About Me
QA Engineer with 6+ years of experience owning end-to-end quality assurance for mission-critical, high-volume enterprise software at a Fortune 300 company. Solely responsible for QA across 7 production systems deployed to over 6,500 retail locations, processing hundreds of thousands of transactions daily in zero-error-tolerance environments. Combines deep manual testing expertise and SQL data validation with a development background, including building internal tooling that improved team efficiency. Proven track record leading QA initiatives in fast-paced agile environments.
Skills and Expertise:
I bring hands-on experience across the full QA toolchain, including SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL, and DB2), Postman, Jira, and Confluence, alongside development experience in Node.js, PHP, Java, Python, HTML, and CSS. I'm equally comfortable working across Linux, Windows, and macOS environments, and I've built internal tooling that has gone into production alongside the software I test.
Education and Certifications:
I hold Associate degrees in Computer Information Systems and Emergency Medicine from Ozarks Technical Community College, graduating Cum Laude with Honors and earning Dean's List recognition. I also hold a Certificate of Achievement in SQL."
Achievements:
I was honored with the PARTNERS Spirit Award at CoxHealth for exemplary service as an EMT, recognizing dedication to patient care and teamwork under pressure. On the software side, I've received multiple You Rock awards at O'Reilly Auto Parts for consistently exceeding expectations as a QA Engineer."
Interests and Values:
Outside of work I compete in combat robotics and am currently building a custom electric vehicle from the ground up. I'm drawn to difficult technical problems whether they're in a production system or a fighting robot, and I tend to find the most satisfaction in projects that require building something that didn't exist before.
- Name: Carl Caldwell
- Email: carl.caldwell@protonmail.com
- Location: Nixa, MO
- Favorite Battlebot: Minotaur
- Website: carlcaldwell.com
Employment Experience
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QA Engineer
2020 - present (6 years)
Sole QA owner for an agile development team, responsible for all quality assurance across 7 production software systems supporting over 6,500 retail locations and multiple enterprise data centers.- Own full QA lifecycle - test planning, design, execution, and sign-off - for a mission-critical retail data pipeline processing hundreds of thousands of invoices and store-to-corporate data transfers daily, where data loss or latency is not acceptable
- Designed, built, and maintain an internal Node.js environment management dashboard that eliminated the need for staff to manually log into individual servers, consolidating real-time server status into a single self-updating interface and significantly reducing pre-testing overhead
- Lead software release management process, coordinating QA readiness and approval across multiple concurrent development workstreams in an agile environment
- Perform deep SQL data validation to verify data integrity across complex backend systems and communication pipelines between store and corporate infrastructure
- Provide QA coverage across point-of-sale software, inter-system communication pipelines, and web-based applications
- Sustained zero negative velocity impact on development team across all sprint cycles while operating as a solo QA function
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Co-Founder
2015 - 2026 (11 years)
Co-founded a web development consultancy focused on delivering technology solutions for emergency services organizations and charitable nonprofits.- Architected and developed API integrations and cloud infrastructure on AWS for clients with limited technical resources
- Managed full project lifecycle from stakeholder requirements through deployment and ongoing maintenance
- Delivered web utilities and custom tooling to organizations that would otherwise lack access to professional development services
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EMT - Field Training Officer
2013 - 2021 (8 years)
Decorated emergency medical technician serving the Springfield, MO metro area, promoted to Field Training Officer responsible for onboarding and certifying new EMTs.- Trained and evaluated Special Operations Combat Medics, developing and delivering structured training curriculum under high-pressure conditions
- Consistently made rapid, high-stakes decisions in life-or-death scenarios — a discipline that directly informs a zero-tolerance approach to defects in production systems
Education
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Associate Of Applied Science - Computer Information Science
Cum Laude2021
- With Honors
- Certificate of Achievement
- Certificate of Specialization - SQL
- Dean's List - 2019
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Associate Of Arts - Emergency Medicine
2013
- With Honors
- Dean's List