Atul Salunkhe
Tech Lead - SRE | Ex-Automation Lead | Cloud & Infra Automation | DevOps & SDET Expert | Python | RHCSA/RHCE | AWS/GCP | Terraform | Kubernetes | GitLab CI/CD | Jenkins
Senior Site Reliability Engineer with over 10 years of experience transitioning from QA Automation to specialized CloudOps and SRE roles. Passionate about building scalable systems, automating infrastructure, and enhancing platform reliability through DevOps practices. Expert in CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code, and cloud-native environments.
About Me
Senior Site Reliability Engineer with over 10 years of experience, transitioning from QA Automation to specialized CloudOps and SRE roles.
From Manual Testing to Senior SRE Leadership
With over 10 years of experience in the software industry, I have transitioned from a QA Automation background to a specialized role in Site Reliability Engineering. My career encompasses domains such as E-Commerce, Automotive, Ed-Tech, and Data Governance.
I started as a Manual Tester, developed skills in test automation, and eventually transitioned into CloudOps, where I currently contribute as a Senior SRE. I'm passionate about building scalable systems, automating infrastructure, and enhancing platform reliability through DevOps practices.
My focus is on delivering reliable, scalable infrastructure while applying my QA roots to maintain quality at every layer of the DevOps lifecycle. I thrive at the intersection of testing, automation, and cloud engineering.
Atul Salunkhe
Senior SRE
10+ Years Experience
Site Reliability Engineering
Senior SRE with expertise in building scalable systems, automating infrastructure, and enhancing platform reliability through DevOps practices.
CI/CD & Automation
Expert in Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Shared Libraries, Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, Helm, and ArgoCD.
Cloud & DevOps
Proficient in AWS (EC2, S3, IAM, RDS, CloudWatch) and GCP (Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, IAM) with Docker, Kubernetes.
Testing & Quality
Strong QA foundation with automation, API testing, performance testing using Selenium, TestNG, JMeter, and Postman.
My Skills
A comprehensive overview of my automation, testing, and technical expertise
Programming
Python
Java
Bash
Ansible
Terraform
Automation
Selenium
Pytest
API Testing
Performance Testing
CI/CD & Tools
Postman
Jenkins
GitLab CI/CD
Git
JIRA
JMeter
Cloud & Infrastructure
AWS
GCP
Docker
Kubernetes
ArgoCD
Databases
MySQL
PostgreSQL
Aurora
Redshift
Hive
PrestoDB
DevOps & SRE
Linux
Helm
Monitoring
CI/CD Pipeline
Infrastructure as Code
Certificates
Verified credentials and professional achievements
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Amazon Web Services Training and Certification
October 12, 2025
Datadog Fundamentals 1
Datadog Learning Center
April 25, 2023
Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
Red Hat
August 13, 2021
Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
Red Hat
August 13, 2021
Career Journey
From QA Trainee to Automation Lead - A journey of continuous growth, learning, and leadership
Career Progression
Leading SRE initiatives with a focus on cloud infrastructure automation, cost optimization, CI/CD modernization, and cross-cloud networking to improve reliability, scalability, and efficiency of mission-critical services.
Key Skills
- Designed and implemented GitLab pipelines for tenant cleanup, PVC/SVC cleanup, namespace management, and automated EMR termination, reducing manual overhead and error risk
- Built Solr automation scripts to extract, reinsert, and manage collection data, streamlining cluster maintenance
- Developed automated cleanup scripts for expired accounts in PrivaceraCloud, improving system hygiene and compliance
- Led migration from legacy Jenkins to Kubernetes + Helm + Kustomize, recovering jobs, builds, and credential data; ensured shared libraries were upgraded to the latest standards
- Implemented Kubernetes best practices across all services (PDB, resource limits, affinity, tolerations, topology constraints), improving cluster stability and resilience
- Established VPC peering across AWS–GCP and AWS–Azure, enabling secure cross-cloud communication for enterprise customers
- Deployed AWS PrivateLink for secure integrations between customer and internal AWS accounts
- Drove cloud cost optimization by analyzing usage patterns and converting on-demand nodes to Spot instances, significantly reducing AWS spend
Part of the CloudOps team, focused on multi-cloud reliability engineering, cost governance, monitoring, and production-grade automation to enhance platform stability and customer experience.
Key Skills
- Managed multi-cloud Kubernetes deployments (EKS, AKS, GKE), troubleshooting cross-platform issues, and improving reliability
- Automated routine operations in Jenkins, migrated legacy jobs, and optimized job performance by cleaning up outdated pipelines
- Built Datadog monitoring dashboards & alerts, improving visibility into SEV1/SEV2 customer issues and reducing MTTR
- Led cost and billing analysis for AWS and GCP accounts, identifying cleanup candidates and driving cost reduction initiatives
- Administered and optimized Solr clusters (sharding, collection management, error reduction) for high availability
- Owned pre-production and production deployments, ensuring smooth and reliable releases
- Supported core infrastructure operations: S3, CloudFormation, RDS, Redshift, EC2, VPC, IAM, LB, EMR, Databricks
- Troubleshot and resolved critical networking, VPN, jumphost, PVC, HPA, and PDB issues across multiple environments
Transitioned into a role where I expanded from QA Automation to infrastructure reliability and environment ownership, paving the way for full-time SRE responsibilities.
Key Skills
- Redesigned automation frameworks for multiple services (portal, admin portal, ranger, policycache) across UI & API layers
- Took complete ownership of QA environments across AWS & Azure, handling deployments, troubleshooting, and cluster-level fixes
- Introduced and verified migrations to ArgoCD + Helm + Terraform for automated deployments
- Provided infra-level troubleshooting support across vertical teams, enabling faster resolution of QA and deployment issues
- Built initial infra components required for automation scalability across environments
Contributed to SaaS product quality with a focus on big data, identity management, and microservices testing, while gaining early exposure to environment management.
Key Skills
- Tested DBX, EMR (FGAC, FBAC, OLAC, SparkSQL, PySpark), Hive and other big-data services
- Validated UserSync integrations with LDAP, Okta, SAML, and SCIM servers
- Verified PolicySync integrations with Starburst, Trino, Presto, MSSQL, Redshift, Postgres, and Snowflake
- Assisted in QA environment maintenance, including pod config changes, service deployments, and performance improvements
- Validated functionality of microservices: portal, admin portal, ranger, policycache, appman, usersync, auditserver, dataserver
Career Progression
Led the QA function for microservices-based applications, driving automation strategy, functional validation, and team mentoring to ensure consistent product quality and faster releases.
Key Skills
- Led a QA team of two, managing end-to-end functional, regression, and automation testing across multiple platforms and microservices
- Designed and built a scalable test automation framework from scratch, tailored for microservices architecture, with support for gRPC APIs and Retrofit for service communication
- Created and maintained mock services to simulate unavailable dependencies, enabling uninterrupted testing cycles and reducing release bottlenecks
- Ensured consistent product quality and system reliability through proactive test planning, structured validation, and close alignment with sprint deliverables
- Mentored and guided junior QA engineers, delegating manual testing tasks while coaching on automation enhancements to improve test coverage
- Collaborated closely with product and engineering teams, aligning QA strategies with Agile development practices to deliver timely, high-quality releases
Career Progression
Led team of QA engineers, implemented robust automation frameworks, and earned RHCSA/RHCE certifications while exploring AWS cloud technologies.
Key Skills
- Led a small team comprising 1 QA Engineer and 1 System Administrator, delegating tasks and reviewing deliverables to maintain high-quality standards
- Created detailed test plans for new features and reviewed junior team members' test cases for accuracy and completeness
- Designed and implemented a robust Automation Framework using Selenium, TestNG, and Keyword-Driven Framework (KDF) for regression and repetitive use cases
- Developed and executed API automation using Postman and REST clients for recurring scenarios
- Performed load and performance testing with JMeter on high-risk features such as login, ensuring system resilience against frequent attacks
- Partnered with Bug Bounty teams for advanced security testing, validating vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and BurpSuite findings
- Owned end-to-end deployment processes across Development, QA, UAT, and Production environments, including coordination of dependencies such as CDN, SMS providers, and Payment Gateway integrations
- Actively engaged in defect triage meetings, conducted root cause analysis (RCA), and drove continuous process improvements
- Played a key role in MySQL version migrations, performing data validation post-migration to ensure integrity and zero data loss
- Earned RHCSA and RHCE certifications, strengthening Linux administration expertise and improving ability to manage production-grade environments
- Began exploring AWS Cloud through Proof of Concepts (POCs), gaining exposure to cloud infrastructure and deployment strategies
Expanded scope into deployments, API testing, and security validation while building expertise in Linux systems and enterprise infrastructure.
Key Skills
- Took ownership of application deployments on CentOS-based QA and Pre-Prod environments, ensuring environments were up-to-date and ready for testing
- Expanded scope into API testing using SOAPUI and Postman, validating both SOAP and REST services
- Maintained Requirement Traceability Matrices (RTMs) and detailed feature-level documentation to ensure alignment between requirements and test coverage
- Explored and executed security testing techniques, including identification of XSS and SQL Injection vulnerabilities, enhancing product security posture
- Strengthened expertise in Linux systems to bridge operational knowledge gaps
- Assisted in MySQL Server migration and hardening activities, gaining hands-on experience with enterprise infrastructure, including Dell R620 servers
Built strong foundations in manual testing, defect reporting, and cross-team collaboration while gaining comprehensive understanding of SDLC.
Key Skills
- Performed manual testing of web and mobile applications, with emphasis on payment gateways, system testing, and end-to-end integration flows (user, address, payment modules)
- Designed, created, and executed test cases for website and mobile applications, ensuring comprehensive feature validation
- Actively participated in feature discussions to begin test case design early, reducing delivery delays
- Reported and tracked defects via Mantis and email, ensuring clear communication with development teams
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams, including Order Management System (OMS) and Warehouse Management System (WMS) teams, to gain broader ecosystem understanding
- Built foundational knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and Defect Lifecycle through hands-on involvement in testing and documentation
Projects I've Worked On
A showcase of my automation and testing projects across different domains
Privacera Cloud (Data Governance)
Working on SaaS Platform to provide Data Governance and Security. Testing data governance platforms and ensuring security compliance across cloud and on-premises environments.
Greyatom.com (Ed-Tech)
Created comprehensive automation frameworks for API testing using GRPC+Spring Micro-services, UI testing with Selenium+TestNg+PageFactory, and implemented CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins.
Naaptol.com (E-commerce)
Developed automation framework using Selenium+TestNG+KD Framework, performed API testing on third-party endpoints using POSTMAN, and conducted security testing in collaboration with BugBounty team.