Curriculum vitae
Flo Hofmann
Quality Engineering · Business Analysis · AI Automation
Profile
I help teams deliver reliable software and automate repetitive work with AI.
Eighteen years across software quality, business analysis and technology delivery, in automotive, insurance, financial services, medical and enterprise software. I lead testing, write requirements and build AI automation with Power Automate, Claude Code and GitHub Copilot.
I look beyond assigned responsibilities to identify problems, challenge assumptions and find better ways of working. When I see repetitive work or an inefficient process, I look for ways to improve it. I often build my own tools, with or without AI, and share what I've learned so the whole team can benefit.
Selected achievements
TAL
Cut days of manual terminal work to minutes
Built Linux Reflections Automation via COM API. A colleague picks a pre-configured workflow from one central sheet, adds the policy data, and it runs as many times as needed. Entering 50 anniversary processes by hand can take a day, or two with interruptions. A run of 100 policies finishes in about 25 minutes.
OIC Architects
Turned meetings and emails into organised project records
Built Power Automate and AI workflows that capture Teams meeting transcripts and incoming emails, file the details in SharePoint, notify the right channels and send follow-up reminders, with human review where it matters. When a meeting holds something worth sharing, AI agents turn it into a blog post, then a video script and a published video, which saves about five days of work.
TAL
Built the knowledge base the team still uses
Wrote down how the system really behaves, in a structured knowledge base colleagues still use, so answers no longer depend on one person.
Applause
Cut payment processing time by 75% across the company
Spotted a slow, manual payment process for test team leads, and introduced a time-tracking template that cut the processing time by 75%.
Applause
Three testers I mentored became test team leads
Led three programme test managers, and mentored three community testers who each went on to lead test teams.
uTest
Rated in the top 0.5% of more than 100,000 testers
Over 250 test cycles and more than 900 defects reported, with a 90% approval rate.
Skills
Quality Engineering & Test Automation
Business Analysis & AI Automation
Tools
Experience
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Apr 2026 to present
Sydney, Australia
Senior Test ConsultantTAL
One of Australia's largest life insurers.
Back with the same client after nine months away, this time with AI built into how the work actually gets done. Test ownership on API and data-heavy delivery, and responsibility for bringing the team along with it.
- Built Linux Reflections Automation via COM API, flexible enough for anyone in the team to run on their own policy data. A run of 100 policies takes about 25 minutes, where 50 by hand can take a day or more
- Built reusable tools with input checks, logging and safe reruns, so colleagues can automate work they used to do by hand
- Lead functional, API, data and integration testing, agree what "correct" means with the business before testing starts, and share new automation methods with the team
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2023 to present
Sydney, Australia
Co-Founder & CTOOIC Architects
A Sydney architecture and property development practice.
Co-founded the practice and run the operating side of it. It is also where I build and run AI-enabled systems against real workflows, real users and real constraints, and it is the practical environment behind how I work with clients.
- Built Power Automate workflows that work like a small CRM. Incoming emails are captured and structured, the details go into SharePoint lists and files, channels are notified, and follow-up emails and reminders go out automatically
- Built the meeting pipeline that turns Teams transcripts into structured notes, decisions and actions by person, with ambiguity flags and human review
- Run the data and market analysis behind site selection, feasibility and pricing, and hired and onboarded the full-time team
- Wrote the documentation and processes so the team runs these systems without depending on me
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Jul 2018 to Aug 2025
Sydney, Australia
Business Analyst and Senior Test AnalystTAL
One of Australia's largest life insurers.
Seven years across the full delivery cycle, split about evenly between defining what to build and proving it worked. Life insurance is unforgiving about detail, which is where the discipline came from. Recognised with the team's gold award.
- Built the team's knowledge base on how the system really behaves, still used by colleagues, so answers no longer depend on one person
- Ran requirements workshops with product managers, business units and platform partners, and turned them into testable user stories for a new insurance product, a Successor Fund Transfer, Unfair Contract Terms changes, a file transfer upgrade and two platform partner onboardings
- Led testing on the SailPoint API build, the Fineos migration and a core platform upgrade, writing and running the system and integration tests myself
- Planned and ran User Acceptance Testing, and drove defects to resolution with the developers
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May 2018 to Jun 2018
Sydney, Australia
Test LeadNSW Small Business Commissioner
A state government body supporting small businesses across New South Wales.
A short, sharp engagement to fix a testing practice that was not catching enough. Six weeks to assess it, rebuild it and hand it back working.
- Assessed the existing test strategy and cases, and found where the coverage gaps actually were
- Rewrote and rebuilt the test cases, with traceability back to the requirements
- Led two test analysts through the rebuild
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Sep 2017 to Apr 2018
Career breakAround the World
Eight months out of corporate life, travelling. The trip ended in Sydney, which is where the Australian half of the career starts.
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Nov 2016 to Sep 2017
Germany
Senior Project ManagerApplause
The world's leading crowdtesting provider.
Test manager for Audi, which was about half the role, and leadership of the programme test managers running the rest of the portfolio. Technical and client-facing in equal measure.
- Test manager for Audi, covering connected car services and automotive e-tail
- Built the test strategies with the client, set the tests up, managed the test environments, and ran the more technical testing myself
- Led three programme test managers and coordinated on-site projects with dedicated testers
- Mentored three community testers who each went on to become test team leads
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Oct 2015 to Oct 2016
Germany
Project ManagerApplause
The world's leading crowdtesting provider.
Twenty-plus simultaneous clients across automotive, media and finance, in a genuinely fast environment. Where the client-facing technical work started.
- Ran test teams built around each client's needs, across Volkswagen, BMW, TAP, Roche, Uber, VisualVest and Raumfeld among others
- Brought business and test expertise into pre-sales calls alongside sales managers and client decision-makers
- Ran project initiation workshops to find each client's QA gaps, then set the testing up to close them
- Owned budget, customer satisfaction and margin, and introduced a time-tracking template that cut payment processing time by 75% company-wide
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Apr 2013 to Oct 2015
Germany
Business ConsultantVolkswagen
One of the world's largest car manufacturers.
Key contributor to the Online Car Configurator, the tool customers use to specify their own vehicle. Requirements work with a very public product at the end of it.
- Worked with the product owner to define what the configurator had to do, and wrote the user stories and acceptance criteria for it
- Ran stakeholder interviews and workshops, and modelled the flows as UML use cases
- Prepared user flows for User Acceptance Testing with business users ahead of major go-lives
- Introduced a fortnightly defect triage so stakeholders and testers prioritised together
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Jan 2012 to Aug 2014
remote, evenings and weekends
Freelance Software TesteruTest
The largest freelance software testing community in the world.
Paid per finding, on real products, always against a deadline. Technical, competitive, and the fastest way there was to get broad exposure across platforms and industries.
- Over 250 test cycles across Android, iOS, web, desktop applications and hardware
- Over 900 defects reported, at a 90% approval rate and a 50% high-value rate
- API and service testing, and cross-device coverage on real hardware
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Mar 2011 to Mar 2013
Hamburg, Germany
QA Team LeadGoodgame Studios
One of Europe's largest browser game developers.
First leadership role. Ran QA across the games and the payment systems behind in-game purchases, where a defect costs real money the same day.
- Led the QA team's test planning, strategy and execution
- Owned functional, regression and exploratory coverage across the games and the payment applications
- Earned the ISTQB Certified Tester qualification in my own time, then used it to get standardised test methods adopted by the technical leads
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Jul 2010 to Feb 2011
Hamburg, Germany
Senior QA TechnicianGoodgame Studios
One of Europe's largest browser game developers.
Hands-on testing on live browser games, with the in-game payment flows as the highest-risk area. Manual and automated cases, across browsers and devices, against a release schedule that did not wait.
- Prepared, maintained and executed manual and automation test cases against new features, requirements and production changes
- Tested payment applications and in-game purchasing workflows across browsers, devices and user scenarios
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Mar 2008 to Jun 2010
Erfurt, Germany
Software QA TesterIBYKUS AG
A German IT services and consulting company, working across software development, IT consulting and application management.
Where it started, alongside the business degree. Learned testing properly from senior testers and developers, on software built for real clients.
- Functional testing of client applications, from requirements through to defect closure
- Started as a working student and was taken on as an employee
Education and certification
- Bachelor of Business AdministrationUniversity of Applied Sciences Erfurt, 2009
- ISTQB Certified TesterInternational Software Testing Qualifications Board
- ISTQB Advanced Level Test ManagerInternational Software Testing Qualifications Board