advanced performance engineer

Automate, deploy, and optimize high-performance cloud and Kubernetes test environments using Java, Terraform, Helm, Docker, and NeoLoad. Measure, analyze, plan and execute production-like simulations across mobile and web solutions to identify and remediate performance problems, prevent production outages and guarantee predictable performance. The ability to identify key technologies and architectures, to creatively scale and improve code base performance, reduce resource consumption and shorten request latency. Demonstrate the company's core values of respect, honesty, integrity, diversity, inclusion and safety.

Responsibilities for Candidates

-Develop custom automation solutions and enhance performance testing frameworks using Java, integrating APIs where needed.

-Leverage Terraform to provision and manage cloud environments, and Helm to deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes clusters.

-Manage and optimize cloud resources on Azure or GCP, ensuring scalable and high-performance Kubernetes deployments.

-Administer, configure, and optimize NeoLoad to execute performance tests, analyze results, and generate actionable reports

• Monitor application performance during performance tests or production usage using APM and other monitoring tools to isolate the fault domain, dive deep into application code, and identify root cause of performance issues

• Monitor resource usage for physical servers, application servers and databases to drive optimization changes in production environment

• Collaborate with development leads and project team to review and refine application NFRs, SLAs, & KPIs to create acceptance criteria and performance budgets necessary to measure, validate, and improve performance

• Profile application performance from end-user perspective to inventory performance concerns and suggest tuning opportunities across the application stack

• Interact with project teams, development, operations, and infrastructure resources to recommend solutions to remediate performance issues

• Distill volumes of data, analyzes performance results, diagnoses performance problems and clearly characterize system performance to stakeholders

• Develop shift left performance practices including execution of performance tests in Continuous Integration & Delivery pipeline

• Execute end-user performance tests using selenium or similar automation tools to capture performance metrics on browser & mobile devices

• Contribute learnings and experiences to the Kroger Performance Center of Excellence (CoE)

• Must be able to perform the essential job functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation

Qualifications for Candidates

Minimum

• Bachelor's Degree computer science or related information technology field from an accredited institution or equivalent work experience

-Programming & Scripting: Strong proficiency in Java for custom automation and framework enhancements. Experience with API integrations to automate testing and infrastructure tasks.

-Infrastructure as Code & Cloud Automation: Experience with Terraform for cloud provisioning and Helm for Kubernetes application deployments. Solid understanding of IaC principles for environment consistency, scalability, and repeatability.

-Cloud Platforms & Kubernetes: Experience with Azure or GCP, including compute, networking, and storage services. Strong knowledge of Kubernetes and Docker for deploying, scaling, and optimizing containerized applications in high-performance environments.

-Performance Testing Tools Administration: Skilled in administering, customizing, and optimizing NeoLoad (or equivalent) for test execution, analysis, and performance reporting.

• Any experience with supplemental tools such as Fiddler, Firebug, YSlow and JProfiler

• Any experience in Git usage and concepts

• Any experience in SQL programming and SQL, NoSQL & graph databases

• Any experience in analyzing error, system logs of Web and Application Server, Heap Dump, Thread Dump during failure to determine the cause of failure

• Any experience in Web server, Application server and Database performance tuning

• Any experience in REST/Soap Webservices with knowledge in API documentation such as swagger

• 3+ years performance testing/engineering experience

• 8+ years software product development and delivery experience

• Proficient in load testing tools such as Neoload, JMeter, LoadRunner. (Neoload preferred) or similar industry tools

• Familiar with Latest Cloud & Container Technologies including Docker and Kubernetes. (Azure is preferred)

• Demonstrated experience in Web Applications and Services using JAVA/JAVA EE, Spring, and other related technologies

• Ability to interpret and draw System & Architecture diagrams

• Proficient in APM products such as Dynatrace, New Relic, AppDynamics. (Dynatrace is preferred) or similar industry tools

Desired

• Any experience with creating test data and utilizing test data management tools

• Any experience working in environments utilizing the OKR work process

• Any experience with automated testing in a cloud environment

• Familiarity with NoSQL Databases