Performance Test Engineer

Job Title: Senior Performance Test Engineer Department: Quality Engineering Location: Cirencester, UK — Onsite minimum 3 days per week Reporting To: Head of Test / Delivery Manager Client Alignment: Wealth Management / Enterprise Digital Platforms Role Purpose We are seeking an experienced and hands-on Senior Performance Test Engineer to drive non-functional testing across core wealth management and enterprise platforms. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, developing, and executing end-to-end performance test strategies, identifying system bottlenecks, and ensuring high application availability, scalability, and resilience under peak loads. Key Responsibilities Performance Strategy & Execution: Define, design, and execute comprehensive non-functional test plans, including Load, Stress, Spike, Endurance, and Scalability testing across web applications, microservices, and API architectures.Performance Remediation: Own performance fixes with engineering teams, including JVM tuning, query/index optimization, thread/heap/GC analysis.Architecture Input: Influence system design for scalability during design reviews, rather than limiting performance validation to post-build testing.Capacity Planning: Drive cloud scalability and capacity decisions, including auto-scaling and resource sizing, based on performance test outcomes.Production Ownership: Support production performance monitoring and incident Root Cause Analysis (RCA).Scripting & Framework Development: Build, maintain, and optimize robust automated performance test scripts using Apache JMeter, BlazeMeter, HP LoadRunner, or k6.APM & Bottleneck Identification: Monitor and analyze server-side, database, and application metrics during test runs using APM tools such as AppDynamics, New Relic, AWS CloudWatch, or Dynatrace to isolate performance bottlenecks and degradation.CI/CD Integration: Integrate automated performance test suites into DevOps continuous deployment pipelines using Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or GitLab to enable early shift-left performance testing.AI & Modern Automation: Utilize AI-assisted testing tools, including Microsoft 365 Copilot and Generative AI, to accelerate test script generation, log analysis, and performance reporting.Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Solution Architects, DevOps Engineers, and client stakeholders to translate non-functional requirements (NFRs) into measurable performance KPIs.Reporting & Defect Management: Produce clear, actionable performance evaluation reports, document non-functional defects, and recommend tuning/remediation strategies to engineering teams. Required Skills & Qualifications Must-Have Experience: 8–10 years of hands-on experience in Performance Engineering and Non-Functional Quality Assurance.Domain Exposure: Financial Services, Wealth Management, Telecom, or Enterprise SaaS platforms.Core Tooling: Expert-level proficiency in JMeter, BlazeMeter, or HP LoadRunner.API Testing: Solid experience testing RESTful APIs and Web Services using Postman, SoapUI, or JMeter.APM / Monitoring: Direct experience with AppDynamics, New Relic, AWS CloudWatch, or native server profilers.Methodologies: Strong operational knowledge of Agile/Scrum delivery and shift-left performance practices.Communication: Excellent client-facing communication skills with experience presenting test results to technical and business stakeholders.Technical Tuning: Hands-on experience with query/code-level tuning, including SQL, JVM, or equivalent technology stacks.Cloud: Working knowledge of cloud capacity planning and scalability architecture across AWS/Azure. Nice-to-Have Experience working on Salesforce / Data Platform performance testing.Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS / Azure.Hands-on use of Generative AI / Copilot for testing productivity.ISTQB Technical Test Analyst or relevant Performance Testing certification.