Lead Performance Test Engineer

Job Title: Lead Performance Engineer (Cloud-Native SaaS Platform)

Location: Nashik / Pune Experience Level: Senior (710 Years Relevant Experience in Performance Engineering) Reports To: QE Manager

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A. Position Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced and technically strong Lead Performance Engineer to design, implement, and govern the performance engineering practices across our multi-product, cloud-native SaaS platform. This role demands expertise in Frontend, Backend, Microservices, and Kubernetes-based architectures — with a clear focus on performance-first principles across all layers of the tech stack.

The ideal candidate will own end-to-end performance strategy for the platform, mentor embedded testers across product lines, and drive a robust DevPerfOps culture aligned with modern cloud practices.

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B. Key Responsibilities

1. Performance Strategy and Governance

• Define and implement a centralized performance engineering strategy
• Develop performance testing frameworks and reusable assets for Frontend (UI), Backend (APIs/DB), and Microservices (Containerized Apps).
• Establish baseline KPIs (latency, throughput, scalability) aligned with business SLAs.

2. Test Design and Execution

• Architect and automate performance tests for Web Applications, Microservices APIs, and Database Systems.
• Execute Load, Stress, Spike, Soak, and Scalability testing across pre-production and production-like environments.
• Simulate real-world user load scenarios including multi-region, multi-browser patterns.

3. Cloud-Native Performance Engineering

• Drive performance validation on Azure cloud infrastructure with deep knowledge of Kubernetes, AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service), Docker containers.
• Optimize resource configurations (pods, autoscaling, ingress rules) to ensure resilient, high-performing clusters.
• Collaborate with DevOps to fine-tune container orchestration, networking, caching layers (Redis, CDN), and database sharding.

4. DevPerfOps and Observability

• Integrate performance validation into CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps.
• Leverage AppInsights, Grafana, Prometheus for live telemetry, trend analysis, and early performance risk detection.
• Establish automated alerts and feedback loops for performance degradations post-deployment.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Architects, Dev Leads, and Infra teams to triage system-level bottlenecks.
• Conduct deep-dive root cause analyses on API slowdowns, memory leaks, DB deadlocks, UI rendering lags, etc.
• Present performance findings, risk assessments, and optimization plans to leadership teams.

6. Mentorship and Scaling

• Mentor PL-based testers and interns in performance engineering techniques and tooling.
• Drive workshops and brown-bag sessions to scale performance-first culture across scrum teams.

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C. Required Skills & Experience

A. Core Technical Expertise:

• Minimum 7+ years hands-on experience in performance engineering roles.
• Strong expertise in K6 (TypeScript scripting), JMeter, Postman for frontend and backend performance testing.
• Deep understanding of Microservices architecture, Kubernetes (AKS preferred), container networking, and service meshes.
• Solid experience in Azure Cloud or equivalent cloud platforms.
• Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps preferred) and scripting (JavaScript/TypeScript, Bash).

B. Performance Tuning and Analysis:

• Proven track record of identifying and tuning performance bottlenecks across applications, APIs, databases, and cloud infra.
• Expertise in resource profiling, memory management, thread dumps analysis, and latency optimization.

C. Observability and Monitoring:

• Experience with telemetry tools like AppInsights, Grafana, Prometheus, Kibana, etc.
• Strong grasp of setting up performance dashboards, alerts, and trend analysis mechanisms.

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D. Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Certifications in performance testing (e.g., CPPT, CSTP), cloud certifications (Azure/AWS), Kubernetes administration (CKA/CKAD) are highly desirable.
• Familiarity with mobile app performance testing and frontend tools like Lighthouse, WebPageTest is a plus.