Meeting Bob Bhatti, Head of Quality Assurance at The ai Corporation
Tell us about your journey with ai and what led you to choose this area of work?
My journey with The ai Corporation started in June 2024 to take on the role of Head of Quality Assurance (QA) across the entire organisation. I have been working in software quality assurance for over 27 years. I was drawn to The ai Corporation for several reasons:
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The impact I could make by taking over the transformational change programme for quality assurance that was initiated by the CTO, the future vision of the company and its products as set out by the CEO.
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'Quality' is a philosophy applied by every department in our company, and is at the foundation of everything we do.
How has your role changed over the years at ai?
At first, my role was to help build a new team of talented QA Engineers/Software Development Engineers in test to bolster the initiative to implement automated testing and drive improvements in the quality assurance processes and practices.
My first official day was packed with conducting back-to-back phone interviews with potential candidates, followed by my first client meeting. However, my role was always to be more strategic and to devise and implement a long-term road map that instilled industry best practices for quality assurance. This means being ahead of the curve and thinking not only about resourcing, but also about the latest trends, techniques, and technologies that will benefit the quality assurance practice for which I am accountable.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My days at The ai Corporation are so varied and never the same - from liaising with clients and vendors, to meetings with the Board/Senior Leadership Team, planning various testing cycles, investigating defects, and even automating end-to-end integration tests.
What is your team like?
The team that reports to me are a large group of diverse, hardworking and passionate individuals who bring their individual skills together to work in a challenging and fast-paced environment as one united team. Being a leader, I empower them to make decisions that they believe will make a positive difference.
I am also part of an engineering leadership team that consists of very intelligent and thought-provoking leaders who are willing to listen to every idea, and work together in a collaborative manner that ensures the engineering department can deliver various technically challenging solutions for the business and our clients.
How do you ensure you keep your training and knowledge up to date?
I generally find my own time to train and keep my knowledge levels up to par. The company provides a plethora of learning resources.
As I always need to ensure I am in touch with the latest trends/technologies, I am always discovering something new that I may have stumbled upon when doing some research.
What’s the best part about your job?
The best part must be that every day brings a new problem-solving opportunity, bringing out the stubbornness in me, that refuses to let a problem go unsolved, whether technical, process, or people management.
What’s your proudest moment at ai so far?
The engagement from everyone in the organisation regarding quality assurance—from making improvements to how we work to seeing the real benefits from the test automation program and, best of all, truly valuing the ideas and input from the QA team.
How would you describe ai in 3 words?
Inclusive, Diverse, Fun-Filled
What do you enjoy most about working for ai?
The fast-paced, challenging environment and the constant learning, but most of all, collaboration is not a buzzword; it is being implemented across the business to produce great outcomes.