Ionut Apostu

Lead test management across concurrent payment processing delivery projects within Mastercard's UK and global Real-Time Payments programme, including initiatives aligned to UK Faster Payments infrastructure and Vocalink platform integration. Own the full test lifecycle, manage onshore and offshore teams, and drive defect lifecycle closure.

Founded IronGate Software LTD with a mission to build next-generation AI-assisted quality engineering tools that reduce manual test effort and improve defect discovery rates. Architected and developed IronGate QE Navigator, a concept platform using LLM reasoning for intelligent test strategy navigation and autonomous defect discovery.

Led quality strategy and test delivery for mission-critical healthcare applications serving millions of patients across the United States, improving product quality and customer satisfaction scores by 65%. Spearheaded performance and non-functional testing initiatives, achieving a 20% improvement in application efficiency.

Provided test management and technical leadership for Quality Engineers and DevOps teams across Mastercard's payment platform programmes, including Forge and Foundry developer platform initiatives. Authored test strategies, managed offshore QA teams, and built internal quality dashboards and metrics reporting systems.

Delivered end-to-end test management and automation for financial services and crypto platform projects within a large-scale Agile, multi-squad delivery environment. Designed and built Java/RestAssured API automation frameworks from scratch, integrated with Jenkins CI pipelines.

Led all test management and automation activities for Bank of Ireland payment processing systems, a large-scale banking programme involving SWIFT-formatted banking message exchange validation and inter-system payment flow testing. Implemented comprehensive test automation achieving 95% backend coverage.

Executed manual and automated testing for a high-availability sportsbook platform, covering functional, regression, and exploratory test phases under tight delivery timelines. Developed automated test scripts in Java and PHP to extend regression coverage across core betting platform workflows.

Introduced structured Agile QA processes and defined regression test strategies across multiple product squads, transforming an ad-hoc manual testing approach into a repeatable, measurable framework. Improved defect discovery by 75% per sprint through exploratory testing and risk-based prioritisation.

Delivered functional, regression, and integration testing for high-volume payment web services and backend databases within a fast-paced payment processing environment. Implemented automation frameworks targeting web services and data layer validation, reducing manual regression effort.

Studied Mechanics and Mechatronics at Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest from 2003 to 2007.