird

https://browserbird.dev

Schedule AI agents to run on a cron, browse the web with a real Chromium browser you can watch live through VNC, and manage everything from a web dashboard or the CLI. Chat with the agent directly from the web UI, or connect to Slack for conversational threads and slash commands.

Ena

https://ena-lang.org/

The Ena programming language aims to make programming more accessible for Georgians by allowing them to write code in their native language. Ena uses the syntax of popular, widely used languages, modified to use the Georgian alphabet and keywords.

AI Printed Art

https://youtube.com/shorts/dmbboR47-c4

AI Printed Art allows you to materialize your thoughts, ideas, and memories in a couple of minutes with the help of the Stable Diffusion AI model. You can describe any situation that the AI model will use to create an image and print on various products.

Education

2015 - 2016

Coursework Toward a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics

Tbilisi State University - Tbilisi, Georgia

Certifications

JANUARY 2025 - JANUARY 2028

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Amazon Web Services

MARCH 2016 - MARCH 2022

Cisco Certified Network Professional

Cisco

Skills

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, WebDriverJS, Chai, React, Playwright, REST APIs, Puppeteer, Shopify API

Tools

Cucumber, AWS CloudFormation, Jenkins, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), GitHub, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Jira, REST Assured, Mocha, Apache JMeter, Git, Gradle, Postman, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon CloudFront CDN, GitLab CI/CD, AWS IAM, AWS Deployment, Bitbucket, AWS CodeCommit, AWS CodeBuild, TestRail, Nagios, Cacti, WebdriverIO, TeamCity, Grafana, Kibana, Ansible, Vagrant, SoapUI, Grafana k6, Google Workspace, Terraform, BrowserStack

Languages

SQL, JavaScript, Gherkin, TypeScript, Python, Bash, Lua, Java, Go

Frameworks

Appium, Selenium, Selenide, Jest, JUnit, Next.js, Cypress, Angular, NestJS, Svelte

Paradigms

Manual Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Automated Testing, DevOps, Testing, Test Automation, E2E Testing, DevSecOps, Scrum, Functional Testing, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Agile Software Development, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Load Testing, Microservices Architecture, Test-driven Development (TDD), Automation, Stress Testing, REST, Software Testing, Serverless Architecture

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2, Docker, Linux, AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Unix, Fedora, MacOS, Firebase, iOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

Storage

MySQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), PostgreSQL, Database Testing, Amazon Aurora, Redis, MongoDB, Microsoft SQL Server, Databases, Elasticsearch, Amazon DynamoDB

Industry Expertise

Banking & Finance

Other

Mobile App Testing, Web App Testing, SDET, Manual QA, QA Testing, AWS DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Architecture, Quality Assurance (QA), Agile Software Testing, UI Testing, API Testing, Network Engineering, QA Automation, CI/CD Pipelines, Cloud Services, Automated UI Testing, SDKs, Quality Control (QC), Quality Auditing, Programming, Manual Software Testing, Test Planning, Smoke Testing, Test Automation Frameworks, Test Cases, Website QA, Architecture, AWS ECS Fargate, Regression Testing, Integration Testing, Monitoring, AWS Cloud Architecture, QA Leadership, IT Security, Test Design, Configuration Management, Performance Testing, Linux Server Administration, Amazon RDS, API Gateways, Artificial Intelligence (AI), APIs, Release Management, Disaster Recovery Consulting, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Accessibility Testing, BitBucket Pipelines, AI Automation, Agentic AI, Rideshare Services, Event Management, Routing, IT Networking, System Administration, Linear Algebra, Calculus, Networking, Cisco, Cisco Networking, Troubleshooting, Prometheus, Filebeat, Test Management, ECS, Security, Website Performance, Performance Tuning, Interviewing, Documentation, Conference Speaking, Public Speaking, Project Leadership, Mobile Device QA Automation, Web App Automation, Mentorship & Coaching, AIOps, Computer Networking, DNS, Infrastructure Security, LAN, WAN, Quality of Service (QoS), WLAN, Cloud Security, Observability, Machine Learning, GPU Computing, Sports, Analytics

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