Title: Performance Test Engineer
Location: Vienna VA (Hybrid 3x)
Duration: Initial 6-month contract with extensions
Compensation: $50-56/hr
Work Requirements: , Holders

Summary

The Digital Delivery team is responsible for engineering and supporting modern web and mobile applications through scalable user interfaces, microservices, and cloud-based solutions.

The Performance Test Engineer will lead end-to-end performance testing efforts to ensure application scalability, reliability, and production readiness. This role requires hands-on expertise in performance engineering, test automation, workload modeling, bottleneck analysis, and performance optimization. The successful candidate will partner with QA leadership, development teams, and stakeholders to implement performance testing best practices, identify risks early, and drive continuous improvement across multiple initiatives.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in software testing with a focus on performance engineering.
• Strong knowledge of performance testing methodologies, including load, stress, endurance, and scalability testing.
• Experience defining performance baselines, SLAs, and workload models.
• Hands-on experience with performance testing tools such as NeoLoad or similar platforms.
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools such as Azure App Insights, Splunk, or equivalent.
• Proficiency with Azure DevOps or similar test management tools.
• Solid understanding of SDLC, STLC, Agile methodologies, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
• Experience with scripting and automation, including JavaScript-based performance test development.

Required Experience & Skills

Performance Engineering

• Design, develop, and execute performance testing strategies and scripts.
• Conduct load, stress, endurance, and scalability testing.
• Analyze performance results to identify bottlenecks, constraints, and optimization opportunities.
• Define realistic performance goals and service-level objectives using production insights.
• Identify performance risks and recommend actionable improvements before production deployment.

Technical Analysis & Automation

• Develop, maintain, and enhance automated performance testing solutions.
• Create repeatable and scalable testing processes.
• Perform root-cause analysis across applications, services, and infrastructure layers.
• Utilize monitoring and observability tools to assess system health and troubleshoot issues.
• Support performance validation within microservices, containerized, and cloud-native environments.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Partner with cross-functional teams to integrate performance testing early in the SDLC.
• Support QA leadership with planning, prioritization, and execution of performance testing initiatives.
• Mentor junior team members and promote testing best practices.
• Communicate testing results, risks, and recommendations to stakeholders and leadership.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of performance testing frameworks, standards, and processes.

Nice to Have

• Experience with dependency mapping, service virtualization, and mocking tools (WireMock preferred).
• Experience with Postman.
• Understanding of functional testing and SDET practices.
• Experience supporting distributed microservices architectures and cloud-native platforms.
• Knowledge of shift-left testing and early performance validation strategies.