Lead Performance Engineer

Our Purpose

Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.

Title and Summary

Lead Performance Engineer

Overview:
The Lead Performance Test Engineer is responsible for designing and implementing performance testing strategies, methodologies, and tools to ensure the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of enterprise applications. This role involves leading performance testing initiatives, identifying bottlenecks, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to optimize system performance. The engineer will also mentor junior team members and play a key role in establishing performance testing best practices across projects.
Key Responsibilities:
Lead Performance Testing Initiatives:
- Spearhead performance testing for large-scale, complex systems to ensure they meet performance, scalability, and reliability requirements.
- Develop and execute performance testing strategies, including load, stress, endurance, and capacity testing.
- Conduct system performance assessments and monitor applications under heavy load to identify bottlenecks.
Performance Testing Tools and Automation:
- Design and implement automated performance testing frameworks using tools such as JMeter, LoadRunner, Gatling, or similar.
- Develop scripts for simulating user loads and measuring response times, throughput, resource utilization, and other performance metrics.
- Ensure performance test automation is integrated into the CI/CD pipeline to enable continuous performance monitoring.
Collaboration with Development and Operations Teams:
- Work closely with developers, DevOps engineers, and other stakeholders to define performance criteria and ensure applications meet agreed performance standards.
- Collaborate with development teams to recommend performance optimizations, providing data-driven insights to enhance system performance.
- Act as a technical advisor on performance testing matters, educating teams on best practices and performance tuning.
Monitor and Analyze System Performance:
- Use monitoring tools (e.g., Grafana, New Relic, or Dynatrace) to gather performance data and pinpoint potential issues during testing.
- Analyze system logs and application metrics to identify root causes of performance degradation and recommend improvements.
- Provide regular performance test reports, highlighting critical metrics and trends, and communicate performance risks to management.
Mentorship and Team Development:
- Mentor and guide junior performance engineers and testers, helping them understand testing techniques and methodologies.
- Provide input into performance appraisals for junior team members and ensure alignment with the team’s goals.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement in performance testing, encouraging team members to adopt emerging tools and practices.
Required Experience and Skills:
3-6 Years of Experience in Performance Testing:
- Strong experience in leading performance testing efforts for enterprise applications, identifying system bottlenecks, and ensuring scalability.
- Proficiency with performance testing tools such as JMeter, LoadRunner, Gatling, or similar solutions.
- Solid understanding of performance test planning, execution, and result analysis, including experience in building automated testing framework
Scripting and Automation Skills:
- Hands-on experience with scripting languages used for test automation (e.g., Python, Groovy, or Java) and performance testing tool integration.
- Experience in integrating performance tests into CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitLab, or Azure DevOps.
Collaboration and Communication:
- Proven ability to work closely with development, DevOps, and QA teams to identify performance requirements and recommend optimizations.
- Excellent communication skills to explain performance issues and propose solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
System Performance Monitoring and Analysis:
- Strong understanding of system performance monitoring and diagnostic tools such as Grafana, New Relic, Dynatrace, or equivalent.
- Ability to analyze logs, metrics, and application data to identify root causes of performance issues and implement solutions.
Performance Testing in Cloud and Distributed Environments:
- Experience testing applications hosted in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and familiarity with cloud-native performance considerations.
- Knowledge of microservices, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), and how distributed architectures impact system performance.
Mentorship and Leadership:
- Ability to mentor and guide junior team members, helping them adopt best practices in performance testing.
- Experience leading performance testing initiatives independently or as part of a larger project team.
This role is ideal for a highly technical performance engineer with a passion for ensuring the scalability and reliability of enterprise applications. The candidate will drive performance testing efforts, develop automated performance test frameworks, and collaborate across teams to deliver high-performance systems.

Corporate Security Responsibility

All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:

• Abide by Mastercard’s security policies and practices;

• Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;

• Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and

• Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercard’s guidelines.