Lead Performance Tester (IC Leadership Role)

8+ years of hands-on experience in performance, load, and scalability testing for large-scale or enterprise-grade systems. Advanced proficiency with multiple performance testing tools, including: JMeter, k6, Gatling, LoadRunner Enterprise, Locust, NeoLoad, or BlazeMeter. Expertise in test scripting and automation using Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or Groovy. Deep understanding of distributed architectures — microservices, APIs, message queues, and async processing. Proficiency with profiling and analysis tools (YourKit, JProfiler, VisualVM, Chrome DevTools, perf, flame graphs). Proven ability to correlate and interpret metrics from APM platforms (Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, AppDynamics) and system monitors (Grafana, Prometheus, CloudWatch). Solid grasp of network and infrastructure fundamentals: TCP/IP, HTTP/2, CDN behavior, caching, load balancing, and service mesh patterns. Experience defining SLAs, SLOs, and performance baselines, and embedding them into pipelines as measurable quality gates. Strong analytical mindset to turn high-volume telemetry data into clear narratives, actionable insights, and capacity forecasts. Git proficiency and familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or CircleCI).

Architect and lead enterprise-grade performance testing frameworks across multiple distributed systems, APIs, SDKs, and service integrations. Design, execute, and interpret performance, load, soak, and stress tests. Build reusable performance harnesses using tools like JMeter, k6, Gatling, Locust, or LoadRunner Enterprise. Author and maintain the Performance Testing Runbook. Instrument systems for observability using APM and monitoring tools (Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, Prometheus, ELK, OpenTelemetry). Perform deep-dive bottleneck analysis at every layer of the stack. Work directly with backend, DevOps, and SRE teams to benchmark system capacity and analyze regressions. Integrate performance metrics into CI/CD, enforcing data-driven go/no-go gates. Mentor and influence QA, automation, and infrastructure engineers in performance engineering.