Senior QA Engineer – Non-Functional (Performance & Security)

Hyperlayer; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-based bonus

25 days annual leave

Life/critical illness insurance

AXA health insurance

Cycle-to-work

Referral bonus

Nursery scheme

Job summary

Hyperlayer is seeking a Senior Quality Engineer to lead non-functional testing with performance at the core and security as a strong secondary skill. You will design tests, baseline with engineering, and integrate them into CI/CD and release certification.

You’ll bring strong functional and API testing skills in Java and REST Assured, building tests around payment journeys and business risk. You will report to the Head of Solution Architecture & QA and collaborate with Release Engineering and

Qualifications

• 5+ years in QA with API/distributed system performance focus.
• Hands-on load/stress/soak tests written as code (Gatling, JMeter, k6).
• Model realistic workloads using percentiles and throughput metrics.
• Diagnose performance with APM, metrics, logs and traces and explain findings.
• Security testing against OWASP Top 10 and OWASP API Top 10 with OWASP ZAP/Burp.
• Strong Java skills and REST Assured for API testing.
• Add non-functional tests to CI/CD with clear thresholds.
• Willing to be in London office four days per week.

Responsibilities

• Define non-functional targets with engineering/product: p95/p99 latency, throughput, concurrency, error-rate.
• Design and run load, stress, soak, and spike tests as code for critical API paths.
• Set performance baselines and automated regression gates in CI/CD.
• Identify bottlenecks with APM/observability tools and drive fixes.
• Test APIs for OWASP Top 10 security concerns; ensure secure auth/data handling.
• Add automated security checks and support pen tests and verifications.
• Test failure modes when dependencies fail or slow down; manage timeouts/retries.
• Create functional and API tests in Java/REST Assured to support non-functional testing.
• Report risks clearly to inform release go/no-go decisions.
• Build reusable tests/guides for teams, leveraging AI where helpful.

Skills

Performance testing

QA experience

Java REST Assured

Security testing

CI/CD integration

Load testing tools

On-site work in London

Tools

Gatling

JMeter

k6

Job description

About the role

• We’re hiring a Senior Quality Engineer to lead non-functional testing across Hyperlayer, with performance as the core focus and security as a strong secondary skill.
• Banks and financial institutions rely on our platform, and HyperJar serves consumers directly, so we need to know how our systems behave under load, under attack and when dependencies fail.
• You’ll make non-functional testing routine: designing tests, setting baselines with engineering, and building them into our pipelines and release certification.
• You’ll also bring strong functional and API testing skills in Java and REST Assured, so your tests are built around realistic payment journeys and business risk.
• You’ll report into the Head of Solution Architecture & QA and work closely with our Principal Quality Engineer, Release Engineering and DevOps.
• This role is predominantly office-based in Paddington, London.

What you’ll do

• Define non-functional targets with engineering and product: p95/p99 latency, throughput, concurrency and error-rate thresholds.
• Design and run load, stress, soak and spike tests as code (e.g. Gatling, JMeter, k6) for critical API, orchestration and payment paths.
• Set performance baselines and add automated regression gates to CI/CD and release certification.
• Find bottlenecks using APM and observability tools (e.g. Datadog, Grafana), and work with engineers to fix them.
• Test APIs against the OWASP API Security Top 10, especially authentication, authorisation and data exposure.
• Add automated security checks (e.g. OWASP ZAP) and fuzz testing to pipelines, and support external pen tests and fix verification.
• Test behaviour when dependencies fail or slow down: timeouts, retries, idempotency and rate limiting.
• Build functional and API tests in Java and REST Assured where needed, so non-functional tests rest on reliable functional coverage.
• Report performance and security risk clearly to inform release go/no-go decisions.
• Create reusable tests and guides so other quality engineers can add non-functional checks to their pods, using AI tools where they help.

Qualifications

Essential

• 5+ years in QA or quality engineering, including at least 3 years focused on performance testing of APIs and distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience designing and running load, stress and soak tests as code with tools such as Gatling, JMeter or k6.
• Ability to model realistic workloads and interpret results: percentiles, throughput, saturation and resource use.
• Experience diagnosing performance problems with APM, metrics, logs and traces, and explaining findings clearly to engineers.
• Practical security testing experience against the OWASP Top 10 and OWASP API Security Top 10, using tools such as OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite.
• Strong Java skills (or another JVM language) and hands-on REST Assured experience for functional API testing.
• Experience adding non-functional tests to CI/CD pipelines, with sensible thresholds that don’t create noise.
• Comfortable in a fast-moving startup environment, balancing speed with the rigour needed when testing financial systems.
• Willing and able to be in our London office four days per week.

Desirable

• Experience in fintech, payments or another regulated financial services environment, and awareness of operational resilience expectations (e.g. FCA rules, DORA).
• Fuzz testing and chaos or fault-injection tools (e.g. Toxiproxy, Chaos Mesh).
• Security certifications such as OSCP or eWPT, or a background in application security.
• Pact contract testing.
• Mobile performance and security testing (e.g. OWASP MASVS).
• Cloud and container experience (AWS or GCP, Docker, Kubernetes), especially running load tests at scale.

We will not be offering UK work visa sponsorship for these roles. Candidates will need an existing non-sponsored right to work in the UK.

Working at Hyperlayer

At Hyperlayer we are proud of our in-office culture. It makes a real difference to the working atmosphere and maximises collaboration in and across teams. This is critical to how we work and learn. Also, we think it makes for a great workplace!

We value our team and are proud to offer some great benefits:

• A performance-based employee bonus scheme.
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, a day off on your birthday, and an additional day per year of tenure to a maximum of 30.
• Critical illness and life insurance cover.
• AXA PPP Health Insurance, including gym offers.
• Cycle-to-work scheme.
• Referral bonus scheme.
• Workplace nursery scheme.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Hyperlayer’s mission is to make a positive impact on people’s lives, making it easier for everyone to manage their money.

Hyperlayer’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is a key part of this; it helps us better serve our customers, employees, and business partners from every background.

We are constantly learning and striving to do better, and we expect all staff to actively take part in this process.

Data Privacy

As part of our recruitment process, Hyperlayer Limited collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants.

We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use this data and to meeting our data protection obligations. To read more click here.