Leela Thimmana

Leela is a Quality Engineer and AI validation Manager with nearly two decades of experience in shift left testing practices, test automation and engineering AI powered applications evaluation. She specializes in delivering quality initiatives across enterprise applications, leading QE teams, establishing quality operating models and helping teams build reliable, compliant, and high-quality technology products.

Before joining Accordion, Leela held progressive QE leadership roles at National Life Group, where she led product and application teams in delivering quality outcomes. Her work included managing quality initiatives for ERP programs and leading the Lawson-to-Workday transformation. As an early adopter of AI, Leela was also part of PwC’s AI Lab, where she evaluated ML and LLM model technologies for tax technology teams. Her experience included testing chatbots, AI annotation tools, Optical Character Recognition, speech services, and Gen AI solutions, while maintaining audit-readiness controls. Leela led large-scale quality initiatives across enterprise applications and platforms at Toyota Financial Services. Throughout her career, she has trained many QE teams, managed third-party vendors, established centers of excellence, developed test automation strategies, and driven sustainable CAPA improvements.

Leela views concurrent engineering as both a mindset and a core collaboration principle that brings together expertise across disciplines and enables teams to work in parallel. By combining cross-functional collaboration with AI-powered tools, engineers and testers can analyze large volumes of data, simulate complex scenarios more accurately and efficiently, iterate rapidly, identify issues earlier, and incorporate feedback faster.

Leela holds a Masters in Information Technology and Bachelors in Computer Engineering. She is also a certified CSM (certified scrum master) and SAFe Agilist.