Senior Staff Systems Engineer - Performance Engineer

Nubank; Miami (FL); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical Insurance

Dental/Vision

Life Insurance

Parental Leave

Relocation

401K

Work-from-home Allowance

Job summary

Nu is seeking a Systems Performance lead to optimize a large JVM-based microservices platform. You will conduct deep-dive analyses, tune GC and memory usage, and build tools like Flamegraphs and JFR for real-time insight.

You will bridge Linux kernel internals with the JVM in a Kubernetes environment, driving scalable, cost-efficient performance improvements. Join a team that values ownership, simplicity, and technical excellence while collaborating across our hybrid offices in the US.

Qualifications

• Deep, low-level knowledge of the JVM and JIT concepts.
• Proven GC tuning experience for large heaps and low latency.
• Contributions to OpenJDK or other runtimes are a plus.
• Strong Linux kernel scheduling and JVM integration understanding.
• Memory management across heap and off-heap areas.
• Experience with observability: Flamegraphs, JFR, eBPF.
• Experience with Kubernetes and cgroups for resource isolation.
• Proven concurrency diagnosis and fix delivery.
• Knowledge of AWS and cloud performance characteristics.

Responsibilities

• Lead deep-dive investigations to identify systemic bottlenecks across JVM-based microservices.
• Fine-tune JVM parameters, GC settings, and memory usage to reduce latency and cost.
• Build and maintain advanced observability tooling for real-time insights.
• Bridge Linux kernel and JVM to optimize scheduling and resource isolation in Kubernetes.
• Design scalable infra improvements addressing long-term performance needs.
• Mentor engineers on JVM internals and performance best practices.
• Diagnose root causes of complex concurrency issues and memory leaks.
• Collaborate with the Computing Squad to align orchestration and performance goals.

Skills

JVM Internals

JVM Tuning

OpenJDK

Linux Kernel

Memory Management

Diagnostics Tools

Concurrency

AWS Cloud

Kubernetes

Tools

Flamegraphs

JFR

eBPF

Job description

About Nu

Nu is the leading digital bank in Latin America, serving 135 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. The company has been leading an industry transformation by leveraging data and proprietary technology to develop innovative products and services. Guided by its mission to fight complexity and empower people, Nu caters to customers’ complete financial journey, promoting financial access and advancement with responsible lending and transparency. The company is powered by an efficient and scalable business model that combines low cost to serve with growing returns. Nu’s impact has been recognized in multiple awards, including Time 100 Most Influential Companies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and Forbes World’s Best Banks. Visit our Institutional Page

About the Role

The Systems Performance team is part of the Computing Squad consists of two distinct workstreams —Orchestration and System Performance —each with its own approach and challenges on managing and improving the foundational infrastructure where the majority of the Nubank's workloads runs.

The Performance team is focused on building deep diagnostic tools and performing high-level analysis to reduce latency, infrastructure costs and increase services efficiency.

You will be responsible for leading complex performance investigations, identifying systemic bottlenecks, and driving efficiency across one of the largest JVM-based microservice architectures in the world.

Our core principles and behaviors include ownership, simplicity, veracity-first, teamwork, and a focus on quality over quantity. During a normal work day, you will interact with critical infrastructure layers, from the Linux Kernel and JVM internals to cloud-wide orchestration.

You’ll be responsible for

• Leading Deep-Dive Investigations: Conduct high-level performance analysis to identify and resolve systemic bottlenecks across our global JVM-based microservices architecture.

• Optimizing Resource Efficiency: Drive initiatives to reduce infrastructure costs and latency by fine-tuning JVM parameters, Garbage Collection (ZGC, G1), and memory management (heap and off-heap).

• Building Diagnostic Tooling: Develop and implement advanced observability tools using eBPF, JFR, and Flamegraphs to provide real-time insights into kernel and runtime behavior.

• Kernel & Runtime Alignment: Bridge the gap between the Linux Kernel and the JVM, optimizing thread scheduling (CFS/EEVDF) and managing resource isolation (cgroups/throttling) within our Kubernetes environment.

• Architecting Scalable Solutions: Design and deliver innovative infrastructure improvements that address long-term performance challenges, ensuring our systems scale ahead of demand.

• Technical Mentorship & Culture: Share expertise on JVM internals and performance best practices with the wider Engineering team, fostering a culture of technical excellence and "quality over quantity."

• Root Cause Excellence: Deep dive into complex concurrency issues, lock contentions, and memory leaks, providing definitive fixes for high-impact technical debt.

• Strategic Collaboration: Work closely with the Computing Squad to align orchestration strategies with system performance goals, ensuring a seamless interface between infrastructure and workloads.

We are looking for a person who has

• Expertise in JVM Internals: Deep, low-level knowledge of the JVM is essential. You must understand how the JVM works "under the hood," including JIT compilation (C1/C2), class loading, and intrinsic methods.

• JVM Tuning & Garbage Collection: Extensive experience with GC algorithms (ZGC, G1, Shenandoah), including the ability to tune them for massive heaps and ultra-low latency requirements.

• OpenJDK Contribution (Major Plus): Previous experience contributing to the OpenJDK project or other low-level runtime environments is a significant advantage.

• Linux Kernel & Scheduling: Deep understanding of the Linux Scheduler (CFS/EEVDF), thread scheduling, and how the kernel manages high-concurrency Java workloads.

• Memory Architecture: Mastery of heap and off-heap memory management, including Direct Buffers, memory-mapped files, and diagnosing complex memory leaks.

• Advanced Diagnostics: Mastery of diagnostic tools such as Flamegraphs, JFR (Java Flight Recorder), eBPF, and performing large-scale heap dump analysis.

• Resource Isolation: Extensive experience with cgroups and the impact of CPU Throttling on JVM quotas within Kubernetes/EKS.

• Concurrency: Proven ability to diagnose and resolve complex concurrency problems, including lock contention and race conditions at the instruction level.

• Cloud Platforms: Knowledge of AWS infrastructure and its performance characteristics.

• Develops and delivers innovative solutions that address team-level or project-level challenges, focusing on medium and long-term impact

• Understand the technical aspects, capabilities, and limitations of our systems, contributing to discussions and improvements.

• Anticipate technical and product issues, making appropriate design decisions to avoid them

• Is enthusiastic about sharing knowledge and mentoring others.

• Deep dive into a problem to identify root causes when prioritized.

Benefits

• Opportunity of earning equity at Nu

• Medical Insurance

• Dental and Vision Insurance

• Life Insurance and AD&D

• Extended maternity and paternity leaves

• Nucleo - Our learning platform of courses

• NuLanguage - Our language learning program

• NuCare - Our mental health and wellness assistance program

• Extended maternity and paternity leaves

• 401K

• Saving Plans - Health Saving Account and Flexible Spending Account

• Work-from-home Allowance

• Relocation Assistance Package, if applicable.

Location for this opportunity (City, Country)

• Palo Alto, United States

• Miami, United States

• Washington DC, United States

• Durham, United States

Work Model for this Role

Hybrid 2-3 times/week: Our hybrid work model brings us to the office at least twice a week, on strategic days designed to maximize team connection and collaboration. For more details, visit https://building.nubank.com/nu-hybrid-work-model/

Our recruitment process may involve the use of artificial intelligence–enabled tools, such as automated interview transcription and analysis, to support the evaluation process. Artificial intelligence is not used to make final hiring decisions; all decisions are made by human reviewers.