The New Skill Stack for SDETs in the Agentic Era
The SDET role was built for this moment. A Software Development Engineer in Test is, first and foremost, a software engineer who lives in the quality space — owning automation frameworks, shaping test strategy, and making sure teams get fast, trustworthy feedback when they ship.
In the first half of this session, we'll unpack those "foundational SDET muscles": coding in the test stack, designing high-signal tests, debugging messy systems, and wiring everything into CI/CD. We'll look at how those skills already translate into the AI world and walk through simple upgrades you can make to your existing setup so it's ready for agents and AI-powered tooling.
The second half introduces the agentic skill stack — prompt engineering for testing, data curation, model literacy, and observability for autonomous agents — and breaks each one down into a short, practical learning path. You'll leave with a clear picture of how the SDET you are today evolves into a "quality architect" for AI-driven systems, without throwing away the experience you've already spent years building.
Key Takeaways:
See which core SDET strengths — automation, test design, debugging, CI/CD — directly power AI-era quality work.
Understand the new agentic skill stack: prompt engineering, data curation, model literacy, and observability for AI systems.
Get compact learning paths for each new skill, grounded in real SDET workflows instead of abstract AI theory.
Walk away with a clear path to become a "quality architect" who designs and governs AI-driven testing, not just writes tests.
About the speaker
Adeel Mansoor:
Adeel Mansoor is a Director of Engineering focused on platform and product quality, leading teams that build reliable, data-driven services and testing infrastructure. With over a decade of experience in automation, CI/CD, and Python-based test frameworks across backend, frontend, and performance domains, he partners closely with cross-functional leaders to ship resilient products at scale. Adeel also creates practical "AI for Engineers" content on his YouTube channel, AdeelOnTech, helping developers and SDETs adopt AI-powered tooling in their day-to-day workflows.
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