Performance Engineer III
Birmingham, AL (Hybrid, onsite Tues, Wed, Thurs)
12-month contract
Pay Range $60.00-64.00/hr.
Our client's Performance Engineering team is responsible for ensuring optimal performance across the bank's entire technology portfolio. The Senior Performance Engineer (Level 3) serves as a technical lead and plays a critical role in the end-to-end performance engineering lifecycle, from requirements gathering through testing, monitoring, and analysis.
This position leads project-specific performance testing efforts, mentors junior team members, and communicates closely with technical and business stakeholders. Level 3 engineers are expected to demonstrate autonomy, technical depth, and leadership in both execution and collaboration.
Responsibilities
- Lead full end-to-end performance engineering processes for assigned projects, including gathering performance requirements, designing test strategies, scripting, execution, monitoring, and analysis.
- Serve as the technical lead on performance projects, guiding Level 1 and Level 2 performance engineers.
- Develop and maintain all performance-related documentation, including non-functional requirements (NFRs), test plans, test data, test cases, and reports.
- Design, build, and execute LoadRunner scripts (expert-level proficiency required) to simulate real-world load conditions.
- Utilize Dynatrace, Splunk, and other observability tools to monitor application performance, analyze logs, and identify bottlenecks during test execution.
- Perform load, stress, and endurance testing, and conduct deep root cause analysis for performance issues.
- Troubleshoot complex scripting or testing challenges and provide technical solutions to junior team members.
- Review solution design documents and architecture diagrams to determine what needs to be tested and identify performance-critical components.
- Communicate effectively with business stakeholders, software engineers, and IT managers, providing updates on progress, results, and required actions.
- Contribute to internal automation initiatives related to performance testing and continuous performance improvement.
- Stay informed on industry trends, tools, and evolving best practices in performance engineering.
Required Skills
- 5+ years of hands-on performance engineering experience (minimum 5 years required).
- Proven expertise in LoadRunner scripting, troubleshooting, and performance analysis.
- Strong experience using Dynatrace, Splunk for performance monitoring, root cause analysis, and log analytics.
- Solid understanding of software architecture and system components (e.g., web/app servers, APIs, databases, cloud services).
- Demonstrated experience creating and maintaining performance testing documentation (NFRs, test plans, test cases, test data, etc.).
- Ability to perform detailed root cause analysis and identify optimization opportunities.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to convey technical findings to business and technical audiences.
- Leadership ability to guide junior engineers and oversee project performance deliverables.
Bonus Skills
- Programming experience in one or more programming languages (Java, JavaScript, C#, etc.).
- Experience developing or supporting automation frameworks for performance testing.
- Familiarity with cloud environments, CI/CD integration, and modern monitoring platforms.
- Proven track record of mentoring and supporting junior engineers in a collaborative environment.