Performance Engineer [214166]

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.

Client Description

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world’s biggest brands. Our talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits!

Aquent is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We’re about creating an inclusive environment—one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.

You will want to read this fine print. Part of our mission is to take care of you, so we offer the best benefits. Unlike other staffing companies, we provide talent with the same benefits that our CEO gets.

This includes:

• A choice of three major medical plans (including vision coverage) plus dental insurance
• Paid sick leave for all hourly talent in the U.S. and Canada
• 401(k) with a match and immediate vesting
• Exclusive employee discounts through Promo Code: Aquent
• And much more

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