# Danail Kozhuharov

> Principal Software Engineer - Test at Instructure

Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/danailkozhuharov

- Software development engineer with 27 years of comprehensive software production experience covering requirements gathering, project planning, design, coding, test automation and release, while being in architectural, tech-lead, scrum-lead, and project-lead roles for teams of up to 10.

- Effective team builder with a good track record in elevating team’s technical skills, establishing positive communication patterns, reducing “siloes” and “rabbit-holing”, and setting up effective scrum ceremonies.

- 13-years of experience in the development of cloud technologies, and highly scalable cloud systems with the Amazon Web Services, Java/Spring, and JS/Node tech-stacks.

- 14-years of experience building test-automation tools and frameworks for UI and backend service testing, and training engineers to use them. Wrote conference papers on innovative test methods and US patent #9465726 – all a result of focused research and extensive practical experience.

NOTABLE PROJECTS:

-Service-Mocking tool-package – set of servers, scripts and Web Apps that allowed developers to test their services in full isolation from their dependencies. Support for the complete dev process, from local prototyping, through test creation to automated CI test execution. Role of product owner, project, and tech-lead for team of 3. Contributed Web App for mock behavior design. Led the pilot adoption providing demoes, training workshops, and feedback sessions.

- AWS cloud micro-services – highly scalable cloud micro-services with critical business function. 300+ TPS projected load; Java, Spring, OAS, Docker, AWS ECS, DynamoDB, Lambda; Role of project lead covering design, planning, coordination, implementation, build & release automation.

- Data-defined test framework for Cloud Services – multi test-type framework supporting functional, E2E, performance, stress, and load testing. NodeJS-based, modular architecture, parallel test run, AWS data-plane validation features. 4000+ data-defined tests covering 10 mission-critical WS. 40+ test runs per day. Role of framework architect and lead test engineer of 2.

- Multi-platform test framework for Desktop/Web UI – automation of UI testing for C#, Flex and HTML5 desktop/web applications. Completely resolved UI testing flakiness. 3 major framework releases in 4 years. Used on 5 products. Innovative testing concepts presented at engineering conference. Published US patent. Role of framework architect and QE tech-lead for up to 10.

## Work Experience
### Principal Software Engineer - Test @ Instructure
Jan 2022 – Present | Remote

### Principal Software Engineer @ Procore Technologies
Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Lead software engineer for a team of 3 SDET developing productivity tools for 50+ dev-teams.
- Project and Product lead for a Service-Mocking tools package - currently in pilot adoption phase.
- Built close contacts with multiple dev teams, collected requirements, analyzed customer cases.
- Lead the product design through a series of POCs, “dog-feeding”, MVP and pilot customer usage.
- Drove the adoption through multiple demos, workshops and feedback gathering.
- Contributed a web-application, spring-boot REST service, helper scripts and user manuals.

### Principal Software Engineer @ Autodesk
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Lead software engineer for a set of highly scalable cloud micro-services.
- Coordinated the service design with product owners and architects.
- Planned and coordinated the work with product owner and scrum master.
- Groomed, coordinated, and reviewed the work with dev, dev-ops, and test engineers.
- Hands on engaged in build/deploy automation, coding, testing and release of the services.
- Made regular presentations and demos to team and business owners on the progress.
- Key role in eliminating silos in the team and achieved high levels of engagement.

### Principal Software Engineer in Test @ Autodesk
Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Lead test engineer and designer for multi-type data-defined test framework for cloud services.
- Achieved low testing costs and low flakiness for 4000 tests through efficient framework design.
- Trained and coordinated flawless adoption of the test framework by overseas partner-team.
- Implemented “no-cost performance testing” system for reuse of e2e tests, as a load/stress tests.
- Defined the process, and lead the tools, and infrastructure build up for the CICD process.

### Software Development Engineer in Test III @ Amazon Web Services
Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Architect, tech, and scrum lead for multi-type database-testing framework for testing of Redshift.
- Performed designing, coding, and execution of large scale functional, stress and performance tests.

### Sr. MTS @ VMware
Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 | Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Architect for UI test automation platform. (Conference paper + US patent)
- UI test automation lead for a product functional test automation. (Java + UI automation tools)

### Sr. MTS @ VMware
Jan 2012 – Jan 2012
- Architect and Tech-lead of GUI test automation project. (Java + UI automation tools)

### MTS-3 @ VMware
Jan 2011 – Jan 2012
- Chief Architect for a GUI Test Automation project. Used technologies are Java, TestNG, Selenium and Silk4J.

### MTS-2 @ VMware
Jan 2010 – Jan 2011
- Lead developer in a project for GUI Test Automation. Playing architectural role for the project framework and tech lead role. Used technologies are Java, TestNG and Silk4J.

### Senior Developer @ Ontotext AD
Jan 2006 – Jan 2010
Scalability extension for the Oracle-based document storage of the KIM server platform (www.ontotext.com/KIM). Design of Text-Engineering components and their implementation in Java.
Implementation, adaptation and support of KIM in European scientific projects; KIM start-up projects; joint commercial projects.

### IT Director @ Sopharma Trading Jsc
Jan 2005 – Jan 2006
Coordination and communication, project management, team building and management; Coordination of software installation and operational support;

### Senior Programmer @ Sanita Trading JSC
Jan 1999 – Jan 2005
Coordination and communication with other departments; Software project management; Coordination of software installation and support; Information system operational support.

### Programmer @ Smartware Ltd.
Jan 1998 – Jan 1999
Development of PL/SQL for Informix SQL Server. Creation of character based terminal applications for SCO® UNIX


## Education
### M.Sc. in Computer Systems
Technical University of Sofia

### Professional Programmer in Mathemathics, English, Programming
High School of Mathematics "Dr Petar Beron" - Varna


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danail-kozhuharov-b8b7a213

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Source: https://flows.cv/danailkozhuharov
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/danailkozhuharov/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-12