Senior Performance Engineer - Assistant Vice President

The Senior Performance Engineer is a highly skilled professional responsible for ensuring the performance, scalability, and reliability of critical systems. This role involves applying in-depth knowledge to define and optimize performance testing strategies, improving processes, and developing new techniques. They integrate subject matter expertise, understanding how various components contribute to business objectives. The engineer evaluates complex performance issues, balancing conflicting situations using multiple information sources. Strong analytical skills are crucial for filtering and prioritizing dynamic data. Excellent communication and diplomacy are essential for collaborating with cross-functional teams and leadership. This role also involves informal and formal leadership, coaching junior engineers, and advocating for best practices. The Senior Performance Engineer significantly impacts project size and complexity by influencing design and architectural decisions through expert advice, directly affecting the performance of delivery teams.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, and execution of comprehensive performance test plans and strategies, including automated load, stress, and soak testing, collaborating across product lines and department boundaries to enable shift-left nonfunctional testing within CI/CD pipelines.
• Understand peak load scenarios and drive test automation with auto-scaling capabilities and detailed reporting, ensuring optimal time-bound assessment windows for efficient integration.
• Analyze system architecture, application code, and infrastructure components, with a strong understanding of microservice architectures, to identify performance bottlenecks, optimize key measures, and ensure correct service levels.
• Utilize advanced performance monitoring tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret performance metrics, conducting root cause analysis for incidents, and providing actionable insights for resolution.
• Develop and maintain robust performance testing frameworks, tools, and scripts, while also providing expert guidance and recommendations on performance tuning, capacity planning, and scalability solutions.
• Provide detailed reports on all test cycles with prognosis and collaborate across functions (engineering, architecture, DevOps) to offer strategic recommendations.
• Mentor and guide junior performance engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and actively contribute to bringing in Observability and SRE foundations in close collaboration with relevant functions.
• Proactively identify performance risks and establish performance baselines, ensuring non-functional requirements are met throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Collaborate with development and operations teams to implement performance improvements and ensure optimal system health.

Recommended Qualifications: Experience

• 10-12 years of relevant experience with proficiency in DevOps and APM performance engineering tools like LoadUI, LoadRunner & APM tools AppDynamics, New Relic, Splunk or plain ELK Stack.
• Hands-on Experience in one or more of the following: Java with JMeter, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, XML.
• Experience on any containerized technology (Docker, Kubernetes, Openshift).
• Knowledge of web-application design, web services, and common service frameworks.
• Advanced knowledge of Windows or Linux operating systems.
• Experience with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Proven experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their performance implications.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform or CloudFormation for environment provisioning and performance testing.
• Familiarity with chaos engineering principles and tools to test system resilience under adverse conditions. Technical Skills
• Hands-on Experience in one or more of the following: Java with JMeter, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, XML.
• Experience on any containerized technology (Docker, Kubernetes, Openshift).
• Strong knowledge of RESTful API design, development, and security best practices.
• Comprehensive understanding of distributed systems concepts, including fault tolerance, scalability, consistency, and resilience patterns, with practical experience in implementing performance solutions addressing these challenges.
• Proficiency in scripting languages such as Groovy, JavaScript, or Shell for test automation and data manipulation.
• Knowledge of database performance tuning and optimization (SQL, NoSQL).
• Understanding of network protocols and performance analysis. Soft Skills
• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, with a keen eye for detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical peers and non-technical business stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a proven ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment, influencing and leading by example.
• High degree of initiative, self-motivation, and a proactive approach to continuous improvement.

Education:

• Bachelor's/University degree or equivalent practical experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. ------------------------------------------------------

Job Family Group: Technology ------------------------------------------------------

Job Family: Applications Development ------------------------------------------------------

Time Type: Full time ------------------------------------------------------

Most Relevant Skills Please see the requirements listed above. ------------------------------------------------------

Other Relevant Skills For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter. ------------------------------------------------------ Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi. View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.