About Me
As a professional in quality assurance, I possess extensive experience in leadership, process optimization, and technological innovation within the software development industry.
Currently, I oversee the QA Core Team at Lectra, where I am responsible for implementing QA tools, establishing best practices, conducting training sessions, and enhancing collaboration across the R&D department.
My career trajectory has been marked by strategic leadership roles at Betclic and Lectra, where I successfully managed multidisciplinary teams, facilitated production releases, and refined QA methodologies in Agile environments.
My expertise encompasses automation, continuous improvement, and the delivery of quality software solutions.
Career Overview
With over 15 years of experience in software quality assurance and more than 25 years of management, I have built a career at the intersection of technical rigour and people leadership. Starting as a QA Engineer, I progressed into Team Lead and Manager roles.
At Lectra, I founded and currently lead the QA Core Team, a centre of excellence supporting 110+ testers and QA engineers worldwide. My focus spans test tool factory management, test strategy definition, technology watch, and cultivating a strong QA community across R&D. Previously, as QA & Release Manager at Betclic Group, I oversaw a 20-person team spread across 4 sites in 3 countries, driving continuous improvement and production release quality at scale.
I hold the ISTQB Foundation Level Certified Tester and the Advanced Level Test Management certifications. I am actively involved in the testing community as the founder of the BDX Testing Community in Bordeaux, and as a former member of the JFTL (France leading software testing conference) Program Committee.
Experience
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The QA Core Team provides support to 110+ testers / QA engineers worldwide. Its activities in a nutshell:
- Software testing tool factory management (tool evolution / maintenance, best practice definition, documentation, trainings, support to teams)
- Active participation in defining the software test policy, test strategies and the related best practices
- Technology watch, both on test tools and on processes and methodologies
- Involvement in the recruitment process of the QA engineers (technical interviews)
- QA Community leadership
I am currently leading this team. I was the driving force behind the creation of this team within the Lectra group, which is now a key player.
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Lead 10 QA engineers distributed in agile teams, manage recruitment and consultants, conduct performance reviews, apply Agile/Lean methods, optimize test activities, and develop test strategies.
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Team organisation, team management (20 people across 4 locations in 3 countries), recruitment, IT consultant management, objectives & annual performance reviews, process implementation and improvement, production release management, test strategy definition, Agile methods promotion, one-to-one meetings, team meetings, continuous improvement.
Involved in the financial audits of the IT department. -
Team organisation, team management (12 people), recruitment, IT consultant management, annual performance reviews, Agile / Lean methods applied to QA team, test activity management and optimisation, managing implementation of automated testing on mobile applications.
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Writing test plans and detailed tests, running tests, defect management. Test automation using IBM RFT and Selenium. Trainee's supervisor.
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Sirina Project for Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter)
Specification Manager: Writing specifications (SRS), test plans (STP), detailed tests (SDF). QA document control, requirement traceability (DO-178B). Specification review (SSR) with customer. Writing user manual.
Java Developer: Swing, JGoodies, Hibernate, test automation (IBM RFT). Study, implementation and management of a SCM (SVN), a bug tracker (Mantis) and a CI tool (Hudson).
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Development of a Java application monitoring connected beehives by tracking indicators like weight, temperature, and humidity. It helped beekeepers respond quickly to issues like diseases or hornet attacks and determine the right time for honey harvest.
Incubateur technologique de l'École des Mines d'Alès
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Manager of a team of 60+ collaborators working across 12 parking facilities. Operating car parks and roads.
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As a station manager, I led a team of 30+ people, handling performance reviews, scheduling, training, recruitment, fleet management, and complaint management.
Skills
Technical Skills
- Test Automation
- Selenium / WebDriver
- Cypress
- Playwright
- Postman / REST APIs
- SQL & Database Testing
- CI / CD (GitLab, Jenkins)
- Jira / Confluence
- TestRail
- Visual Studio Code
- Java
- JavaScript / TypeScript
Testing Methodologies
- Test Strategy
- Test Management
- Agile / Scrum - Kanban
- Risk Analysis
- Bug Triage & Reporting
Management Skills
- Team Leadership
- Annual Performance Reviews
- Recruitment
Education
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2026
ISTQB — Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Management v3.0
GASQ
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2019
ISTQB — Certified Tester Foundation Level Syllabus 2018
GASQ
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2017
Management 3.0 Serious Bootcamp
Rupture 21
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2012
Agile Methods Training — Scrum & Extreme Programming
Publicis Sapient Training
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2008
IT Professional Bachelor's Degree, Software Engineering
Montpellier II University
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2004
Management Training
Acopad
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1992
High School Diploma: Mathematics & Natural Science (D)
Languages
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French Native -
English C1 -
Spanish B1 -
German A1
Community & Complementary Experience
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2023
Creation of the BDX Testing Community
Bordeaux — meetup.com · Meetup organisation
- Feedback on setting up a QA Core team
- Introduction to Proxyman, an HTTP request simulation tool
- Don't fail your SQL with a Karate test
- QA and production: rapid quality feedback from the team's work
- Image comparison tools: an asset for the ergonomics of automated software testing
- Introduction to HelloAsso and its new organisation — what it changes for QA teams
- The API: just another interface
- Page Object Model & Accessibility Identifiers: building robust mobile tests
- TMMi: Assess and improve your testing services
- From 2,010 to 11 end-to-end tests — optimising coverage while reducing execution time
- Help, my manager is asking for KPIs
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2022
Member of the JFTL 2022 Program Committee
Paris — JFTL
Interests
- Automotive
- Technological Innovations
- Home Automation
- Science Fiction
- Traveling —> Northern Europe
- Outdoor Activities
Contact
- Email: arnaud.fontaine@infinity8.fr
- Phone: +33 6 26 23 30 20
- Location: Bordeaux, France