David Burns
About David Burns
David Burns is the Head of Open Source at BrowserStack and an Invited Expert at W3C, with extensive experience in browser automation and open-source projects.
Title
David Burns is currently the Head of Open Source at BrowserStack and serves as an Invited Expert and Chair of the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group at W3C.
Professional Experience
David Burns began his career at Diners Club as an After-Hours Operator, working there for two years. He then moved on to Portman Building Society as an Insurance Operations Support Analyst for one year. At smartFOCUS Digital, he served as a Software Tester for 10 months before becoming the Lead Test Engineer at smartFOCUS for three years. After working briefly as a Selenium Consultant, he joined Mozilla as a Lead Software Engineer and later became an Engineering Manager, staying with the company for a total of seven years. Currently, he contributes to Selenium as a Core Committer.
Education
David Burns studied IT at the University of Johannesburg, earning a BSc degree. He then pursued further education at The Open University, where he achieved a BA (Hons) in Business Studies with ICT.
Leadership in Browser Testing
In his role at the W3C, David Burns chairs the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group. His work focuses on the WebDriver and WebDriver-BiDi specifications, coordinating with multiple companies and stakeholders to enhance browser automation. He has also led the implementation of Puppeteer and Chrome Debug Protocol for automation purposes.
Publications on Selenium
David Burns is the author of two books on Selenium: 'Selenium 1.0 Testing Tools: Beginners Guide' and 'Selenium 2 Testing Tools: Beginners Guide'. These works reflect his extensive knowledge and commitment to the Selenium Open Source Project, where he continues to contribute as a core committer.