Senior QA Engineer (Performance)

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer I is responsible for identifying performance issues, debugging complex application errors, and validating the system under various infrastructure configurations. Additionally, the Senior Quality Assurance Engineer will incorporate those infrastructure configurations into automated test frameworks and test suites. This role requires deep troubleshooting skills to parse logs and stack traces, determining reproducible steps for high-complexity issues, and a strong understanding of what key performance metrics to analyze for an application. This is a full-time position with remote, hybrid, and on-site opportunities available.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Identifying high-priority performance issues within a complex application environment, including the debugging of errors and parsing of logs and stack traces. This also includes evaluation and implementation of AI-based monitoring and diagnostic tools to accelerate root cause analysis

• Leveraging Generative AI to accelerate the creation of complex performance scripts and the generation of large-scale synthetic test data

• Working with other divisions (Support, Sales engineering, etc) to stay up-to-date on the performance of Ignition, and to gather information on common customer setups for the variety of different industries that Ignition is used in

• Debugging complex issues within the tech stack (Web Browser, Java applications, Mobile applications) in order to analyze resource usage, and creating actionable strategies as a result of the profiling analysis

• Utilizing tools like Wireshark for traffic filtering and packet analysis to troubleshoot network-related performance issues

• Using and developing tools for quick application development and infrastructure deployment (Docker, Vagrant, Terraform) to simulate various production environments

• Setting-up and querying SQL databases (MS SQL Server, MySQL) to analyze data integrity and query performance

• Demonstrating sufficient proficiency in relevant Ignition product areas, and adequately testing all areas

• Maintaining a proficient understanding of the company, our primary software deliverable and its purpose (Ignition), and our customer base

• Collaborating with Developers, Product Managers, and QA Generalists to clarify requirements and provide feedback on functionality, usability, and performance

• Identifying, documenting, and tracking defects using issue tracking tools, ensuring clear communication and resolution processes

• Staying up to date with industry trends, tools, and technologies to continually enhance testing strategies

• Breaking down complex performance automation development efforts into simpler phases that can be taken on by less experienced engineers

• Prioritizing unowned or undesirable work that enables the team to move faster

• Demonstrating autonomy without sacrificing quality or delivery time; resolving and overcoming medium scale blockers or challenges

• Working with the Quality Assurance team and adjacent teams to solve performance problems; escalate problems that have wider scope

• Building relationships with stakeholders which may include customers, product managers, cross-functional partners, and external partners

• Ensuring that knowledge is shared amongst the team and does not position themselves or others as a single point of failure

• Resolving impactful performance automation tasks that improve the execution of the Support Division, Training Department, Sales Division, etc

• Working towards and maintaining an advanced understanding of industries that use Ignition, our customer base, and the purpose of SCADA software

• Staying knowledgeable about the company, its values, each division's contributions, and the company's industry contributions

• Helping junior engineers with issues and support them with their technical growth

• Improving team strength by advising managers and other leaders with insights and recommendations

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor s degree in Computer Science/Engineering OR at least 4 years experience working in a related field

• Must have at least 5+ years of experience in a test automation engineering role focused on performance testing

• Performance testing experience in the following areas:

  • Proficiency in tools like JMeter, K6, or Gatling

  • Experience with APM tools like Grafana/Prometheus

  • Strong understanding of HTTP/HTTPS protocols and REST APIs

• Strong programming knowledge and proficiency with at least one language, including understanding of functions, conditional statements, and intermediate/advanced object oriented concepts (Python, Java/JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, C++)

• Strong troubleshooting skills within a complex application environment, including debugging of errors, identifying performance issues, parsing of logs and stack traces, and determining reproducible steps for issues

• Experience with coding in at least one modern IDE (Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm)

• Thorough understanding of the SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) and each of the phases

• Strong proficiency with source control management systems, such as Git, and common usage (clone and checkout of repositories and specific branches, commits and merge conflicts)

• Experience with setup and querying of SQL databases (MS SQL Server, MySQL, similar)

• Familiarity with Windows, Linux (Ubuntu), and macOS platforms, including working from the command line, and debugging issues with applications running as a service

• Proficient with deploying applications using virtualization software (VMWare, Docker Desktop, Kubernetes), including creating images, debugging running containers, and use of persistent data (volumes)

• Strong experience with bug tracking systems and writing proper bug reports

Skills not required, but a plus:

• Experience using agentic AI in support of software quality activities, utilizing strategic implementation and proper governance.

• Experience with tools for quick application development and infrastructure deployment (Docker, Vagrant, Terraform, similar)

• Debugging of Java platform and Swing/JavaFX applications using JProfiler (or similar profiling tool)

• Experience with Maven and Gradle build tools, especially in coordinating builds with automated testing

• Configuring continuous integration/continuous development servers (Jenkins), including creating and maintaining jobs/pipelines

• Familiarity with the manufacturing industry and HMI/SCADA software

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