Cristian Girbea
Helsinki,18
Summary
Passionate and analytical problem-solver with talents for team building, leading and motivating, as well as excellent customer relations aptitude and relationship-building skills. Proficient in using independent decision-making skills and sound judgment to positively impact company success. Dedicated to applying training, monitoring and morale-building abilities to enhance employee engagement and boost performance.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
QA Manager / Discipline Director
Next Games - Netflix Finland Oy
02.2023 - Current
- Strategic Leadership: Setting the vision and strategy for the Quality Assurance department, ensuring alignment with Netflix's overall strategic goals in the gaming division
- Team Management: Leading, coaching, and managing the QA team, including hiring, training, and professional development activities
- Quality Standards: Establishing, implementing, and maintaining high-quality standards across all game products, ensuring that the user experience meets or exceeds expectations
- Process Improvement: Overseeing the design, implementation, and optimization of QA methodologies and processes to drive efficiency and effectiveness in testing activities
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Working closely with game development teams, product management, and other stakeholders to integrate quality assurance throughout the product lifecycle
- Risk Management: Proactively identifying and addressing potential risks related to software quality and test coverage, while developing strategies for risk mitigation
- Reporting: Providing regular reports and updates to senior management and other stakeholders regarding the QA status and progress, including any risks, issues, or challenges
- Budget Management: Overseeing the QA budget, including forecasting needs, resource allocation, and ensuring cost-efficiency of QA operations
- Vendor Management: Managing relationships with external QA vendors, if applicable, ensuring contractual obligations and quality standards were met
- Industry Trends: Keeping abreast of industry trends, advancements in technology, and best practices in QA in the gaming industry, ensuring that Netflix stays competitive
- Post-Release Support: Directing QA support for post-release updates, patches, and new features to ensure a consistent, high-quality user experience
- Compliance: Ensuring all QA activities comply with industry standards and legal regulations in the countries where the games are released
- Accomplishments: Successfully establish the first QA best practices document for Netflix Finland
- Defining QA Vision and Implementation for the Studio
- Mentoring a team of 6 QA members.
- Improved overall efficiency of the QA department through strategic planning and resource allocation.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to establish key performance indicators for the QA team, driving continuous improvement efforts throughout the organization.
- Established a culture of collaboration within the QA department, fostering open communication channels among team members.
- Oversaw vendor relationships to ensure adherence to quality standards during outsourced projects or collaborations.
QA Development Manager
Electronic Arts
06.2020 - 01.2024
- Leadership and Management: Leading and managing the Quality Verification (QV) team dedicated to the Volta & FUT project teams, including hiring, training, and performance management
- Quality Verification: Establishing and maintaining quality standards for FIFA games
- This involves overseeing the testing process, including the creation of test plans, to ensure functionality, performance, reliability, stability, and compatibility with all systems
- QV Strategy: Developing and implementing a comprehensive QV strategy for FIFA games to ensure the quality of the final product
- This includes setting up processes, selecting tools, and determining methodologies to ensure quick and effective testing cycles
- Collaboration: Working closely with game development teams to understand design objectives and to coordinate on defect tracking, prioritization, resolution, and release decisions
- This includes facilitating communication between developers, designers, and other stakeholders to ensure QA is integrated throughout the development process
- Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks related to software quality and test coverage
- This may involve working with team members to understand where risks might exist and devising strategies to minimize potential issues
- Continuous Improvement: Implementing process improvements for the QA methodology and providing feedback to the development teams for the continued improvement of game development processes
- Reporting: Keeping stakeholders informed of QA status and progress
- This includes delivering regular reports to management, highlighting any areas of concern and presenting plans to resolve any issues
- Technical Expertise: Maintaining an up-to-date understanding of the latest testing tools and techniques in the gaming industry
- Budgeting: Managing the QA budget and resources effectively
- This includes forecasting needs and managing resources to ensure the team is able to meet its objectives efficiently
- Post-Release Support: Overseeing post-release updates, patches, and new features testing, ensuring established quality standards before deployment were being bet
- Accomplishments: Successfully performed 3 efficiencies cycles in 5 years to make sure QV is a lean and operational department
- Identified efficiencies to improve testers onboarding, automation, risk based testing approach and build delivery systems
- Successfully delivered the last 3 FIFA iterations in the company, being part of the Volta project and later being offered the change to lead the FIFA Ultimate Team project, the project with the highest risk for the company in terms of revenue.
QA Project Lead
Electronic Arts Romania
09.2015 - 06.2020
- Managing day to day activities on multiple projects, often in parallel
- Aligning QA priorities with the needs of the Development and Production teams
- Creating and maintaining Budget Plans for all the phases of the project
- Reporting Financial variances and explanations in both OPEX and CAPEX budgets
- Creating Project Quality Plans, including Testing Strategies, Testing Methodologies and Test Plans to be used throughout the lifetime of a project
- Identify, align with partners and report on major KPI's that showcase the evolution of the QA team and highlight achievements
- Setup and discuss personal development plans with up to 20 team members using the SMART methodology to make sure people feel involved and rewarded for their efforts
- Identify risks and propose mitigation solutions using Risk Management methodologies
- Implementing a Risk Based Testing methodology to make sure QA work is always focused on bug yielding areas and reduce redundant testing coverage
- Identify and propose initiatives that encourage working smarter not harder to make sure the team is cost efficient
- Main driver of establishing a new Automation on the floor mentality for Electronic Arts Mobile to encourage small scale automatization of daily work
- Monitor and report on Coverage vs Yield reports using various tools used in EA Mobile (JIRA, TestRail, DevTest, PowerBI, SQL, Excel).
QA Lead
Gameloft Romania
08.2014 - 09.2015
- Planning and supervising Compatibility tests (Tests required by HQ only on the latest iOS firmware available)
- Planning with HQ, Developers and Sales Departments, the release of new games or updates on the iOS AppStore
- Make sure that tests are started as soon as the application is released and supervising the ongoing tests for a period of 3-4 hours after the release
- Keeping track of HR required data ( Working Hours performed by the team, overtime hours, etc), and negotiate bonuses or penalties for each employee in theteam
- Plan and overlook tasks of high importance, usually tasks that a normal QA team could not handle.
QA Senior Tester & Studio Devices Manager
Gameloft Romania
12.2011 - 08.2014
- Responsible for all devices used by the studio, as Device Manager
- Always arrived 30 minutes before the actual work started at 10AM and performed a quick inventory
- Worked with the internal QA Devices Database, to assign and remove the devices that the QA Teams used during the day and manage all the exchanges of devices between teams and departments
- Required (and also demanded) to know at all times, where the devices are located during the day and making sure that at the end of the shift, no device is missing
- Performing all the firmware updates inside the QA Department, making sure that after the updates were performed, all the firmware are available for testing ( ex: for iPhone 4 devices needed to make sure that all firmware are available between FW 5.0 and the newly released FW 7.1)
- While working inside the Special Request teams, we were required to perform tasks and tests on all projects, regardless of the stage (development, gold candidate, retail versions, updates etc).
QA Tester
Electronic Arts Romania
09.2010 - 03.2011
- Writing test reports; - Performing vulnerability testing, security testing, stress testing; - Performing update tests for PC versions
- Creating and solving scenarios to improve the AI during gameplay.
- Performed manual exploratory testing when necessary, uncovering hidden defects not detected by scripted tests.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure software met functional requirements, leading to successful product releases.
- Conducted thorough regression testing of previous builds to verify bug fixes and maintain application stability.
- Successfully identified critical issues during smoke tests, ultimately reducing potential risks in production environments.
- Provided timely feedback to developers on identified issues, enabling rapid resolution of bugs before launch deadlines.
Education
High School Diploma -
Traian Vuia High School
Bucharest08.2008
Skills
- Test Strategy Development
- Continuous Improvement Implementation
- Cross-functional Team Leadership
- Quality Assurance Expertise
- Process Improvement Strategies
- Risk Assessment and Mitigation
- Budgeting and Cost Control
- Team Building and Motivation
- Operational Budget Forecasting
- Training and Mentoring Abilities
Accomplishments
Created the first QA Vision within the Netflix QA Organization to highlight need of QA alignment with business and product goals.
Leading the first Long Range Planning for 2024-2029 for Netflix Finland QA.
Approving and sending out the last ever QA Sign-off for Electronic Arts for FIFA 23 before the name changed to FC24.
Leading a team of +160 Project Leads, Analysts and Testers to successfully deliver FIFA Ultimate Team 23 as well as FIFA Volta 22 and 21.
Removing 50% of FIFA Volta Scripted Test Cases and Test Plans using Risk Based Testing methodology and replacing it with a more human and embedded QA testing model.
Languages
Romanian
Native language
English
Proficient
C2
Finnish
Beginner
A1
Desired Job Type
High Impact QA or Operational Director role
Full Time
On-Site
Personal Information
- Age: 33 years
- Date of Birth: 10/14/89
- Gender: M
Timeline
QA Manager / Discipline Director
Next Games - Netflix Finland Oy
02.2023 - Current
QA Development Manager
Electronic Arts
06.2020 - 01.2024
QA Project Lead
Electronic Arts Romania
09.2015 - 06.2020
QA Lead
Gameloft Romania
08.2014 - 09.2015
QA Senior Tester & Studio Devices Manager
Gameloft Romania
12.2011 - 08.2014
QA Tester
Electronic Arts Romania
09.2010 - 03.2011
High School Diploma -
Traian Vuia High School
Similar Profiles
Aki TuovinenAki Tuovinen
Country Manager / Sales Manager at BRAV Finland Oy (Former Swix Sport Finland Oy)Country Manager / Sales Manager at BRAV Finland Oy (Former Swix Sport Finland Oy)
Stephen OppongStephen Oppong
Logistics Worker at Adecco Finland Oy, FinlandLogistics Worker at Adecco Finland Oy, Finland
Geetha RamachandranGeetha Ramachandran
Software Developer at eCraft Oy Ab, Finland (Now, Fellowmind Finland)Software Developer at eCraft Oy Ab, Finland (Now, Fellowmind Finland)