Performance Engineering Architect (Airlines domain)

Position Overview

We are seeking an accomplished Performance Engineering Architect to lead the performance strategy for a large-scale Mainframe TPF and underlying tech stack, data files, services, business logic to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) transformation within the Airlines domain. The role demands a deep understanding of high-performance systems that require millisecond-level response accuracy, while collaborating with diverse teams to establish consistent frameworks, tools, and best practices that drive reliability and scalability across the transformation journey.

Key Responsibilities

1. Performance Strategy & Architecture

• Define the end-to-end performance engineering strategy for the Mainframe to GCP transformation initiative.
• Ensure airline applications meet stringent response time SLAs in the millisecond range.
• Architect scalable and high-performing cloud-native solutions capable of handling concurrent workloads typical in airline systems.

2. Collaboration & Leadership

• Work collaboratively with more than 90 agile teams, including architects, tech leads, product owners, and performance engineers.
• Act as the primary advisor for integrating performance best practices into the agile delivery lifecycle.
• Conduct regular sprint-level reviews to ensure that performance benchmarks are consistently achieved.

3. Tools & Frameworks

• Design, implement, and standardize the use of performance testing and monitoring frameworks.
• Utilize tools such as AppDynamics, JMeter, LoadRunner, and GCP-native APM for automated performance assessments.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD-integrated automation pipelines for continuous performance validation.

4. Governance & Best Practices

• Establish governance models and performance assessment frameworks to ensure uniform quality across all sprints.
• Define and implement verification protocols and sprint-level performance gates to track improvements.
• Promote shift-left’ testing culture by embedding performance validation early in the development cycle.

5. Parallel Run & Validation

• Lead the validation process between Mainframe and GCP systems to ensure performance parity and SLA compliance.
• Plan, execute, and monitor performance during the parallel run phase to guarantee business continuity.

6. Performance Labs & Simulation

• Design and manage dedicated performance labs that replicate airline workloads and stress conditions.
• Simulate critical TPF transaction volumes, API latencies, and throughput benchmarks for accurate validation.

7. Metrics & Reporting

• Define quantitative KPIs and analytical measures to assess performance maturity and stability.
• Build performance dashboards and reports to communicate metrics to senior stakeholders and leadership.

8. Stakeholder Management

• Partner with enterprise architects, DevOps leaders, and product managers to align performance strategies with overall transformation goals.
• Present regular updates, bottleneck findings, and improvement recommendations to steering committees and executives.

Required Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate should have deep expertise in TPF systems, airline transaction processing, and GCP cloud performance optimization. Hands-on experience in performance tuning, profiling, and root cause analysis across distributed environments is essential. Proficiency with tools such as AppDynamics, Dynatrace, JMeter, or Gatling is required, alongside familiarity with Terraform, Kubernetes, and CI/CD-based automation.

Experience designing GCP performance architectures involving Cloud Run, Compute Engine, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Monitoring is highly preferred. The candidate should be capable of driving modernization initiatives, defining acceptance criteria within agile sprints, and mentoring technical teams on performance excellence.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
  • 20+ years experience professional, with a minimum of 12 years of experience in performance engineering, with at least 5 years at an architect level in large-scale transformation programs. • Experience in Airlines or Travel domain preferred. • Certifications in GCP, Performance Engineering, or DevOps will be advantageous