Jeffrey Zarend

Hands-on engineering · Senior / Principal IC

Jeffrey Zarend

Senior Principal SDET & Test Automation Architect

I design and build test frameworks, automation, and diagnostic tooling for complex software systems. My background spans network security, Linux and cloud infrastructure, storage, REST services, and embedded machine-control software. I use Claude, OpenAI models, and locally hosted LLMs extensively in practical engineering workflows.

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Technical profile

Engineering depth over management titles

Senior principal-level individual contributor with decades of experience diagnosing hard software defects, developing automation from the ground up, building representative integration environments, and testing systems from low-level infrastructure through user-facing APIs. Interested in hands-on senior, staff, principal, SDET, automation-architecture, and systems-testing roles.

Technical expertise

Tools, platforms & systems

Test automation & software

Python, pytest, Playwright (JavaScript), Robot Framework, C++ unit testing, REST API validation, integration and end-to-end testing, automated regression, build-verification and smoke-test harnesses.

AI-assisted engineering

Claude, OpenAI models, ChatGPT, Copilot, and locally hosted LLMs for code and test generation, failure analysis, data interpretation, engineering research, and iterative debugging.

Systems, cloud & delivery

Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows, Bash, Docker, Git, GitLab, Jenkins, KVM, VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, IBM VPC, AWS EC2/S3, Azure, and infrastructure test environments.

Networking & security

FortiNAC, FortiGate, FortiAP, FortiAuthenticator, FortiSwitch, RADIUS, X.509 certificates, Active Directory, VLANs, SNMP, Wireshark, and TCP/IP troubleshooting.

Professional experience

Engineering work

DEKA Research & Development

Software Engineer in Test

  • Developed Python/pytest test coverage for medical/pharmaceutical fluid-production equipment, validating containerized application services and underlying machine-control software.
  • Tested integrated behavior across robotics, fluid handling, pneumatics, safety systems, and their application interfaces.
  • Used Python and Playwright/JavaScript for automated verification and contributed substantial C++ unit test coverage with AI-assisted engineering workflows.

Fortinet · FortiNAC

Senior Principal Software DevQA Engineer

  • Designed and implemented pytest and Robot Framework test automation for network access control and customer-representative security integrations.
  • Built complex wired/wireless environments involving RADIUS, X.509, Active Directory, FortiGate, FortiAP, FortiAuthenticator, and FortiSwitch.
  • Created Python post-processing tools that organized test runs, logs, and metrics for AI-assisted failure analysis and visualization.
  • Reproduced high-priority customer escalations and isolated difficult integration and interoperability defects.

IBM Cloud · Host OS

Software Developer

  • Developed Python and shell tooling for Ubuntu and RHEL hypervisor-host installation, deployment, and troubleshooting in IBM Virtual Private Cloud.
  • Tested cloud cluster deployments and supported operating-system hardening and integration alongside Canonical and Red Hat.

IBM Cloud · Guest OS

Software Developer

  • Created, configured, and validated Windows and Linux guest operating-system images for IBM's next-generation virtual private cloud platform.
  • Investigated OS-image and platform integration issues across vendors and infrastructure boundaries.

IBM Cloud · Platform QA / Storage

Principal QA Engineer

  • Developed the original Robot Framework REST API test harness for IBM's cloud compute, networking, and storage platform.
  • Built build-verification testing to gate code merges and designed white-box integration tests for block and file storage subsystems.
  • Worked on reusable Python automation libraries and end-to-end infrastructure validation.

Earlier engineering experience

Hitachi Data Systems

Apr – Nov 2016

Specialist Software QA Engineer

  • HCP object storage testing via REST, AWS S3, and HSwift; Veritas Enterprise Vault adapter integration.

DataGravity

Aug 2015 – Mar 2016

Member of Technical Staff

  • Python/REST API and developer-level integration testing of storage replication.

Cimpress / Vistaprint

Nov 2014 – Aug 2015

Lead Quality Engineer

  • Backend REST services, cloud-processing migration, image-comparison automation, and Perl regression testing.

Synacor

Dec 2013 – Oct 2014

Principal Quality Engineer

  • Designed REST service smoke, integration, and regression automation and integrated test runs with Jenkins.

Dell

Oct 2008 – Dec 2013

Principal QA Engineer

  • iSCSI storage validation across Windows, VMware ESX, and Hyper-V; test and diagnostic scripting.

SeaChange International

Apr 2003 – Oct 2008

Principal QA Engineer

  • Perl automation for video-on-demand and storage servers; SAN/NAS/iSCSI and network protocol integration.

Pelago Networks

Jan 2001 – Mar 2003

SQA Technical Lead

  • Automated ATM/SS7/TCP-IP interoperability testing with Perl, Tcl/Tk, and network traffic-generation tools.

Ascend Communications / Lucent Technologies

Oct 1998 – Dec 2000

Senior Software QA Engineer

  • ATM and Frame Relay switch testing and platform interoperability. Earlier technical roles with DEC and IBM mainframe systems.

Independent engineering

Selected projects

Compiler / systems programming · In development

ExplicitLang

Development of an ahead-of-time systems-language compiler and toolchain, including typed intermediate representations, native x86-64 and ARM64 backends, staged bootstrap builds, and HONKER compiler regression testing. Emphasis on explicit memory behavior and predictable low-level code generation.

iOS / service engineering · In development

ListMyDay

A caregiver-oriented task board built with Swift for iPhone/iPad and Python/FastAPI on Linux. Includes tenant isolation, device pairing and approval, HTTPS via Nginx, and recurring-item synchronization.

ListMyDay website

Education

Formal education

Owens Technical College
Associate Degree in Applied Business, Computer Programming · Perrysburg, Ohio

Contact & resume

Available for discussion of hands-on technical engineering opportunities.

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