Daniël de Ridder. (Image: AI-enhanced)
Inspired has appointed Daniël de Ridder as Sales Consultant Europe, strengthening the company’s presence in mainland Europe and giving Dutch clients direct access to its quality engineering, testing and assurance capabilities.
Based near Eindhoven, De Ridder will initially focus on the Netherlands before extending his remit across mainland Europe. He will work directly with organisations to bring solutions for improving their quality and testing, identify (business) risks in the software delivery life cycle and develop practical improvement plans. Engagements will typically begin with an initial discovery before progressing to consulting, specialist testing services or additional quality assurance capacity.
His immediate sector priorities include banking, insurance and wealth management, retail, logistics, energy and utilities. These are areas where complex technology environments, pressure on IT budgets and shortages of experienced quality engineering professionals are making it harder for organisations to maintain delivery speed without increasing operational risk.
De Ridder brings more than 17 years of experience in quality assurance and software testing sales. His career includes testing and QA portfolio roles at Sogeti, followed by senior commercial positions at Expleo, formerly known as SQS. He has worked with enterprise organisations across manufacturing, government, financial services, insurance and energy, including leading Dutch companies such as ASML and DAF.
“I’m a firm believer that quality is a key enabler for companies to speed up their time to market or bring costs down,” says De Ridder. “Quality should be injected from the start. It’s not just about testing; it’s about building quality into delivery from the beginning.”
A central part of his role will be helping clients make considered use of AI in quality engineering. While many organisations see AI as a route to completing more work in less time, De Ridder says introducing it without the right operating model, skills and controls can create additional work and risk. His focus will therefore be on identifying where AI can support delivery, how it should be governed and which capabilities companies need to use it effectively.
Clients in the Netherlands will also be able to draw on Inspired’s local quality engineering specialists supported by colleagues in South Africa and the UK. The shared time-zone model with South Africa gives European teams access to scarce skills while retaining close day-to-day collaboration and managing delivery costs. As the Dutch client base grows, Inspired plans to expand local capability and establish a formal presence in the Netherlands.
De Ridder’s appointment follows Inspired’s recent brand evolution from Inspired Testing. The wider business now brings together software quality, AI assurance, compliance and specialist recruitment, while retaining testing and quality engineering as the foundation of its client work.
Organisations in the Netherlands and mainland Europe that want to discuss their quality engineering, testing or AI assurance requirements can visit www.inspiredquality.com.
