Performance QA Lead

Role Type: Contract – Statement of Work (SOW)
Team: Sustaining Engineering
Work Model: Cross-team, platform-focused

About the role

We are establishing a Sustaining Engineering team focused on improving performance, stability, reliability, and observability of the Guidewire platform (PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, and integrations). We are seeking a contractor who operates at the intersection of performance engineering, system reliability, and integration testing, with the ability to diagnose and validate improvements across distributed system flows.

Primary Goal: Improve overall system health through root cause identification and measurable validation of fixes.

Responsibilities

• Support remediation of Guidewire Platform Health findings (performance, integration, stability).
• Establish or enhance performance and reliability testing strategy.
• Baseline, measure, and track:
  • Latency
  • Throughput
  • Error rates
  • Integration success/failure rates
  • Batch/job stability and success rates
• Validate that fixes result in measurable improvements in system health.
• Contribute to a repeatable, scalable performance and reliability testing practice.
• Design and execute:
  • Performance, load, and stress tests
  • End-to-end system tests across PolicyCenter and BillingCenter
  • Validation of system behavior under normal and peak conditions
• Test and analyze:
  • API interactions
  • Asynchronous processing / messaging flows
  • Cross-system data movement (PC ↔ BC)
• Identify and diagnose integration failures and inconsistencies.
• Validate:
  • Batch job execution and performance
  • Work queue processing and failure handling
• Identify retry issues, bottlenecks, and backlog risks.
• Analyze:
  • Application-layer bottlenecks
  • JVM/thread behavior
  • Database query performance
  • API latency and failure points
• Distinguish root causes vs symptoms.
• Analyze system logs and monitoring outputs to identify:
  • High-noise vs actionable errors
  • Gaps in logging and monitoring
• Recommend improvements to observability.
• Partner with developers to address:
  • Query optimization
  • Code-level performance issues
  • Integration reliability
  • Error handling improvements
• Translate findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Provide before/after metric validation for fixes.
• Support sprint/release reviews with quantifiable improvements.
• Help establish consistent reporting on system health.
• Work on Performance Test Strategies/Test Plans.
• Identify Performance Test Requirements/Test Scenarios.
• Define and Validate Workload Models with the Project Teams.
• Create Test Case Workflow/Performance Test Scripts.
• Validate Monitoring tools.
• Validate Test Environments are ready, available, and accurate.
• Define, communicate, and plan test schedule/windows.
• Execute tests per planned windows and analyze executed tests.
• Document defects in Microfocus Quality Center.
• Review Test Results.
• Create Results Report.

Requirements

• Strong experience in performance and reliability testing in distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with performance testing tools: JMeter, Gatling, LoadRunner, or similar.
• Experience testing system integrations: APIs (REST/SOAP), async processing / messaging systems.
• Ability to analyze:
  • JVM / thread behavior
  • Database queries and performance
  • API latency and throughput
  • Batch/job execution patterns
• Experience diagnosing:
  • Integration failures
  • High error volumes and log noise
  • Systemic vs localized issues
• Strong root cause analysis mindset (not just defect identification).
• Ability to translate technical findings into actionable insights.
• Comfortable working in cross-team, platform-level environments.
• Experience in Performance testing, monitoring, and analysis with excellent reporting skills.
• Experience in Test Strategy, Test Design, Test Plan report.
• Experience in creating performance test scripts using different protocols like Web (HTTP/HTML), TruClient, Web Services, REST, and .Net applications.
• Experience in creating different types of scenarios to simulate various load and user patterns for Stress Test, Peak Load Test, Endurance Test, Volume test, and other types of tests.
• Experience in tools like Loadrunner, Jmeter, AppDynamics, Splunk (or other APM Tools) for Web/App and DB layers.
• Good experience in Performance testing of Web (HTTP/HTML), TruClient, Web Services, REST, and .Net applications.
• Proficiency in one or more general-purpose programming languages.
• Good understanding of agile methodologies and agile performance testing.
• Knowledge of Storm Runner tool.
• Ability to work in a team in diverse/multiple stakeholder environments.
• Good communication and analytical skills.
• Experience and desire to work in a Global delivery environment.

Qualifications

• Experience with Guidewire (PolicyCenter and BillingCenter strongly preferred).
• Insurance domain knowledge (policy and billing flows).
• Experience with:
  • Batch processing / job scheduling systems
  • Observability tools (e.g., DataDog)
  • WAS tuning, JVM tuning, PL/SQL tuning
• Working knowledge in debugging performance scripts, identification of performance bottlenecks using drill-down analysis with monitoring tools.
• Interaction with various stakeholders for performance issue resolution.
• Development of performance testing solutions for small services in DevOps environments.
• Strong understanding of techniques such as Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Test Driven Development, Cloud Development, application resiliency, and security.
• Experience in working with cloud-based application performance testing and tuning.
• Experience in CI/CD pipeline for performance testing.
• Background in:
  • SRE (Site Reliability Engineering)
  • Platform engineering
  • Systems-level QA

Success Criteria

The Contractor Will Be Successful If They Demonstrate Measurable improvements in:

• System performance (latency, throughput)
• Integration reliability (reduced cross-system failures)
• Batch/work queue stability
• Reduction in error noise and improved observability
• Consistent ability to identify true root causes across system layers
• Clear contribution to sustained system health improvements
• Establishment of repeatable performance and reliability testing practices

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package.
• Career Advancement: Individual Career Development, coaching, and mentoring programs for professional and leadership skill development.
• Comprehensive training and certification programs.
• Performance Management: Goal Setting, continuous feedback, and year-end appraisal.
• Reward & recognition for the extraordinary performers.

About The Company

Founded in 2000 with the core belief that impactful change comes from deep commitment, ValueMomentum specializes in delivering measurable results across the P&C value stream. For more than 25 years, we have empowered more than 100 carriers to reimagine their businesses with AI and emerging technologies, navigate market shifts, unlock speed to value, and become future-ready. We help insurers in the US, Canada, and Europe stay ahead with sustained growth and high performance to enhance stakeholder value and foster resilient societies.