Ivan “Vanya” Balukov

Engineering Manager · Quality Engineering Lead

Hands-on engineering leader working across the full software development lifecycle — from technical strategy and architecture to product delivery and team development.

I build high-performing teams by day and hex-grid strategy games by night. 19 years of shipping software for mission-critical systems — from maritime simulators to next-generation aviation platforms.

Get in touchDownload CV
Bass GuitarSnowboardingCampingGame Dev
Ivan “Vanya” Balukov — vinyl, Sinatra, and good vibes

Selected Impact

Yandex

Yandex: 10 → 2 days

Reduced regression time through checklists, early testing, and documentation testing.

RingCentral

RingCentral: ~50 people

Unified the department's development process while preserving team autonomy.

Farel

Farel: 17 → 7 min

Rebalanced the test pyramid; median successful full e2e runs fell from about 17 to 7 minutes across 283 runs.

Selected Work

Recent work at Farel: the challenge, my contribution, and what changed.

Farel: AI Agents That Ship Changes

Farel
Challenge
Move an internal AI-agent pipeline from opening changes to producing changes the team could merge.
My contribution
Designed and built agents for planning, fixes, solution drafts, verification, and daily plan checks, with evidence gates, shadow mode, and kill switches.
Outcome
The merged share of agent-opened changes went from 7 of 49 to 20 of 22 across two observed periods. Later tasks were smaller and predefined; some merges were automatic. Team delivery speed was not measured.

Farel: Code Ownership Without a Bottleneck

Farel
Challenge
Review rules differed across repositories, and 77% of changes in the main API required one specific senior reviewer.
My contribution
Defined and applied a shared code-ownership and approval standard across 46 repositories, distributing review responsibility across the team.
Outcome
Across a sample of 291 merge requests, the share requiring that reviewer fell from 77% to 1%.

Farel: Delivery Owned by Engineers

Farel
Challenge
Project updates said “on track” while deadlines slipped, and I had become the default author of technical solutions.
My contribution
Introduced a delivery standard with smaller tasks, dated milestones, written risk decisions, and solution design owned by the engineer doing the work.
Outcome
Active projects gained dated milestones and weekly updates, backed by automated daily plan checks. I handed solution authorship to engineers; the effect on delivery dates has not yet been measured.

Personal Creations

What I build when nobody's watching.

SnapClaw
OPEN SOURCE

SnapClaw

One-Click AI Agent Deploy

One-click Railway deploy for OpenClaw — turn your ChatGPT account into a personal AI agent in Telegram in five minutes. No Docker, no terminal, no DevOps.

RailwayTelegram BotAI AgentTypeScript
View on GitHub
Rail Baron
LIVE

Rail Baron

Strategy Board Game

An original turn-based strategy game with rules built from scratch. Lay rail tiles across a city grid, take delivery contracts, and earn doubloons as market prices swing — online multiplayer for 2–5 players with shareable game IDs and a spectator mode.

Next.jsTypeScriptMultiplayerUpstash Redis
Play
NPBB.app
LIVE

NPBB.app

Procedural 3D City

A first-person walk through a procedurally-generated 3D city — Infinitown-style, built on SimplePoly. Wander streets under warm streetlamps, watch traffic flow through intersections, and explore an atmospheric nighttime mode with a flashlight.

SimplePoly3DProcedural CityFirst-Person
Explore
More personal projects(6)
TrailPack
LIVE

TrailPack

Backpacking Checklist

Plan what to pack, track gear weight, and build a packing list for each trip. A beginner-friendly checklist with gear suggestions; your data stays in your browser.

ReactTypeScriptBackpackingLocal-First
Plan a Trip
E2E Best Practices
OPEN SOURCE

E2E Best Practices

Boilerplate & Guide

A comprehensive boilerplate with best practices for E2E tests. Practical code examples with proper architecture, TypeScript support, and proven testing patterns.

WebDriver.ioTypeScriptTestingBest Practices
View Guide
My Computer
LIVE

My Computer

Peace of Mind Calculator

A personal finance tool to distribute income across life, savings, stocks, and crypto. No tracking, no banks — just your money. Bilingual (EN/RU).

Next.jsFinanceSupabaseBilingual
Try It
Kosmodrom.work
LIVE

Kosmodrom.work

To-Do & Timer App

A space-themed productivity app combining to-do lists with timer functionality. Gamification, break reminders, and focus tools.

AngularTypeScriptProductivitySpace Theme
Visit App
Street Lamps
LIVE

Street Lamps

Stories in the Dark

An atmospheric storytelling experience where each street lamp has a personality and a story. Poetic, moody, and built to make you feel something.

CreativeStorytellingWeb ExperienceDesign
Explore
ZombieGuard
LIVE

ZombieGuard

Satirical Landing Page

A hilariously deadpan landing page for a fake zombie vehicle protection service. Because prepared drivers survive.

HumorLanding PageCopywritingDesign
Activate Protection

Professional Journey

19 years, from QA Engineer to Engineering Manager. Open a role for the full story.

Engineering Manager · previously QA Lead at Farel2021–Present · Raleigh, USA
  • Authored the engineering strategy and co-led a production cloud migration for four live airlines, building deployment paths and infrastructure code while a DevOps engineer owned the data migration.
  • Rebalanced the test pyramid from 74 to 19 e2e specs by moving coverage to integration and component tests. Median successful full-run time fell from about 17 to 7 minutes across 283 runs. Built the original Playwright suite as QA Lead.
  • Designed and built an internal AI-agent pipeline with verification gates. Across two observed periods, the merged share went from 7 of 49 to 20 of 22 agent-opened changes; later tasks were smaller and predefined, and some merges were automatic.
  • Rolled out a shared code-ownership and approval standard across 46 repositories. On a sample of 291 merge requests, the share requiring one specific senior reviewer fell from 77% to 1%.
  • Introduced a delivery standard and automated daily plan checks; transferred technical solution authorship to the engineers doing the work. The effect on delivery dates has not yet been measured.
  • Built the first version of a preview-environment platform for seven services, then shared ownership with the team. Later reduced measured environment creation time from 16 minutes 17 seconds to 9 minutes 22 seconds.
  • Designed and rolled out a four-level engineering ladder and compensation policy for a hybrid team, alongside weekly project-focused 1:1s kept separate from evaluation.
  • Built engineering cost showback across 19 vendors and right-sized cloud environments based on measured load.
Lead QA Engineer at RingCentral2018–2021 · Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • Implemented and supervised accurate QA workflows, including issue tracking, multi-layer review, and release testing.
  • Established a shared development process for approximately 50 employees, with Jira organized by team and backlog grooming, while preserving each team's choice of Scrum or Kanban.
  • Created structured plans and tasks for QA interviews to ensure highest quality engineering.
  • Developed sophisticated automated testing frameworks to enhance QA process efficiency.
  • Implemented visual and accessibility tests.
QA Engineer at Yandex2012–2018 · Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • Sole QA engineer for large-scale mobile app from concept to release — helped achieve 4.5 stars in Google Play Store.
  • Led the transition of two teams from waterfall to Agile Scrum.
  • Reduced regression time from 10 days to 2 days through checklists, early testing practices, and documentation testing.
QA Engineer at Kongsberg2009–2011 · Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • Created and implemented a comprehensive testing workflow from scratch.
  • Introduced early-stage testing practices for faster issue identification.
  • Implemented automation for regression testing using Lua and MS Test Manager.
  • Implemented performance and load testing for stress conditions.
QA Team Lead at R-Style Softlab2007–2009 · Vologda, Russia
  • Established and managed a QA team from the ground up.
  • Developed comprehensive testing protocols for banking software solutions.
  • Implemented testing processes for critical financial applications ensuring regulatory compliance.

Core Expertise

Always learning new technologies and approaches.

Leadership & Strategy
Quality Leadership · Team Development & Mentoring · Technical Vision & Strategy · Resource Planning · Stakeholder Communication · Delivery & Execution · Culture Building
Engineering Excellence
JavaScript & TypeScript · Node.js & Express.js · Angular & React · Kubernetes & Docker · CI/CD Pipelines · System Architecture · Database Design · Cloud Infrastructure
Quality Engineering
Test Strategy & Planning · SDLC Optimization · Quality Framework Design · Agile & Scrum · Process Optimization · Risk Assessment · Code Review & Standards · Performance Engineering
Test Automation
WebdriverIO & Playwright · API Testing · Load & Performance Testing · Mutation Testing · Test Architecture · CI/CD Integration · Visual & A11y Testing · Test Data Management