Digital businesses are challenged by modern users more than ever. Their ability to remain competitive, retain their loyal customers, and attract new ones heavily depends on how fast they can release new features and respond to constantly shifting demands. In their strive to accomplish this goal, more and more companies try to bridge the gap between development and QA by bringing aboard experts with a rare mix of qualifications.
Today, we invited Iuliia Kozlova, one of the first Kubestronauts in Russia, to share her story of becoming a leading QA and DevOps expert. You will learn what sets an expert apart from an engineer, where to start if you want to work on building products used by millions of people, how professional certification can contribute to your career, and other ways to make a name for yourself in the industry.
Welcome, Iuliia! In the Commonwealth of Independent States, you are known as one of the top QA/DevOps specialists in the IT industry, involved in national‑level projects, and also as one of only three people in Russia to hold the prestigious Kubestronaut status. Could you tell our readers how you managed to achieve such recognition in the industry?
A good example is the Zvuk project. Zvuk is a global streaming service whose development requires new solutions and exceptional skills. Thanks to my work at the intersection of DevOps and QA we didn’t have to choose between release velocity and quality and were able to significantly reduce the product’s time‑to‑market without degrading the user experience, which gave us a competitive advantage. Working on such multi‑layered projects requires paying attention to quality metrics not only for individual services, but for the entire system as a whole as well. This is where my previous experience on large‑scale projects such as Rutube and Sber played a pivotal role. And my high level of expertise in what seem like completely different roles made my presence uniquely important for the project, since these positions imply different toolchains and skill sets, which are very rarely seen in a single specialist. The value of such employees is especially high now that there is a mass outflow of highly qualified specialists.
What impact did working on such projects have on your visibility? How did you notice it increasing?
It was precisely thanks to my visibility in the industry and my certification achievements that I received a number of attractive offers - both job offers and invitations to evaluate others’ work. For example, in 2024 I was invited to be on the jury of a hackathon dedicated to developing an AI agent that could provide psychological support, and another competition focused on algorithmic programming. This month, another event is planned where I will participate as a judge - a summit of the international AITEX experts association, where specialists in business analytics, IT products, and IT infrastructure operations will present their projects.
Another role that I found very interesting was that of technical proofreader/reviewer for Packt and Manning publishing houses. The opportunity to work with world‑class publishers and contribute to the industry, as well as the high level of responsibility, were very appealing to me. Technical proofreaders work at the manuscript‑writing stage and must have expertise on par with or higher than the authors to guarantee the quality of the final product. For example, on the Packt book (Learn OpenShift, Second Edition), I worked closely with the authors, corrected a number of critical errors in the instructions that could have led to system failure if readers applied them in a real environment, and contributed valuable recommendations from my own experience. For the Manning book (Acing the Certified Kubernetes Exam, Second Edition), I developed my own way of solving a problem that affected a critical Kubernetes subsystem. Both the authors and the publishers themselves noted how critical my expertise in Kubernetes and OpenShift was for these projects.
Last but not least, I’ve also published a number of scientific articles on quality assurance, DevOps, and cloud technologies, with the most recent one being about ensuring quality and resilience of applications using Kubernetes with another article on the way.
But projects of this caliber are extremely rare at the national scale. Would it be fair to say that reaching your level of expertise is unthinkable without experience at giants like Rutube and Sber?
Absolutely. There are many courses on the market these days that promise to turn you into a top‑class specialist in a few months, and there are also a ton of free learning materials online. However, even flawless theoretical knowledge plus launching products in a “sandbox” will not expose you to the problems and tasks that arise on large projects. For example, building a CI/CD pipeline in an organization on Sber’s scale implies integrating with many other services, writing automated tests for numerous different subsystems, and implementing a mechanism to pause the pipeline before release until a proper peer review is conducted and approval is obtained from release managers. Therefore, unfortunately, it’s not uncommon in hiring to see a paradoxical situation where the business is looking for a specialist with skills that can only be acquired on a project of a similar scale - of which there are indeed very few.
After reading this article and being inspired by your achievements, our readers will surely want to know how they can get into similar engagements. Is it actually possible to get there “from the street,” through the standard hiring process?
Very unlikely I’m afraid. Businesses with projects of this complexity seek only highly qualified specialists who have already proven themselves as top experts in the field. This is mainly due to the very high level of responsibility and the cost of mistakes - both financial and reputational - that such projects entail. So at the beginning you will have to prove your qualifications and readiness for tasks at this level. A good option is to join an outstaffing company, where you will have the opportunity to quickly build up the necessary skills and apply them on several projects; after that your chances of getting aboard a national‑level project increase. In addition to technical growth, it’s also important not to forget about so‑called soft skills: the ability to work in a team, communicate information to non‑technical staff (especially those who make strategic decisions), and build useful relationships. Many people overlook this valuable skill. I owe a significant part of my success precisely to my ability to establish rapport with very different people and involve them in solving work tasks.
Judging by your projects, your skills go far beyond those of a typical QA specialist. How did you manage to build such a unique set of competencies?
Great question! From the very beginning of my career in IT, I realized that it’s impossible to become a true professional if you focus only on your narrow set of responsibilities. Given the national scale and complexity of the projects I’ve been involved in, I had to work with a large number of very diverse products and tools. As my knowledge and experience with Docker and Kubernetes grew, I began to realize the need to organize and systematize all that information. Certification was a logical way to do that and it would also allow me to stand out from others, which is important for recognition in the field. There was also an element of challenge - I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of meeting all the requirements of the program and obtaining the corresponding status.
Kubernetes is not only the market-leading orchestrator of containerized applications, but a whole ecosystem of tools that extend its capabilities. The development and oversight of this ecosystem is handled by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which in turn is a non-profit subsidiary of the Linux Foundation. The latter has its own certification program, including more than 10 certificates in technologies such as Linux, Kubernetes, Prometheus, Cilium, and Istio. I chose the Kubernetes exams specifically because of their hands-on orientation (each exam is a set of complex tasks in a virtual environment, not just questions) and vendor-agnostic nature. In the Kubernetes world there are a number of companies that sell their solutions based on Kubernetes with their own specifics - for example, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition, and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). My goal was to obtain certificates in the core technology so that I could qualify for any projects where it is used in one form or another.
Sounds quite impressive. Could you tell us more about the process itself? How difficult were the exams?
Any ambitious undertaking requires proper planning and discipline. The Kubernetes certification program consists of five exams that test your ability to solve tasks related to platform administration, application deployment, and security at various levels. At the time of me taking the exams, one of them had undergone an extensive update, which increased its difficulty to the point that achieving a passing score within allotted time became simply impossible for many without practical experience with specific Kubernetes components - this was noted by all candidates in online discussions.
Nevertheless, I passed all the exams successfully and on the first attempt, thanks to my unique expertise built on nationwide projects. This earned me the Kubestronaut status in September 2025, which is awarded upon successful completion of all five exams in Kubernetes and related technologies. As of today, there are about 3,000 holders of this status worldwide, of which only three are in Russia, including me. I should note that even after obtaining the long‑awaited certificate, I had to challenge CNCF’s initial refusal to place me on the website and map listing all holders and their locations, which was related to the political situation around Russia. But my efforts paid off, and in the end I was listed first. I’d like to extend special thanks to Catherine Paganini and Nancy Chauhan, CNCF ambassadors who helped me develop an appeal strategy.
Thank you, Iuliia! It was very interesting to hear about such an unusual path first‑hand from such a high‑level professional. Your experience will definitely be of interest to our readers.