Performance Engineer

Aquent; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Aquent is partnering with a leading financial services firm to strengthen the performance of its digital platforms. The role focuses on identifying bottlenecks, driving measurable improvements, and embedding performance into delivery workflows from development through production monitoring.

You will work with cross-functional teams to optimize speed, scalability, and reliability, building dashboards and alerts while guiding CI/CD integration and performance budgets.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in performance engineering, performance testing, or software engineering.
• Strong experience designing, running, and analyzing load and performance tests with JMeter, LoadRunner, or comparable tools.
• Experience with frontend performance testing and browser diagnostics, including Chrome DevTools and network analysis.
• Hands-on experience building performance dashboards, monitoring systems, and alerting.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute performance testing for web applications, APIs, and critical user journeys using tools such as JMeter and LoadRunner.
• Design workload models and test scenarios for baseline, load, stress, endurance, and capacity testing.
• Analyze results, traces, logs, and network waterfalls to pinpoint bottlenecks across frontend, backend, and infrastructure.
• Conduct frontend performance audits using Lighthouse, WebPageTest, Chrome DevTools, and real-user monitoring platforms.
• Evaluate Core Web Vitals and translate findings into actionable improvements.
• Build and maintain performance dashboards, SLIs, and alerts using observability platforms.
• Configure synthetic and real-user monitoring for key pages and journeys.

Skills

Performance engineering

Performance testing

Software engineering

Load testing

Frontend performance

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

JMeter

LoadRunner

Chrome DevTools

WebPageTest

Lighthouse

Job description

Aquent is partnering with a leading financial services firm dedicated to empowering individuals and institutions through innovative digital solutions. This organization is at the forefront of leveraging technology to deliver exceptional user experiences and robust, high-performing platforms that impact millions of users daily.

Are you a performance enthusiast with a passion for optimizing digital experiences? We are seeking a talented individual to join a dynamic team and make a significant impact on the speed, scalability, reliability, and overall user experience of our cutting-edge digital platforms. In this pivotal role, you will be instrumental in identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks, driving measurable improvements across applications and infrastructure, and ensuring our users enjoy seamless, lightning-fast interactions. You'll play a crucial role in building performance directly into our delivery workflows, from initial development through continuous production monitoring, collaborating with diverse teams to shape the future of our digital ecosystem.

What You'll Do

• Plan and execute performance testing for web applications, APIs, and critical user journeys using industry-leading tools such as JMeter and LoadRunner.
• Design comprehensive workload models and test scenarios for baseline, load, stress, endurance, and capacity testing.
• Analyze intricate results, traces, logs, and network waterfalls to pinpoint frontend, backend, infrastructure, and dependency bottlenecks.
• Conduct thorough frontend performance audits utilizing tools like Lighthouse, WebPageTest, Chrome DevTools, and real-user monitoring platforms.
• Evaluate Core Web Vitals and related metrics, including LCP, INP, CLS, FCP, and TTFB, and translate findings into actionable improvement recommendations.
• Build and maintain robust performance dashboards, service-level indicators, and actionable alerts using advanced observability platforms.
• Configure and continuously improve synthetic monitoring and real-user monitoring for key pages and user journeys.
• Assess CDN and edge performance, including configuration, caching policies, cache headers, compression, and content delivery behavior.
• Validate cache behavior across public and authenticated experiences, covering HIT, MISS, STALE, and bypass scenarios.
• Develop scripts, utilities, and automation for repeatable performance tests, audits, reporting, and regression detection.
• Integrate critical performance checks into CI/CD pipelines and help establish performance budgets and release criteria.
• Work hands-on with application teams to implement and verify performance improvements, contributing to frontend and API changes where appropriate.
• Review architecture and design proposals, providing expert insights on scalability, resilience, caching, and potential performance risks.
• Collaborate extensively with developers, UX/UI designers, API teams, and platform/DevOps teams to resolve complex issues and elevate delivery practices.
• Conduct code and test reviews, document findings meticulously, and mentor fellow engineers on best practices in performance engineering.
• Contribute actively to Agile planning, estimation, and the continuous improvement of performance tooling and processes.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in performance engineering, performance testing, or software engineering.
• Strong experience designing, running, and analyzing load and performance tests with JMeter, LoadRunner, or comparable tools.
• Experience with frontend performance testing and browser diagnostics, including Chrome DevTools and network analysis.
• Hands-on experience building performance dashboards, monitoring systems, and alerting.
• Working knowledge of web application architecture, HTTP, APIs, browsers, and distributed systems.
• Experience with CDN and caching concepts, including cache-control headers, cache keys, invalidation, and edge delivery.
• Experience automating tests and analysis using scripting or programming languages such as JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, or Python.
• Understanding of Core Web Vitals and performance optimization techniques for modern web applications.
• Experience investigating performance issues across application, API, database, network, and infrastructure layers.
• Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with cross-browser and device testing.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to translate technical findings into prioritized recommendations.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience with Akamai configuration, CDN analytics, caching rules, or edge delivery.
• Familiarity with observability platforms such as Splunk, Dynatrace, Datadog, New Relic, or Grafana.
• Experience with Lighthouse CI, WebPageTest, SpeedCurve, mPulse, or similar frontend performance tools.
• Experience with synthetic monitoring and real-user monitoring (RUM).
• Familiarity with React, Next.js, server-side rendering, and edge-rendering strategies.
• Experience with cloud platforms, containers, and Docker.
• Experience integrating performance tests into CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with A/B testing and measuring performance impact.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards, including WCAG 2.2 AA.
• Experience with REST or GraphQL APIs and headless CMS-driven applications.