Open to opportunities

Paul Parker

@paulparker

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Experienced QA Lead (ISTQB) who builds high-performing teams and ships high-quality software.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking to lead QA that values rigor and quality culture—building strong teams, running risk-based testing, improving automation, and partnering tightly with product and engineering to ship reliably before release.

I’m an ISTQB® certified, seasoned Quality Assurance professional focused on rigorously evaluating products before public release. I’m at my best leading teams, designing QA processes, and partnering with developers and product teams to align testing with real project goals.

As a QA Lead at Blitz, I lead quality assurance for a global gaming stats tracking platform, ensuring releases meet the highest standards. I build and manage a high-performing QA team, recruit and mentor talent, and drive continuous improvement by identifying automation opportunities to optimize workflows and reduce bugs—while coordinating external QA partners and maintaining strong release integrity.

At Unbroken Studios, I’ve operated across Expert Technical Quality Assurance Analyst and Lead Quality Assurance Analyst roles—scoping headcount, onboarding and mentoring testers, authoring and maintaining end-to-end test plans/cases, and enforcing entry/exit criteria. I’ve also led Master Test Plan creation, ran risk-based smoke/regression/exploratory testing, improved efficiency with tooling strategies like coverage dashboards and test templates, and ensured quality gates consistently meet studio standards, supported by strong evidence capture and high-signal bug reporting in tools like Jira.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

QA Lead

Blitz

Dec 2024 - Mar 2026 (1 year 3 months)

Led QA for a gaming statistics platform serving over 1 million daily users. Coordinated internal and external testing, planned smoke, regression, exploratory, API, desktop and web coverage, improved bug triage and release readiness, and partnered with product, engineering and design to resolve high-risk issues.

Management Leadership QA Leadership Team Management QA Processes Test Coverage Client Server Testing

Expert Technical QA Analyst

Unbroken Studios

Feb 2024 - Dec 2024 (10 months)

Managed QA operations, staffing support, onboarding, training, mentorship and team allocation. Created and maintained test plans, coordinated external QA partners, assigned daily coverage, tracked progress, reviewed design documentation and validated builds across platforms for release readiness.

QA Operations Team Leadership Test Plans Test Cases Entry Exit Criteria Defect Triage Build Intake & Deployment Regression Testing

Lead Quality Assurance Analyst

Unbroken Studios

Feb 2022 - Feb 2024 (2 years)

Owned Master Test Plans and communicated testing priorities across feature, regression, verification and release coverage. Enforced QA processes, mentored analysts, compiled testing data and postmortem feedback, supported performance reviews and partnered with production and development leadership.

Video Games Game Development Management Leadership Quality Assurance Analysis Agile Methodologies Quality Assurance Testing Test Plans Traceability Smoke Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing Coverage Dashboards

Senior Quality Assurance Analyst

Unbroken Studios

Jan 2022 - Feb 2022 (1 month)

Executed test plans on pre-release game software, evaluating functionality, stability, performance, content and release readiness. Compared builds against design documentation, investigated discrepancies, wrote reproducible defects, verified fixes and collaborated with developers to isolate complex issues.

Video Games Game Development Jira Quality Assurance Analysis Agile Methodologies Test Cases Smoke Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing Test Evidence (Video Logs)

Quality Assurance Analyst

Unbroken Studios

Dec 2020 - Jan 2022 (1 year 1 month)

Performed daily functional, regression and verification testing on pre-release game content. Created detailed bug reports with reproduction steps, environment information and severity context, maintained bug database accuracy, validated developer fixes and provided feedback to improve gameplay and user experience.

Game Development Jira TestRail Quality Assurance Game Testing Test Cases Smoke Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing Test Evidence (Video Logs)Verification Build Sanity Checks

Test Analyst

Blizzard Entertainment

Aug 2020 - Oct 2020 (2 months)

Executed test plans covering functionality, balance, stability, performance, interface, art, audio, text and documentation. Identified and documented defects with clear reproduction steps, collaborated with production and development teams, supported regression testing and verified fixes across builds.

Game Development Jira TestRail Quality Assurance Game Testing Functional Testing Stability Testing Performance Testing UI Testing Audio Testing Regression Testing Verification

Functional Quality Assurance Tester

Activision

Jun 2019 - Jun 2020 (1 year)

Tested Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War across gameplay, UI, stability and release scenarios. Logged detailed defects with expected and actual results, isolated issues with production and development teams, clarified reproduction paths and completed regression and verification testing.

Game Development Jira Quality Assurance Test Cases Game Testing Functional Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing

Quality Assurance Tester

Survios

Oct 2017 - Apr 2019 (1 year 6 months)

Tested Raw Data, Electronauts and Creed: Rise to Glory across Oculus, VIVE and PSVR. Investigated functionality, performance, comfort, headset interactions and platform-specific behavior, documented issues in Jira and supported PlayStation ecosystem and compliance-focused validation.

Game Development Jira Quality Assurance Game Testing Oculus Smoke Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing Crash Risk Flagging TRC VRC Compliance Support PS4 Ecosystem Validation

Quality Assurance Tester

Santa Monica Studio

Aug 2016 - Jul 2017 (11 months)

Tested God of War for gameplay, progression, stability and player-experience issues. Documented defects in Jira, verified fixes and performed regression testing. Also supported PlayStation VR validation on Here They Lie and Air Force Special Ops: Nightfall.

Game Development Jira Quality Assurance Game Testing Smoke Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing PSVR Test Suites PS4 Ecosystem Validation

Quality Assurance Tester

Treyarch

Jun 2015 - Aug 2016 (1 year 2 months)

Tested Call of Duty: Black Ops III through routine, exploratory and scenario-based passes. Identified gameplay and quality issues, documented defects in Jira with clear technical context, created detailed reports and completed assigned coverage according to milestone and project priorities.

Game Development Jira Quality Assurance Game Testing Functional Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing

Assistant Language Teacher

Interac

Jul 2013 - Feb 2014 (7 months)

Taught English to junior high school students in Tokyo using interactive activities, conversation practice and culturally responsive instruction. Supported Japanese teachers, reinforced comprehension and pronunciation, built student confidence and served as a cultural ambassador in a Japanese workplace.

Classroom Instruction Japanese Teaching English As A Foreign Language Teaching

QA specialist

Naughty Dog

Sep 2012 - Jul 2013 (10 months)

Tested The Last of Us and Uncharted 3: Free to Play for gameplay functionality and release quality. Documented defects in Devtrack with clear reproduction information, maintained organized issue records and used PS3 Debugger knowledge to support investigation and diagnosis during development.

Video Games Game Development Jira Quality Assurance Game Testing Functional Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing PS3 Testing DevTrack Root Cause Analysis Verification

Quality Assurance Tester

Activision

Jun 2012 - Jul 2012 (1 month)

Tested Call of Duty: Black Ops II for functionality, stability and release quality. Identified and documented defects in Devtrack, provided clear reproduction information, supported regression and verification efforts and completed assigned testing coverage during active development.

Video Games Game Development Quality Assurance DevTrack Game Testing Functional Testing Regression Testing Exploratory testing Verification

Game Master

Activision

Sep 2011 - Jun 2012 (9 months)

Monitored and tested Call of Duty ELITE services and user experience. Designed competitive Modern Warfare 3 events for domestic and international players, verified winners, moderated community interactions, reviewed flagged content and provided customer support through tickets and live chat.

Data Analysis Customer Service Community Moderation Rules & Event Management Ticket Support Live Chat Support KPI Tracking