Quality Assurance and Performance Architect I

Quality Assurance and Performance Architect I
Birmingham, AL or Atlanta (Hybrid, onsite Tuesday through Thursday)
12 month contract
Pay Rate: $60.00-$64.00/hr.

We are seeking a highly technical, proactive, and solution-oriented QA and Performance Architect to support our enterprise-wide quality and performance engineering efforts. This individual will play a dual role across QA and performance, contributing both strategically and tactically by architecting testing solutions, integrating tools, and ensuring high-quality software delivery. You've been both a doer and a thinker - someone who has been in the trenches writing scripts and debugging systems but now thrives helping others do it better. You're not expected to be the one scripting day in and day out, but you must be comfortable jumping in to help diagnose or unblock engineers with confidence. Your strategic guidance is just as important as your ability to get your hands dirty when needed.

Primary Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end QA and performance engineering solutions.
• Architect toolchains that integrate with CI/CD pipelines and developer workflows (e.g., GitHub, Harness).
• Lead the performance engineering strategy, leveraging tools like LoadRunner, JMeter, and Dynatrace.
• Contribute to and review testing strategies and plans for large-scale implementations.
• Partner with Enterprise Architects and Solution Architects to ensure QA and performance considerations are built in early ( "shift-left" mindset).
• Collaborate cross-functionally with platform engineering, site reliability engineering (SRE), QA, and performance testing teams.
• Champion quality best practices and continuous improvement across testing methodologies.
• Guide and mentor teams on test automation, performance tuning, and tooling optimization.

Performance Tools:

• LoadRunner (Enterprise and Developer editions - required)
• JMeter
• Dynatrace (preferred)

QA Tools:

• Tosca
• Selenium
• Postman
• Sauce Labs
• K2View (test data management)
• DevOps/Integration Tools:
• GitHub
• Harness
• Other CI/CD platforms

Required Skills:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Minimum of six (6) years in Performance Engineering, with at least two (2) years in roles such as Performance Architect, Application Architect, or Solution Architect, focusing on high-traffic, large-scale distributed systems, client-server architectures, both on-premises and cloud environments.

Hands-on experience with:

• LoadRunner scripting (must recall and use functions as needed).
• Dynatrace or equivalent APM tools for observability and performance debugging.
• Automation frameworks using Selenium or Playwright
• Programming/scripting in Java and/or C#.
• Strong troubleshooting ability with a bias toward jumping in and diagnosing issues.
• Comfortable working across multiple disciplines without deep specialization in only one.
• Strong communication and mentoring skills - able to guide less experienced engineers through problems.
• Experience working in large enterprise or regulated environments (e.g., banking, healthcare).
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipeline integration.
• Knowledge of test data management and service virtualization.

Bonus Skills:

• ISTQB or similar testing certifications are a plus.