Sr. Performance Tester

Job Description
Client is seeking a Performance Test Engineer with extensive knowledge in both Tricentis NeoLoad and LoadRunner. The selected candidate will lead and perform performance testing, performance engineering, and scalability analysis for enterprise applications, cloud-native platforms, data warehouse solutions, and data lake ecosystems. Defines performance test strategies, designs realistic workload models, develops and executes performance tests using tools such as NeoLoad, and analyzes system behavior across application, database, infrastructure, and cloud layers. Collaborates with product, development, architecture, infrastructure, and operations teams to identify performance risks, establish baselines, validate non-functional requirements, and provide actionable recommendations to improve throughput, reliability, resiliency, and user experience.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
- 25% Develop and execute end-to-end performance test strategies for enterprise applications, AWS-native applications, APIs, microservices, data warehouse platforms, and data lake pipelines. Define performance objectives, workload models, test data needs, test schedules, and entry and exit criteria. Design and execute load, stress, endurance, scalability, resiliency, and capacity tests using NeoLoad and other approved enterprise performance testing tools. Automate performance test execution within CI/CD pipelines to support repeatable validation, early performance feedback, and release readiness.
- 25% Analyze performance and resiliency test results across application, database, middleware, network, cloud, and infrastructure layers. Monitor and evaluate key metrics such as response time, throughput, transaction volume, CPU, memory, I/O, queue depth, latency, error rates, auto-scaling behavior, failover behavior, recovery time, system recovery, and service degradation patterns. Identify bottlenecks, resiliency gaps, and performance risks, compile findings, and communicate clear recommendations to technology, product, and leadership stakeholders.
- 25% Support performance engineering for cloud modernization, data platform migrations, and high-volume processing solutions. Validate performance, scalability, and resiliency of AWS services, cloud-native architectures, containerized workloads, data ingestion jobs, ETL/ELT pipelines, PostgreSQL and other database platforms, data warehouse workloads, and data lake integrations. Partner with architecture and engineering teams to recommend tuning opportunities, capacity improvements, resiliency improvements, automation enhancements, and long-term performance solutions.
- 25% Provide technical leadership for performance testing engagements supporting critical, high-visibility applications and platforms. Lead defect triage and root-cause analysis for performance issues, support production incident analysis where performance is a contributing factor, and help establish performance baselines, dashboards, and reporting standards. Mentor team members on performance testing best practices, NeoLoad scripting and execution, cloud observability, test automation integration, CI/CD performance test automation, and continuous performance testing within delivery pipelines.

Although primarily remote, our client does meet onsite 1-2x per month in their Reston VA office. This position also requires a F2F interview in Reston VA as well.

Required Skills
- Education Level: Bachelor's Degree. Education Details: Information Technology or Computer Science
- Experience: 5 years experience in performance testing, resiliency testing, performance engineering, or quality engineering for enterprise applications, including hands-on experience with workload modeling, performance test design, resiliency test scenarios, failover validation, test execution, monitoring, bottleneck analysis, recovery analysis, and results reporting.
- Experience with Tricentis NeoLoad & LoadRunner
- Strong Cloud / CI/CD performance test automation, cloud platforms such as AWS, database performance validation, and large-scale data warehouse or data lake environments.
- Ability to communicate technical requirements to all levels of expertise.
- Knowledge and understanding of performance testing lifecycle, SDLC, Agile delivery, and non-functional requirements validation.,
- Proficient with integrating performance testing into complex enterprise systems, cloud-native applications, APIs, microservices, data warehouse platforms, and data lake pipelines.
- Knowledge of scripting, programming, or query languages used in performance testing and analysis, such as JavaScript, Java, Groovy, Python, SQL, or shell scripting.
- Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
- Knowledge of cloud technologies with emphasis on AWS-native applications, cloud scalability, auto-scaling behavior, monitoring, observability, resiliency testing, failover validation, recovery analysis, and capacity validation.
- Knowledge of database and data platform technologies, including SQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, data warehouse platforms, data lake environments, ETL/ELT pipelines, and large-scale data ingestion performance.
- Knowledge of performance engineering best practices, resiliency testing practices, cloud performance patterns, agile methodologies, observability, CI/CD pipelines, automated performance test gates, and continuous performance testing practices.
- Knowledge of test automation practices, test data management, workload modeling, API testing, service virtualization, CI/CD performance test automation, and integration of performance tests into automated delivery pipelines.,
- Strong experience with NeoLoad or comparable performance testing tools, cloud monitoring tools, deployment/continuous integration/continuous testing/continuous delivery processes, CI/CD performance test automation, and performance reporting dashboards.
- Knowledge of Code quality and promotion practices