Senior Performance Engineer

Kforce has a client in Birmingham, AL that is seeking a Senior Performance Engineer. Summary: Our client is seeking a Senior Performance Engineer (QA/Test - Performance Engineer III) to join their Performance Engineering team. This role will manage end-to-end performance testing and optimization across large-scale, enterprise-level systems. The ideal candidate is a hands-on performance expert with advanced technical skills in LoadRunner scripting, performance monitoring (Dynatrace, Splunk), and a deep understanding of software architecture and distributed system design. The Senior Performance Engineer will lead projects from start to finish, guide junior performance engineers, and collaborate closely with development and business teams to ensure applications are scalable, resilient, and high-performing. Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end performance testing efforts for enterprise applications, from planning through execution and reporting
• Develop, maintain, and troubleshoot LoadRunner scripts for performance and load testing scenarios
• Collaborate with development, architecture, and business stakeholders to identify performance requirements, risks, and bottlenecks
• Analyze performance test results and provide actionable insights for improving scalability, reliability, and efficiency
• Monitor system health and application performance using Dynatrace, Splunk, and other monitoring tools
• Document all performance engineering activities, findings, and recommendations
• Mentor and support junior performance engineers
• Review software architecture diagrams and design documents to plan effective load and performance test scenarios
• Stay current with industry trends, tools, and best practices in performance engineering and DevOps
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of experience as a Performance Engineer (preferably 7+ years total experience)
• Experience with high-traffic, large-scale distributed systems and client-server architectures (on-prem and cloud)
• At least 1 year of experience in software development or test automation
• Expert-level scripting experience in LoadRunner (required)
• Strong troubleshooting skills for both performance testing and scripting challenges
• Hands-on experience with Dynatrace and Splunk for monitoring and analysis
• Strong understanding of software architecture and ability to interpret architectural diagrams
• Excellent communication and leadership skills-comfortable presenting findings to technical and business stakeholders
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to dissect multi-tiered systems and trace data flow across complex architectures
• Solid understanding of performance testing processes, methodologies, and reporting
• Effective communicator who can explain technical findings in business-friendly terms
• Confident in voicing performance concerns and making evidence-based recommendations

• Background in Development - .NET, Java, etc.
• Familiarity with application design, capacity planning, and performance best practices
• Experience with container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud DevOps environments
• Hands-on experience with open-source load testing tools such as Apache JMeter, or APM tools
• Ability to identify code-level performance bottlenecks through understanding of modern development frameworks
• Demonstrated aptitude for continuous learning and staying up to date on performance engineering methodologies and tools