Performance Test Engineer- Manchester

FDM is a global business and technology consultancy seeking a Performance Test Engineer to work for our client within the public sector. This is initially a 6-month contract with the potential to extend and will be a hybrid role based in Manchester.

We are seeking a highly motivated and technically capable Performance Test Engineer to join an Agile delivery team, ensuring system performance, scalability and resilience are embedded throughout the software development lifecycle. This role will focus primarily on performance testing activities, requiring deep practical expertise in performance testing methodologies, tools and analysis techniques.

The successful candidate will work collaboratively with developers, product teams and stakeholders to identify, assess and mitigate performance risks across complex digital services. Alongside hands-on delivery, the role will play a key part in mentoring and coaching permanent team members, helping to build internal capability and establish performance testing best practices across the organisation.

Responsibilities

• Champion performance, scalability and reliability throughout the software development lifecycle and actively contribute within Agile delivery teams.
• Engage early in requirements, architecture, design and development discussions to identify performance risks, clarify assumptions and influence quality outcomes.
• Design, execute and maintain comprehensive performance testing strategies aligned to business and technical requirements.
• Develop, maintain and enhance performance testing frameworks and test suites using tools such as K6.
• Define and execute load, stress, endurance, volume and scalability testing activities.
• Analyse performance test results, identify bottlenecks and provide recommendations for optimisation and performance improvements.
• Work closely with engineering teams to investigate and resolve system performance issues across applications, APIs and infrastructure.
• Conduct API testing and validation, including GraphQL and related service integrations.
• Investigate defects, perform root cause analysis and produce clear, actionable findings and recommendations.
• Review system architecture, infrastructure and lower-level test coverage to ensure appropriate non-functional testing across the solution.
• Troubleshoot issues using logs, application monitoring tools and cloud-based diagnostics.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines and support the integration of performance testing into automated delivery processes.
• Coach, mentor and upskill junior and permanent team members in performance testing methodologies, tooling and best practices.
• Promote quality engineering and continuous improvement initiatives across the team, helping to establish sustainable testing capabilities.

• Strong understanding of performance testing principles, methodologies and quality engineering practices.
•  Proven experience designing and executing performance testing activities for complex web applications and distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience using performance testing tools such as K6.
•  Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify bottlenecks, diagnose performance issues and recommend solutions.
• Experience analysing performance test results and translating findings into meaningful technical and business insights.
• Good understanding of APIs, including request/response validation, GraphQL and service integrations.
• Experience investigating issues through logs, command-line tools, application monitoring platforms and observability tooling.
• Knowledge of AWS services, including serverless technologies, Lambda and EC2, with the ability to understand end-to-end system architecture.
• Understanding of CI/CD concepts and experience working with GitHub Actions pipelines.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
• Demonstrated experience coaching, mentoring or supporting the development of less experienced team members.
• Strong understanding of Agile delivery practices and collaborative working environments.

• Experience with Playwright and modern test automation frameworks.
• Programming experience using TypeScript, JavaScript or Python.
• Experience working with React, Next.js and modern web application architectures.
• Experience with CloudWatch, Grafana and other monitoring and observability platforms.
• Understanding of infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform.
• Knowledge of networking fundamentals and distributed system performance analysis.
• Experience integrating performance testing into DevOps and continuous delivery pipelines.
• Understanding of accessibility, resilience and other non-functional testing disciplines.

• Career coaching, mentoring and access to upskilling throughout your entire FDM career
• Assignments with global companies and opportunities to work abroad
• Opportunity to re-skill and up-skill into new areas, develop non-linear career paths and build a skillset within your field
• Annual leave and work-place pension