Performance Test Engineer - k6 / JMeter

Job Location: Plano, TX
Job Type: Contract

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Performance Test Engineer with strong hands-on expertise in Grafana k6 and Apache JMeter to support performance engineering, application scalability, and optimization initiatives across enterprise applications and services.

The ideal candidate will have 5-12 years of overall IT experience, including 3-5 years of hands-on experience with k6, along with strong proficiency in JMeter, API performance testing, scripting, workload modeling, and performance analysis.

This role involves designing and executing comprehensive performance testing strategies, identifying application and infrastructure bottlenecks, analyzing system behavior under varying workload conditions, and collaborating with development and engineering teams to improve application reliability, responsiveness, and scalability.

Note: Grafana k6 is the primary performance testing tool for this position, while Apache JMeter is a secondary but required skill.

Key Responsibilities

Performance Test Design & Execution

• Design, develop, maintain, and execute automated performance test scripts using Grafana k6 and Apache JMeter.
  
• Develop and implement performance testing strategies covering load, stress, spike, soak, endurance, and scalability testing.
  
• Conduct performance testing for enterprise web applications, RESTful APIs, microservices, and backend services.
  
• Design realistic workload models to simulate concurrent users, transaction volumes, peak traffic, and production-like conditions.
  
• Define performance benchmarks, testing objectives, service-level expectations, and acceptance criteria.
  
• Execute performance tests across different environments to evaluate application stability, reliability, and scalability.
  

Performance Monitoring & Bottleneck Analysis

• Analyze application performance metrics, including response times, latency, throughput, error rates, CPU utilization, memory consumption, and resource utilization.
  
• Identify performance bottlenecks across application, API, database, network, and infrastructure layers.
  
• Investigate application logs, monitoring dashboards, and performance test results to diagnose system performance issues.
  
• Collaborate with developers, DevOps engineers, and infrastructure teams to troubleshoot performance-related problems.
  
• Recommend performance improvements based on test findings and system behavior.
  
• Prepare detailed performance testing reports documenting results, risks, bottlenecks, and optimization recommendations.
  

API & Application Performance Testing

• Conduct end-to-end performance testing of REST APIs, web applications, microservices, and distributed backend systems.
  
• Validate API response times, transaction throughput, error handling, and application behavior under varying workloads.
  
• Apply knowledge of HTTP/HTTPS protocols, authentication mechanisms, headers, cookies, sessions, and request-response communication.
  
• Evaluate application performance under peak traffic, sustained workloads, and high-concurrency scenarios.
  
• Support application performance optimization and scalability validation across enterprise systems.
  

CI/CD Integration & Test Automation

• Integrate automated performance testing into CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps.
  
• Develop and maintain reusable performance testing frameworks and automation scripts.
  
• Utilize JavaScript, Groovy, or Python for test scripting, automation, and execution.
  
• Support continuous performance testing and benchmarking throughout the software development lifecycle.
  
• Collaborate with engineering teams to establish performance testing best practices and automation standards.
  

Cloud & Infrastructure Performance Testing

• Execute performance tests against applications hosted on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
  
• Support performance testing of cloud-native applications, containerized services, and Kubernetes-based environments.
  
• Evaluate application scalability and infrastructure performance under increasing workloads.
  
• Analyze system resource utilization and application behavior in distributed cloud environments.
  
• Contribute to capacity planning, performance benchmarking, and application release readiness.
  

Required Qualifications & Technical Skills

• 5-12 years of overall IT experience, with a strong background in performance testing and engineering.
  
• 3-5 years of recent hands-on experience with Grafana k6, including JavaScript-based scripting, test execution, workload modeling, and performance analysis.
  
• Strong hands-on experience with Apache JMeter for performance test development and execution.
  
• Proven expertise in load, stress, spike, soak, endurance, and scalability testing.
  
• Strong experience performing performance testing for REST APIs, web applications, microservices, and backend services.
  
• Solid understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols, API authentication, headers, cookies, sessions, and networking fundamentals.
  
• Proficiency in JavaScript, Groovy, or Python for performance testing and automation.
  
• Experience analyzing response times, throughput, latency, error rates, application logs, and infrastructure metrics.
  
• Familiarity with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps.
  
• Experience working with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
  
• Working knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, or similar container orchestration environments.
  
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on application development or automation experience using Java or Python.
  
• Experience working with cloud-native applications, distributed systems, and microservices architectures.
  
• Familiarity with application performance monitoring, observability, and infrastructure monitoring tools.
  
• Experience supporting performance benchmarking, capacity planning, and enterprise-scale application optimization.
  
• Knowledge of performance engineering best practices and continuous performance testing methodologies.
  

Interview Process:

• All interviews need to be onsite
• Round 1st - Coding Test (coding based on a scenario) - In person Interview.
• Round 2nd - In person Interview - In person Interview.

Pay Range: $55/hr - $65/hr

The specific compensation for this position will be determined by a number of factors, including the scope, complexity and location of the role as well as the cost of labor in the market; the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; and other conditions of employment. Our full-time consultants have access to benefits including medical, dental, vision and 401K contributions as well as any other PTO, sick leave, and other benefits mandated by appliable state or localities where you reside or work.

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