{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jsonresume/resume-schema/v1.0.0/schema.json",
  "basics": {
    "name": "Zach Howard",
    "label": "Quality Engineer | Test Automation, API Testing & AI-Assisted Development",
    "email": "zach.d.howard@gmail.com",
    "url": "https://resume.zachtech.ca/artech-qe-sdet/",
    "summary": "Quality Engineer focused on test automation and quality processes. Built testing workflows for web platforms, game engine tools and software development teams, working directly with engineers.",
    "location": {
      "city": "Oshawa",
      "region": "ON",
      "countryCode": "CA"
    },
    "profiles": [
      {
        "network": "GitHub",
        "username": "zdhoward",
        "url": "https://github.com/zdhoward"
      }
    ]
  },
  "work": [
    {
      "name": "ZachTech",
      "position": "Owner / IT Services",
      "location": "Oshawa, ON area",
      "period": "March 2026 - present",
      "highlights": [
        "Founded ZachTech and build custom software solutions and websites for small businesses.",
        "Provide IT support for small businesses and set up and maintain their networks."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Eterio Realities",
      "position": "QC Lead",
      "location": "Victoria, BC",
      "period": "March 2025 - March 2026",
      "highlights": [
        "Built an automated Playwright test suite for the company's web application: 153 tests in 22 files (118 UI, 28 API, 7 visual) with 10 page objects, as of March 2026.",
        "Wrote multiple test plans for the engineering team, covering the web portal.",
        "Created repeatable testing workflows to improve consistency across releases.",
        "Developed internal tooling using Claude Code to improve product knowledge access and debugging workflows.",
        "Worked directly with developers to integrate testing and quality practices throughout development."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Electronic Arts",
      "position": "Associate Quality Designer",
      "location": "Vancouver, BC",
      "period": "March 2024 - June 2024",
      "highlights": [
        "Created and maintained QA test passes for Frostbite engine changes and validated new features and workflow changes.",
        "Triaged defects, investigated issues with software engineers, and communicated technical findings across teams, including coordinating QA requests with Central QA."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Keywords Studios",
      "position": "QA Specialist, embedded at Electronic Arts",
      "location": "Vancouver, BC",
      "period": "April 2020 - March 2024",
      "highlights": [
        "Embedded QA on the Frostbite Build Tools team, working directly with software engineers on internal developer tools and workflows used across AAA game projects.",
        "Validated changes to internal build systems and developer workflows and created testing strategies for complex engineering systems."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Mountain West Studios",
      "position": "IT Coordinator",
      "location": "Vancouver, BC",
      "period": "September 2018 - April 2020",
      "highlights": [
        "Developed backend systems for automated video rendering and delivery, and automation for business workflows."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Saved By Technology (now Long & McQuade Pro)",
      "position": "Product Specialist",
      "location": "Toronto, ON",
      "period": "January 2016 - August 2018",
      "highlights": [
        "Tripled the company's Amazon sales in one year, from about $500K to $1.5M, by automating listings and order processing; fully in charge of the Amazon sales channel.",
        "Automated product listing and order-processing workflows and managed online sales systems and integrations."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "projects": [
    {
      "description": "Design and run multi-agent AI development workflows with Claude Code and Codex, assigning models to tasks by strength and managing context to keep output reliable."
    },
    {
      "description": "Develop audio VST plugins in C++ with JUCE through ZXAudio (zxaudio.ca).",
      "url": "https://zxaudio.ca"
    },
    {
      "description": "Built AIUsageMonitor: an ESP32 touchscreen desktop display with C++/Arduino firmware, fed over USB serial by a Python collector, showing AI subscription quotas and live system telemetry.",
      "url": "https://github.com/zdhoward/AIUsageMonitor"
    }
  ],
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "Automation",
      "keywords": [
        "Playwright browser automation",
        "API testing",
        "test framework development",
        "workflow automation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Testing & Quality",
      "keywords": [
        "Test automation",
        "end-to-end",
        "regression and integration testing",
        "test planning and strategy",
        "release validation",
        "defect investigation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Languages & Tools",
      "keywords": [
        "Python",
        "JavaScript",
        "TypeScript",
        "SQL",
        "REST APIs",
        "Git",
        "GitHub"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Scripting",
      "keywords": [
        "Bash and PowerShell scripting"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "education": [
    {
      "institution": "Seneca College",
      "area": "Computer Programming & Analysis, 2012 - 2015"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "variant": "artech-qe-sdet",
    "keywords": [
      "quality engineer",
      "SDET",
      "Playwright",
      "test automation",
      "API testing",
      "regression testing",
      "Python",
      "TypeScript",
      "Claude Code",
      "Codex"
    ],
    "source": "claims verified or confirmed by the candidate"
  }
}