Lead Software Engineer – Performance Engineering

About the job

As a Lead Software Engineer – Performance Engineering , you will drive the strategy, design, and execution of performance engineering initiatives across highly distributed systems. You will lead technical efforts to ensure reliability, scalability, and responsiveness of business-critical applications. This role requires deep technical expertise, hands-on performance testing experience, and the ability to mentor engineers while collaborating cross-functionally with architecture, SRE, and development teams.

Responsibilities :

Define, implement, and enforce SLAs, SLOs, and performance benchmarks for large-scale systems.

Lead performance testing initiatives including load, stress, soak, chaos, and scalability testing.

Design and build performance testing frameworks integrated into CI / CD pipelines.

Analyze application, infrastructure, and database metrics to identify bottlenecks and recommend optimizations.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to influence system architecture and improve end-to-end performance.

Guide the implementation of observability strategies using monitoring and APM tools.

Optimize cloud infrastructure (e.g., autoscaling, caching, network tuning) for cost-efficiency and speed.

Tune databases and messaging systems (e.g., PostgreSQL, Kafka, Redis) for high throughput and low latency.

Mentor engineers and foster a performance-first culture across teams.

Lead incident response and postmortem processes related to performance issues.

Drive continuous improvement initiatives using data-driven insights and operational feedback.

Required Qualifications :

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.

8+ years of experience in software / performance engineering, with 2+ years in a technical leadership role.

Expertise in performance testing tools such as JMeter, k6, Gatling, or Locust.

Strong knowledge of distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, and microservices.

Proficiency in scripting and automation using Python, Go, or Shell.

Experience with observability and APM tools (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, New Relic, AppDynamics).

Deep understanding of SQL performance, caching strategies, and tuning for systems like PostgreSQL and Redis.

Familiarity with CI / CD pipelines, container orchestration, and IaC tools (e.g., Kubernetes, Terraform).

Strong communication skills and experience mentoring and leading technical teams.

Ability to work cross-functionally and make informed decisions in high-scale, production environments.