HITESH KUMAR SAHU

• Release & Submission Management: Owned the end-to-end submission pipeline for the Angry Birds portfolio, ensuring 100% successful rollout across Apple, Google Play, Amazon, and PC.
• Platform Submission Lead: Acted as the primary technical point of contact for mobile platform holders, managing store metadata, version control, and ensuring strict adherence to evolving store policies.
• Cross-Functional Coordination: Synchronized with production and engineering teams to align development sprints with global publishing windows and "Gold Master" deadlines.
• Live Ops & Strategy: Managed A/B testing validation and backend service stability using custom admin panels and Beacon, minimizing risk for high-traffic global updates.
• Compliance Gatekeeping: Functioned as the final authority on build readiness, balancing technical quality with aggressive publishing schedules.

• Hands-on Testing: Tested hardware connections (Bluetooth/ANT+) and network stability using Charles Proxy and Xcode to make sure the data was flowing correctly.
• Managing the Backlog: Spent a lot of time in Jira and X-ray cleaning up the backlog, assigning tickets, and making sure the team knew what to work on next.
• Build Validation: Used Unreal and Unity to check builds, run smoke tests, and monitor performance (FPS/CPU) before they were sent out.
• Assisting the Producer: Stepped in to help with production tasks like coordinating between different departments (artists and programmers) to hit milestone deadlines.
• Problem Solving: When big bugs happened, I led the "Root Cause Analysis" to figure out what went wrong so we could fix the process and keep the project on track.

• Building Quality Infrastructure from Scratch: Acted as the standalone QA leader within an early-stage startup to define the testing strategy, standards, workflows, and documentation from the ground up where the team previously lacked structure.
• AI-Assisted Manual Coverage: Utilized advanced AI tools to accelerate the design, execution, and documentation of robust functional and regression test matrices, incrementally growing coverage of the highest-risk flows without disrupting delivery.
• Third-Party Integrations: Owned end-to-end testing for unannounced simulation titles, validating user data privacy compliance (GDPR/COPPA), storefront guidelines, and platform submission parameters.
• Embedding QA Thinking: Cultivated quality as a shared team capability by training the development team on regression risk assessment and "Shift-Left" mentalities to bring quality into requirements and design, not just release sign-off.
• Workflow Optimization: Standardized defect tracking and delivery pipelines by integrating Jira and Trello, successfully bridging the gap between active engineering sprints and deployment goals.

• Console Release Support: Assisted senior leads in the end-to-end submission process for PS4/PS5 (Sony TRC), Xbox One/Series (Microsoft XR), and Nintendo Switch (Lotcheck).
• Certification Readiness: Executed specialized test cases to verify compliance with platform-specific requirements, identifying "show-stopper" bugs before final submission to Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
• First-Party Coordination: Worked with seniors to prepare and upload builds to platform backend, ensuring all metadata, age ratings, and technical requirements were met.
• Dev Kit Operations: Collaborated with the console specialist to manage Dev Kit configurations and perform build verification on retail-target hardware.
• Milestone Validation: Conducted smoke tests and performance profiling in Unreal & Unity as part of the pre-release checklist to ensure build stability for milestone approval.
• Post-Submission Support: Investigated platform holder feedback and performed Root Cause Analysis (RCA) on reported failures to help the dev team implement quick fixes for re-submission.

• Fighting Game Specialist: Performed high-precision testing for Tekken 7 and Naruto Shippuden, focusing on frame-data accuracy and hitbox registration.
• Multi-Platform QA: Navigated full-cycle QA (Alpha to Gold) across PS4, Xbox One, and PC, identifying 200+ unique defects, including complex physics and desync glitches.