Lead Performance Test Automation Engineer

Bank of England; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 49,000 - 56,000; Full time

Job summary

A central banking institution in Leeds is seeking a Performance Test Engineer to drive the Bank's digital transformation. The role involves developing and executing performance testing strategies, ensuring system resilience across cloud and on-premises environments. The ideal candidate has strong analytical skills and experience with tools like JMeter and LoadRunner. This position offers a salary range of £49,360 – £55,530 and a comprehensive benefits package, promoting a flexible working environment.

Benefits

Non-contributory pension plan

Discretionary performance award

8% benefits allowance

26 days annual leave

Private medical insurance

Qualifications

• Ability to design, execute, and analyze performance tests.
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools.
• Strong knowledge of performance testing methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and run performance, load, and stress tests.
• Collaborate with developers to troubleshoot performance issues.
• Integrate tests into CI/CD pipelines.

Skills

Performance testing

Scripting (Python, JavaScript)

Analytical skills

Communication

Problem-solving

Tools

JMeter

LoadRunner

Grafana

Splunk

New Relic

Dynatrace

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Role Overview

As a Performance Test Engineer, you'll play a key role in driving the Bank's digital transformation by delivering robust performance testing strategies and solutions that keep our platforms resilient and efficient. It's a chance to make a real impact in a collaborative, forward‑thinking environment and shape the future of our performance engineering approach.

Flexible Working Options

• Flexible start and end times each day
• Ability to adapt your calendar as needed (e.g., to fit in the school run or other appointments)
• A 50% in‑office attendance requirement, which can be spread across the month to accommodate diverse working patterns, such as the flexibility to purchase a weekly train ticket for certain weeks

A typical day might start after the team's stand‑up, where you share updates on performance testing and highlight any bottlenecks. You'll design and run performance, load, and stress tests using tools like JMeter, LoadRunner, or Gatling, ensuring they meet strategy and non‑functional requirements. You'll collaborate with developers and architects to troubleshoot issues, monitor systems with Grafana and Splunk, and use diagnostics tools such as New Relic and Dynatrace. Later, you'll integrate tests into CI/CD pipelines and drive improvements to ensure robust, scalable systems across cloud, hybrid, and on‑premises environments.

Core Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast‑paced environment.

Role Requirements

Maybe you have experience in performance testing and want to shape the future of system scalability and reliability at the Bank by creating strategies and solutions that make a real impact. Or you have a strong foundation in performance engineering and are eager to deepen your expertise in cloud and container‑based environments, leveraging observability tools and diagnostics to optimise application performance. Please don't hesitate to apply if you don't meet all the essential criteria. We value diverse perspectives and believe that different backgrounds can contribute to our team's success.

How This Role Fits into the Wider Bank

This role is part of the Digital Assurance & Productivity team in the CTO division, helping the Bank deliver high‑quality technology solutions. We provide testing services, performance assurance, and enablement to ensure new products and changes meet non‑functional requirements for scalability, reliability, and responsiveness.

Our Approach to Inclusion

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve. At the Bank of England, we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we're working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it's by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we'll continue to make the best decisions for the public. We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We've also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they're needed. For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders.

Essential Criteria

• Ability to design, execute, and analyse performance, load, stress, and volume tests.
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools (Grafana, Splunk) and diagnostics platforms (New Relic, Dynatrace).
• Understanding of containerisation technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) and big data platforms (Databricks).
• Ability to analyse complex performance issues and provide actionable recommendations.
• Strong scripting skills (e.g., Python, JavaScript) for test automation and data analysis.
• Knowledge of Performance Test Strategy and defining Non‑Functional Requirements.
• Proven experience in Performance Testing of cloud‑based architectures (Azure, AWS, GCP).
• Strong knowledge of performance testing methodologies and tools (such as JMeter, LoadRunner, Eggplant Performance, Gatling).

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge of middleware systems (Kafka, IBM MQ).
• Experience with ELK stack and reporting tools (e.g., Tableau).
• Exposure to CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and version control systems (Git).
• Familiarity with security and compliance considerations in performance testing.
• Experience integrating performance testing into CI/CD pipelines.

We encourage flexible working, part time working and job share arrangements. Part time salary and benefits will be on a pro‑rated basis as appropriate.

Salary and Benefits

We offer a salary as follows: Leeds circa £49,360 – £55,530. In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:

• Currently a non‑contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/80th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/65th) or decrease (to 1/105th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year. The Bank has the discretion to vary standard accrual rates and dial up and dial down rates at any time and to withdraw dial up and dial down options at any time.
• A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
• An 8% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits.
• 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
• Private medical insurance and income protection.

National Security Vetting Process

National Security Vetting Process