Lead Performance Test Engineer IV

About the role

The Lead Performance Test Engineer IV plays a critical role in defining and evolving enterprisewide performance testing strategies, standards, and best practices. This individual leads complex, cross-team performance testing initiatives, ensuring alignment with business Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Responsibilities

• Defines and evolves enterprisewide performance testing strategy, standards, frameworks, and best practices and ensures consistent adoption across teams and portfolios.
• Establishes and maintains standards for performance test design, execution, environment readiness, and results reporting.
• Partners with QA leadership to evolve performance testing practices and organizational maturity.
• Establishes organizational guidance for capturing, validating, and tracing nonfunctional requirements (NFRs) to performance test scenarios and SLA outcomes.
• Provides expert oversight of workload modeling and the design of load, stress, soak, endurance, and scalability testing approaches for complex systems.
• Enables and guides teams in the creation, maintenance, and optimization of performance test scripts, test data, and test environments.
• Mentors and coaches Performance Test Engineers I–III, strengthening test design rigor, analysis quality, and reporting consistency across the organization.
• Drives enterprise integration of performance testing within CI / CD pipelines to support continuous feedback and early risk identification.
• Defines performance reporting standards, including dashboards, SLA validation, trend analysis, and executive-level insights derived from performance test results.
• Led complex performance investigations by guiding analysis and root cause efforts using structured test evidence.
• Translates performance test results into actionable, leadership-ready insights that inform risk and release decisions.
• Anticipates enterprise-level performance risks and ensures testing approaches address systemic bottlenecks.
• Provides clear, trusted performance insights that enable informed decision making for releases, risk acceptance, and prioritization.
• Performs special projects and other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Ten-plus years of progressive experience in performance testing of enterprise and customer-facing applications, with demonstrated impact across multiple systems or portfolios.
• Advanced expertise in performance test design and workload modeling, including defining realistic user behavior, data patterns, and test scenarios aligned to business SLAs.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-team performance testing initiatives from strategy through execution, analysis, and stakeholder communication.
• Deep understanding of performance test automation, including script design, test data management, environment considerations, and integration within CI / CD pipelines.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret performance test metrics, validate SLA outcomes, identify risk trends, and translate findings into actionable insights.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently with minimal oversight while influencing teams and decisions across the organization.
• Advanced communication skills, including the ability to present performance test results and risk and insights clearly to both technical and executive audiences.
• Enterprise-level strategic thinking, with the ability to define, scale, and mature performance testing practices across teams and portfolios.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-team performance testing initiatives from planning through execution, analysis, and stakeholder communication.
• Strong prioritization and organizational skills, enabling oversight of multiple high-impact performance testing initiatives without loss of quality or consistency.
• Demonstrated mentoring and coaching capability, elevating performance test design, scripting, analysis, and reporting practices across the organization.
• Advanced mastery of performance testing tools and methodologies, with the ability to select, standardize, and guide usage across teams (e.g., JMeter, Gatling, BlazeMeter, K6, Locust, LoadRunner).
• Strong performance test automation and scripting skills, including proficiency in languages such as Java, Python, Groovy, or Scala.
• Experience integrating performance testing into CI / CD pipelines, leveraging tools such as Jenkins, GitLab, Docker, and Kubernetes to enable continuous feedback.
• Working knowledge of performance monitoring and reporting tools, including APM and telemetry platforms (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Dynatrace, New Relic).
• Solid understanding of performance test environment and data management, including environment consistency, configuration, and automation considerations.

Culture and Total Rewards

Western National is committed to fostering a culture where employees feel valued and empowered. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Package, including medical insurance, dental and vision benefits, life and disability insurance, a 401(k) plan with company matching, tuition reimbursement, and a range of paid time off and wellbeing programs. We also provide a flexible work environment and encourage a healthy work-life balance.