Derek Colnar

Senior Software Engineer | Automation, QA & Data Systems

San Antonio, TX

Cartoon-style portrait of Derek Colnar wearing glasses and a dark shirt

About Me

Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in automation, quality engineering, and data systems across e-commerce and SaaS platforms.

Proven ability to solve complex technical and operational challenges by building scalable automation frameworks, improving data integrity, and driving system reliability. Strong in cross-functional collaboration, technical documentation, and designing processes that scale with growing systems.

Quality Assurance

10+ years leading QA teams, building test automation frameworks, and establishing quality processes.

Web Development

Full-stack experience with React, Node, and modern JavaScript frameworks.

Data Analytics

Data cleaning, migration, and analysis using Python, Pandas, and SQL.

AI & LLM Integration

Prompt engineering, context management, and AI-assisted development with Claude and ChatGPT.

Leadership & Management

Built QA departments from the ground up, directed cross-functional teams, and managed vendor networks across 40+ delivered projects.

Experience

  • Led development of a front-end automation framework using Playwright, increasing test coverage and reducing manual QA effort; integrated into CI/CD via GitHub Actions for scheduled execution
  • Built and maintained integration tests supporting migration to Oracle NetSuite ERP/CRM, ensuring data consistency and functional parity across systems
  • Developed internal tooling for data integrity validation and order workflow monitoring, reducing production issues through early anomaly detection
  • Designed and implemented a manual test suite, establishing structured regression coverage and QA baselines
  • Authored technical and business process documentation to improve cross-team alignment and accelerate onboarding
  • Implemented Google Tag Manager and Osano consent management, enabling compliant script loading and proper Google Advanced Consent Mode signal handling
  • Created automated tests for consent-based script validation and built a crawler to audit LD+JSON structured data for SEO compliance
  • Leveraged AI coding agents (Claude CLI, OpenAI Codex, ChatGPT) to accelerate development, generate test cases, and streamline documentation workflows
Playwright TypeScript Ruby/Rails GitHub Actions Claude AI ChatGPT Google Tag Manager Osano PostgreSQL PHP/MySQL CoffeeScript HAML SEO
  • Cleaned, transformed, and validated datasets using Python (Pandas), JavaScript, and SQL
  • Analyzed sales and logistics data to identify inefficiencies and revenue opportunities, supporting data-driven decision-making
  • Built scraping and parsing pipelines to extract and structure product data from vendor sources for Shopify, Amazon, and Etsy integrations
  • Automated extraction of product data and images from PDFs using PyPDF2 and pdfplumber, converting unstructured data into import-ready formats
  • Improved listing accuracy and reduced time-to-market through standardized data transformation workflows
  • Supported EHR/EMR migrations in collaboration with DBAs and vendors, ensuring accurate and secure data transfer
  • Validated migrated data for integrity and system functionality to minimize disruption to clinical workflows
  • Maintained HIPAA compliance by working exclusively with anonymized datasets
Python Pandas SQL Web Scraping PyPDF2 Shopify
  • Established the QA team and operations from the ground up, including hiring criteria, onboarding processes, and training documentation
  • Defined and implemented QA strategies in collaboration with leadership, aligning testing practices with product and business goals
  • Introduced modern automation frameworks (Jest, Playwright) for integration and end-to-end testing, improving reliability and coverage
  • Developed and maintained API test suites and internal tooling, including data generators for QA teams
  • Implemented data validation workflows using web scraping techniques, improving platform data integrity
Jest Playwright Ruby/Rails React API Testing Team Leadership .NET PostgreSQL GitHub Actions SolanoCI
  • Led a QA team of 6 (5 manual, 1 automation), ensuring quality across all releases
  • Implemented structured test case management, release documentation, and QA processes to improve efficiency and coverage
  • Partnered with Product to align QA strategy with business requirements and user expectations
  • Stepped in to manage feature development and delivery during gaps in project management
Team Leadership Selenium Test Management Manual Testing iOS (Obj-C) Android (Java) Ruby/Rails
  • Partnered with designers to convert PSDs into HTML and SCSS, ensuring accurate representation of design elements and responsive layouts
  • Supported transition from jQuery to React (beta), including building new components
HTML/CSS SCSS React jQuery JavaScript
  • Established outsourced development business model with robust vendor network
  • Delivered 40+ websites, mobile apps, and web applications meeting client specifications
  • Managed all designers and developers, fostering collaborative environment
  • Overhauled business documentation and processes across organization
  • Engaged in ad-hoc coding tasks when vendor network was unavailable, ensuring project continuity
Project Management Team Leadership WordPress PHP JavaScript Mobile Apps

Skills

Testing & QA

Playwright Manual Testing Test Management API Testing Puppeteer Test Rails Jest Selenium Capybara QTest SitePrism Testim

AI & LLM

Claude CLI ChatGPT Prompt Engineering Claude Cowork OpenAI Codex Context Management AI-Assisted Dev AI Search Optimization

Languages

Python JavaScript TypeScript SQL Ruby/Rails PHP Java

Web Technologies

HTML/CSS SEO Node.js React SCSS/LESS Angular HAML CoffeeScript

Tools & Platforms

Git GitHub Actions JIRA Postman Google Tag Manager Osano VSCode PyCharm Oracle NetSuite Jenkins TeamCity LaunchDarkly MS Project Trello DataSpell

Data & Analytics

Web Scraping Pandas Beautiful Soup Data Migration Data Integrity PyPDF2 pdfplumber PowerBI

Leadership & Management

Team Leadership QA Process Development QA Strategy Documentation Project Management Process Design Hiring & Training Cross-functional Collaboration Vendor Management

Get in Touch

Interested in working together? Let's connect.

Location

San Antonio, TX

Prefer LinkedIn for initial contact to avoid spam.