Senior Performance Tester

Department: Quality Assurance / Testing Services

Reports To: Test Manager / Test Lead

Employment Type: Full-Time / Contract

Location: Client Site / Hybrid (as required)

Job Purpose

The Senior Performance Tester is responsible for planning, designing, executing, analysing, and reporting on all non-functional testing activities to ensure that enterprise applications meet performance, scalability, reliability, and availability requirements. The role works closely with Solution Architects, Infrastructure Teams, Developers, Business Analysts, and Test Managers to deliver high-quality solutions through effective performance engineering and testing practices.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

Performance Testing Strategy

• Analyse and understand non-functional business and technical requirements.
• Develop comprehensive Performance Test Strategies and Test Plans.
• Define the performance testing approach and methodology for assigned projects.
• Recommend appropriate performance testing techniques based on project requirements.

Test Design and Development

• Design and develop performance test scripts.
• Create load, stress, endurance (soak), spike, and scalability test scenarios.
• Develop reusable performance testing assets and script repositories.
• Maintain version control of test scripts.

Test Execution

• Execute performance, load, stress, endurance, and scalability tests.
• Monitor application behaviour during execution.
• Capture and analyse application and infrastructure performance metrics.
• Identify performance bottlenecks across application, middleware, database, and infrastructure layers.

Performance Analysis

• Analyse response times, throughput, resource utilisation, and system behaviour.
• Produce detailed performance analysis reports.
• Provide recommendations to improve application performance.
• Work with development and infrastructure teams to resolve performance issues.

Defect Management

• Log performance defects using approved defect management tools.
• Track defects through resolution and retesting.
• Verify fixes and perform regression performance testing where required.

Tool Administration

• Evaluate and recommend appropriate performance testing tools.
• Configure and maintain performance testing environments.
• Manage performance testing tool suites and licenses.
• Support installation and configuration of testing tools.

Collaboration

• Work closely with Technical Architects and Infrastructure teams.
• Participate in design reviews and walkthroughs.
• Provide performance engineering guidance during solution design.
• Support performance optimisation initiatives.

Reporting

• Produce weekly status reports.
• Present testing progress and risks to stakeholders.
• Report on key performance metrics and test outcomes.
• Ensure all deliverables are completed within agreed timelines.

Knowledge Transfer

• Participate in knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Mentor junior Performance Testers.
• Contribute to performance testing standards, templates, and best practices.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree, BTech, or National Diploma in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent.
• ISTQB Foundation Certification (essential).
• ISTQB Performance Testing Certification (advantageous).

Experience

• Minimum 10 years' experience in Performance Testing.
• Minimum 10 years' experience using LoadRunner (or equivalent enterprise performance testing tools).
• Experience in enterprise application performance testing.
• Experience with Agile and Waterfall delivery methodologies.
• Experience working in large enterprise environments.

Technical Skills

Performance Testing Tools

• Micro Focus/OpenText LoadRunner
• JMeter
• NeoLoad (advantageous)
• Gatling (advantageous)

Monitoring Tools

• Dynatrace
• AppDynamics
• Splunk
• Grafana
• Kibana
• Prometheus

Databases

• SQL Server
• Oracle
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL

Operating Systems

• Windows
• Linux
• Unix

Scripting

• C
• Java
• JavaScript
• VBScript
• Shell Scripting

CI/CD & DevOps

• Azure DevOps
• Jenkins
• Git
• GitHub
• GitLab

Other

• API Performance Testing
• Web Services (REST/SOAP)
• Cloud Performance Testing (Azure/AWS)

Competencies

Technical Competencies

• Performance Engineering
• Root Cause Analysis
• Performance Monitoring
• Capacity Planning
• Performance Optimisation
• Test Automation
• Defect Management

Behavioural Competencies

• Analytical thinking
• Problem solving
• Attention to detail
• Strong communication skills
• Stakeholder management
• Team collaboration
• Time management
• Ability to work under pressure
• Continuous improvement mindset

Key Deliverables

• Performance Test Strategy
• Performance Test Plan
• Performance Test Scripts
• Load and Stress Test Scenarios
• Performance Test Execution Reports
• Bottleneck Analysis Reports
• Defect Logs
• Test Summary Reports
• Performance Recommendations
• Weekly Status Reports

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Performance test coverage achieved
• Test execution completed within schedule
• Accuracy of performance analysis
• Defects identified before production
• SLA compliance
• Quality of reporting
• Successful knowledge transfer
• Stakeholder satisfaction

Desirable Certifications

• ISTQB Advanced Test Analyst
• ISTQB Performance Testing
• Certified Agile Tester
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
• AWS Cloud Practitioner
• ITIL Foundation