# Amarnath Kolla > Senior Software QA Management | Automation | Technical Program Management | Certified Scrum Master | Scale/System Test Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/amarnathkolla Highly driven, accomplished, and hands-on professional exemplifying exceptional capabilities with a track record for furthering company-wide objectives. Experience as Senior Manager of Software QA/Automation Development for cutting edge technologies, applying accumulated knowledge and experience in managing complex NPI, Quality, and Sustaining programs/projects. Strong ability and expertise in managing cross-functional and globally diversified/located teams. Core competencies include Automation, Quality Assurance, Release Engineering, and Technical Program Management with a commitment to continuous growth and development within the industry. Confident to leverage experience, skill set and managerial capabilities, seeking opportunities to dramatically assist in short and long term objectives of a thriving organization. For any and all business inquiries, please contact me at amarnathkolla@yahoo.com/(408)582-3529 Expertise:- • Build and manage world-class globally-dispersed highly productive skilled QA and Automation teams. • Drive and evangelize Automation First strategy across projects achieving phenomenal results. • Manage complex concurrent NPI and Software Sustaining QA / Automation projects across geographically dispersed locations (US, India, China). • Test Management - TestLink, TIMS, TCTS, Jira. • Storage Protocols - FC, FCOE, ISCSI. • Ethernet/Network Protocols - TCP/IP, VLAN, STP, RIP, OSPF, SNMP, HTTP, NETCONF. • Test Automation - Perl, Python, TCL, Java, C, Selenium, Shell. • Hardware - QLogic/Emulex/Intel FC/CNA/Ethernet/Cisco VIC Adapters, x86 Servers, Nimble Storage Arrays, Cisco UCS Servers , Nexus2/5/7/9K/MDS Switches. • Operating Systems - VMware, Linux, Windows, NXOS, Solaris. • Linux Kernels - RHEL, SLES, Oracle Linux. • Hypervisors - vSphere, Xen, KVM. ## Work Experience ### Principal Engineer @ Palo Alto Networks Jan 2019 – Present ### Senior Software QA Manager, Nimble Storage (an HPE Company) @ Hewlett Packard Enterprise Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | San Jose, CA • Achieved 100% Test-plan automation for automatable tests across all owned features in Performance, QoS, and Synchronous Replication. • Delivered business-critical Synchronous Replication feature including scale and stress testing with high quality. • Scaled capacity of the team by building an automated regression pipeline leveraging extensive automation and additional testbeds resulting in minimal manual test requirements post FQA for owned features. • Implemented automation-first strategy for all new features achieving great success in test re-runs as well as immediate automated regression capability for tested features. • Contribute and collaborate with automation and tools teams to enhance overall productivity, driving implementation and leverage automation, tools, and processes to enhance team delivery and efficiency. ### Senior QA Manager (Automation), Compute Server Product Group (CSPG) @ Cisco Jan 2011 – Jan 2016 | San Jose, CA • Summary: Cisco UCS product line; QA, Sustaining, Scale Testing, Automation, Automated Operations. • TCL, Perl, Shell Scripting, Python. • Successfully directed engineering team of over 100 across Cisco San Jose/Bangalore and Wipro/MindTree Bangalore. • Continuously ensured and maintained time management efforts in the coordination of Cisco UCS Software Sustaining for shipped releases. • Coordinated with upper management on quality discussions and handling of metrics for Cisco UCS. • Drove automated sanity/PCS and regression for all Cisco UCS and scale automation and regression across various platforms. • Ensured 80%+ test plan based feature automation for Cisco UCS S/W features. • Performance efforts yielded test-plan based automation to 80%+ coverage for feature and scale automation across all platforms for Cisco Unified Computing System. • Successfully delivered 5 main, 14 maintenances, and up to 80 sustaining/patch releases with high-quality manual tests and automated sanity/regression coverage over 4 years. • Scaled the capacity of automated regression factory to support 3 independent parallel ongoing major and minor releases. ### Manager QA (Automation), Data Center Business Unit (DCBU) @ Cisco Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 | San Jose, CA • Summary: Nexus 7K product line of switches: Automation, Automated Operations. • TCL, Perl, Shell Scripting. • Implemented key managerial tactics across various global locations including San Jose, Bangalore, and Chennai. • Planned and designed multiple complex testbeds and handled multiple simultaneous releases. • Provided hands-on owning, executing, and debugging sanity and regression tests. • Successfully executed growth tactics through the development of small team into a large automation/support factory. • Delivered up to 19 releases with high-quality automated sanity and regression coverage. ### Lead, Sanity, Automation/Support, Data Center Business Unit (DCBU) @ Cisco Jan 2006 – Jan 2009 | San Jose, CA • Summary: Nexus 7K product line of switches: Automation and Regression • Successfully managed and oversaw activities of up to 4 sanity engineers. • Balanced Nexus7000 sanity framework maintenance whilst delivering high quality builds for Quality Assurance. Collaborated with various personnel to plan and scheduled automated jobs for daily builds. • Provided organizational efforts to daily failures and reported as needed for quick fixes across 30 daily suites. • High Quality Sanity Support: Continuously delivered superior support 24/7. • Acknowledged numerous times with CAP Awards of exceptional performance. • Lead successful sanity engineering team and implemented industry knowledge for up to 30 complex suites. ### NMS Development Engineer @ Network Equipment Technologies Jan 2004 – Jan 2006 | Fremont, CA • Provided development engineering support for a web based management systems that managed proprietary switches. Developed NMS support for Prime Voice Analog/Compression (PVA/C) cards and ports for proprietary switch utilizing Java, Java Script, and XML. • Fix issues in TestLab, a Java based test simulation tool. • Showcased strong capability to thrive in fast-paced environment independently and meet aggressive deadlines. • Maintained professionalism during challenging situations. ### System Test/QA Engineer @ Network Equipment Technologies Jan 2002 – Jan 2006 | Fremont, CA • Responsible for performing memory usage, performance, stress, system, and capacity testing on NMS. • Actively involved in the development of test plans, specifications, and report for multiple features over various releases. • Functional and System Test Broad and Narrow Band Switches (Layers 2 and 3). • Highly versed in NMS Test Automation utilizing WinRunner/TCL. • Acknowledged for superior work efforts and chosen to train offshore development/test team in coordination with Freemont, CA and other offshore teams in both China and India. • Awarded numerous awards for exceptional system test engineering performance. ### Army Officer @ Indian Army Jan 1990 – Jan 1999 • About 2 years of User Test/Trials - Automated Launch Control Centre ## Education ### MS in Computer Science San José State University ### BS in Computer Science San José State University ### Bachelor's degree in Mathematics, Physical Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University (National Defence Academy, Pune, India) ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/amarnath-kolla-b2b7681 --- Source: https://flows.cv/amarnathkolla JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/amarnathkolla/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-12