{"id":131,"date":"2022-05-17T12:14:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T12:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/?p=131"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:59:53","slug":"career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"Career RoadMap for Functional Test Automation Developers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-131-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Career-RoadMap-for-Functional-Test-Automation-Developers.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Career-RoadMap-for-Functional-Test-Automation-Developers.mp3\">https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Career-RoadMap-for-Functional-Test-Automation-Developers.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/testleaf.com\">Test Automation skills<\/a> are most demanding in the present market. Most of the Senior QA leaders are advising against choosing test automation engineering as a career path and becoming QA champions in their organization. In this blog we will give a complete automation testing roadmap<\/p>\n<p>A functional automation career in 2026 is built on one strong programming language, reliable UI + API automation skills, and CI\/CD execution habits. The fastest path is to master fundamentals, build a small framework, run it in pipelines, and prove reliability with reporting and debugging artifacts. Tools change\u2014engineering habits don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Key_Takeaways\" >Key Takeaways<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#What_is_the_starting_point_to_becoming_an_automation_champion\" >What is the starting point to becoming an automation champion?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Stack_1_%E2%80%93_Vertical_vs_Horizontal_Learning\" >Stack 1 &#8211; Vertical vs Horizontal Learning<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Stack_2_%E2%80%94_Front_end_automation_tools_engineering\" >Stack 2 \u2014 Front end automation tools engineering<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Stack_3_%E2%80%94_Back-end_automation_tools_engineering\" >Stack 3 \u2014 Back-end automation tools engineering<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Stack_4_%E2%80%94_DevOps_automation\" >Stack 4 \u2014 DevOps automation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Stack_5%E2%80%94_Cloud_automation\" >Stack 5\u2014 Cloud automation<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#Wrapping_up\" >Wrapping up<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/#FAQs\" >FAQs<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3 data-start=\"2464\" data-end=\"2481\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Key_Takeaways\"><\/span><strong data-start=\"2464\" data-end=\"2481\">Key Takeaways<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li data-start=\"2484\" data-end=\"2582\">Go <strong data-start=\"2487\" data-end=\"2511\">deep in one language<\/strong> before chasing multiple tools.<\/li>\n<li>Build <strong data-start=\"2591\" data-end=\"2608\">UI + API + CI<\/strong> as a single workflow, not separate skills.<\/li>\n<li>Champion level\u201d comes from <strong data-start=\"2722\" data-end=\"2743\">shipping projects<\/strong>, not reading tool lists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-start=\"2885\" data-end=\"3141\">If your users span India and global regions, automation must handle region-based cookie banners, language\/locale changes, and A\/B experiments. Run at least one CI pipeline in the same region you serve most to avoid \u201cgreen locally, red in CI.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_the_starting_point_to_becoming_an_automation_champion\"><\/span><strong><b>What is the starting point to becoming an automation champion?<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Learn a programming language in-depth, preferably one of these 4 \u2014 Java, JavaScript, Python, or C#.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/functional-sdet-1024x576.png\" alt=\"How To Become an Automation Tester?\" width=\"1128\" height=\"634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/functional-sdet-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/functional-sdet-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/functional-sdet-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/functional-sdet.png 1128w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1128px) 100vw, 1128px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stack_1_%E2%80%93_Vertical_vs_Horizontal_Learning\"><\/span><strong><b>Stack 1 &#8211; Vertical vs Horizontal Learning<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>I vote for vertical learning and am not a big fan of horizontal. What does that mean? If you learn one language in-depth, you can become an expert in another language in weeks. So, learn one language in depth.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you like to learn Java as your preferred language of automation, then begin with a deeper understanding of the below listed five areas:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>How Java (JDK\/JRE\/JVM) works? on how to design classes, methods, variables, conditional statements, loops, etc.?<\/li>\n<li>OOPS concepts \u2014 Inheritance, Encapsulation, Abstraction, Polymorphism<\/li>\n<li>Arrays, String, and Regular Expressions<\/li>\n<li>Specific Collection (List, Set, Map) Implementations.<\/li>\n<li>Exception handling, Basic thread concepts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you are interested in cracking product company interviews, then focus more on\u00a0data structures and algorithms\u00a0and the above.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stack_2_%E2%80%94_Front_end_automation_tools_engineering\"><\/span><strong><b>Stack 2 \u2014 Front end automation tools engineering<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The front-end automation can be broken mainly into \u2014 web, mobile, and desktop applications. There are several tools available in each of these technologies.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer \u2014 I have mentioned only the tools and frameworks that I used in my last 20+ years of development and test automation engineering experiences with over 50+ enterprise customers across the globe.<\/p>\n<p><em><i>Web \u2014 Selenium, Protractor, Webdriver.io, Puppeteer, Cypress, UFT<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Mobile \u2014 Appium, Espresso, XCUITest<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Desktop \u2014 UFT, UiPath<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Out of these tools, if you are a beginner to test automation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/selenium-automation-certification-training-course.html\">learn\u00a0Selenium Webdriver<\/a>\u00a0in-depth, preferably with Java bindings, due to the popularity and highest market demand.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, just tools alone will not be enough to become a front-end automation champion, but you need to sharpen skills in &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><em><i>Design Patterns \u2014 Factory, Adaptor, Decorator, Page design, BDD, Proxy<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>BDD \u2014 Cucumber, SpecFlow, RSpec<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Runners \u2014 TestNg, JUnit, PyTest, Mocha, Jasmine<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Reports \u2014 ExtentReports, Allure, ReportPortal, ReportNG<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Just learning alone does not help!! You need to implement them rigorously with a minimum of 200+ test cases in a short period to become a champion.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stack_3_%E2%80%94_Back-end_automation_tools_engineering\"><\/span><strong><b>Stack 3 \u2014 Back-end automation tools engineering<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The back-end automation can be broken mainly by protocols and architectures \u2014 SOAP, RESTful, GraphQL, gRPC.<\/p>\n<p>There are several tools and frameworks available to build automated tests in each of these.<\/p>\n<p><em><i>SOAP \u2014 SoapUI<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>RESTful, GraphQL \u2014 PostMan, RestAssured, RestSharp, Karate<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>gRPC \u2014 BloomRPC<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Considering the need for microservices growing in the present era, focusing more on REST and GraphQL will be the best choice. If you\u2019re learning stack is in Java, preferably RestAssured with the integration of Cucumber, TestNG, and ExtentReports can be a delicious choice.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, spend quality skilling on mocking tools like:<\/p>\n<p><em><i>Mocking tools \u2014 WireMock, Mockito, PowerMock, EasyMock<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p>You may have to skill up more if you are automating the asynchronous messages and events.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stack_4_%E2%80%94_DevOps_automation\"><\/span><strong><b>Stack 4 \u2014 DevOps automation<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>DevOps is a combination of practices that automate teams&#8217; processes to build, test, and deploy applications faster.<\/p>\n<p>In the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/category\/devops-bootcamp\/\"> DevOps<\/a> ecosystem \u2014 test automation is powered by several tools in the following category:<\/p>\n<p><em><i>Code &amp; Build \u2014 Git, Bitbucket, Maven, Gradle, WebPack, Slack, Docker<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Packaging\u2014Docker, Ansible, Puppet, Chef<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Release &amp; Configure \u2014 Jenkins, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, GitLab, GitHub Actions<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Out of these \u2014 Jenkins and Docker can be excellent skills to have, and\u00a0official certification in these tools can create a wealth of opportunities<strong><b>.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stack_5%E2%80%94_Cloud_automation\"><\/span><strong><b>Stack 5\u2014 Cloud automation<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Cloud automation services simplify provisioning and managing infrastructure, deploying test automation code, automating test processes, and monitoring your tests and infrastructure performance.<\/p>\n<p>There are several cloud providers in the market like AWS, Azure, Google, Alibaba, etc. Out of these, AWS leads the cloud with a 32% market share, and during these pandemic days, the demand for cloud automation has grown rapidly.<\/p>\n<p>As an automation developer\/lead\/architect, you do not have to focus on 300+ services available; instead, the following mandatory services can enable your career growth:<\/p>\n<p><em><i>AWS Services \u2014 EC2, S3, Lambda, SNS, Glacier, RDS, VPC<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Significantly, the AWS services above can help you run your automation tests \u2014 both front and back-end \u2014 in DevOps mode and a highly scalable and cost-effective environment.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Wrapping_up\"><\/span><strong><b>Wrapping up<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Many of the companies are now implementing automation testing as part of their quality assurance and testing strategy which makes the test automation skills most demanding in the present market.<\/p>\n<p>With automation testing, we can get the higher test coverage and increased testing speed. If you are looking for a job as a test automation engineer or QA engineer, you should definitely learn<a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/full-stack-automation-certification-training-course.html\">\u00a0full stack automation training in Chennai<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"5015\" data-end=\"5080\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQs\"><\/span><strong>FAQs<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\t<div class=\"tlfaq\" id=\"tlfaq-10589f5a-7d69-4d1b-9b8d-97f6f98d53c6\"\n\t     data-single-open=\"1\">\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"tlfaq__items\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"FAQ\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<details class=\"tlfaq__item\" open id=\"tlfaq-10589f5a-7d69-4d1b-9b8d-97f6f98d53c6-0\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<summary class=\"tlfaq__question\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__qtext\">What is the best roadmap to become a test automation engineer?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"tlfaq__answer\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tStart with one programming language, learn UI automation fundamentals, add API automation skills, and finally integrate everything into a CI pipeline with proper reporting.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<details class=\"tlfaq__item\"  id=\"tlfaq-10589f5a-7d69-4d1b-9b8d-97f6f98d53c6-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<summary class=\"tlfaq__question\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__qtext\">Should I learn Selenium or Playwright first in 2026?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"tlfaq__answer\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tChoose based on your target job market. Selenium is widely used in many enterprise environments, while Playwright is strong for modern CI stability. Focus on automation fundamentals regardless of the tool.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<details class=\"tlfaq__item\"  id=\"tlfaq-10589f5a-7d69-4d1b-9b8d-97f6f98d53c6-2\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<summary class=\"tlfaq__question\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__qtext\">What skills matter more than tools in automation testing?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"tlfaq__answer\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSkills such as test design, debugging ability, reliability in CI environments, clean framework structure, and clear reporting artifacts matter more than simply knowing a specific tool.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<details class=\"tlfaq__item\"  id=\"tlfaq-10589f5a-7d69-4d1b-9b8d-97f6f98d53c6-3\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<summary class=\"tlfaq__question\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__qtext\">How many projects do I need to become job-ready?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"tlfaq__answer\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA strong baseline includes one UI automation framework, one API automation suite, a CI pipeline setup, and clear test reports demonstrating your automation skills.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<details class=\"tlfaq__item\"  id=\"tlfaq-10589f5a-7d69-4d1b-9b8d-97f6f98d53c6-4\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<summary class=\"tlfaq__question\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__qtext\">What should an automation tester learn about DevOps?<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tlfaq__icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"tlfaq__answer\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAutomation testers should understand how tests run in CI pipelines, how to analyze failures, how to manage test data and environments, and how to maintain deterministic and reliable test runs.\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n\t\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the best roadmap to become a test automation engineer?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Start with one programming language, learn UI automation fundamentals, add API automation skills, and finally integrate everything into a CI pipeline with proper reporting.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Should I learn Selenium or Playwright first in 2026?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Choose based on your target job market. 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Focus on automation fundamentals regardless of the tool.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What skills matter more than tools in automation testing?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Skills such as test design, debugging ability, reliability in CI environments, clean framework structure, and clear reporting artifacts matter more than simply knowing a specific tool.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many projects do I need to become job-ready?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"A strong baseline includes one UI automation framework, one API automation suite, a CI pipeline setup, and clear test reports demonstrating your automation skills.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What should an automation tester learn about DevOps?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Automation testers should understand how tests run in CI pipelines, how to analyze failures, how to manage test data and environments, and how to maintain deterministic and reliable test runs.\"}}]}\t\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<h5><strong>We Also Provide Training In:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/selenium-automation-certification-training-course.html\"><strong>Advanced Selenium Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/playwright.html\"><strong>Playwright Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/genai-qa-engineers-training-course.html\"><strong>Gen AI Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/aws-cloud-architect-certification-training-course.html\"><strong>AWS Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/rest-api-testing-certification-training-course.html\"><strong>REST API Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/full-stack-developer-certification-training-course.html\"><strong>Full Stack Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/appium-mobile-automation-certification-training-course.html\"><strong>Appium Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/dev-ops-master-certification-training-course.html\"><strong>DevOps Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/course\/apache-jmeter-testing-training-course.html\"><strong>JMeter Performance Training<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h6><strong>Author&#8217;s Bio<\/strong>:<\/h6>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2404 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Untitled-design.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Untitled-design.png 250w, https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Untitled-design-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Untitled-design-96x96.png 96w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As CEO of TestLeaf, I\u2019m dedicated to transforming software testing by empowering individuals with real-world skills and advanced technology. With 24+ years in software engineering, I lead our mission to shape local talent into global software professionals. Join us in redefining the future of test engineering and making a lasting impact in the tech world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Babu Manickam<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/in.linkedin.com\/in\/babu-manickam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/linkedin.png\" alt=\"LinkedIn Logo\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Test Automation skills are most demanding in the present market. Most of the Senior QA leaders are advising against choosing test automation engineering as a career path and becoming QA champions in their organization. In this blog we will give a complete automation testing roadmap A functional automation career in 2026 is built on &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/career-roadmap-for-functional-test-automation-developers\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Career RoadMap for Functional Test Automation Developers<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"right-sidebar","site-content-layout":"plain-container","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[941,102],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-automation","category-general","tag-roadmap","tag-software-testing-course"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9477,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/9477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testleaf.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}