Senior Performance Test Engineer

On behalf of DWP we are looking for a Senior Performance Test Engineer for a 12 month (Inside IR35) contract. Hybrid working with 2 days per week in London.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions, and child maintenance policy. As the UK's biggest public service department, it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. As such, we operate on a scale that is almost unmatched anywhere in Europe and most people in Britain come into contact with us at some point in their lives.

Working with DWP, you will be helping us to drive our priorities to:

. Run an effective welfare system that enables people to achieve financial independence by providing assistance and guidance into employment
. Increase saving for, and security in later life
. Create a fair and affordable welfare system which improves the life chances of children
. Deliver outstanding services to our customers and claimants
. Deliver efficiently: transform the way we deliver our services to reduce costs and increase productivity.

As a Senior Performance Test Engineer your main responsibilities will be to:

. Design, develop, and execute performance test plans and scripts using Gatling to ensure our applications meet performance and scalability goals.
. Define and implement a comprehensive performance testing strategy, including load, stress, and endurance testing of microservices or APIs.
. Develop and maintain automated test scripts using Cucumber for integration with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
. Work closely with developers, QA engineers, and product managers in an Agile environment to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize application performance.
. Analyse test results, identify performance issues, and provide detailed performance reports and recommendations.
. Evaluate and recommend new tools, frameworks, and methodologies to enhance testing efficiency and effectiveness.
. Provide guidance and mentorship to junior test engineers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.

Essential:

. Experience in software testing, with a focus on performance testing and test automation.
. Strong experience with Gatling for performance testing, including script development, execution, and analysis. Would consider candidates with other performance test tools like K6.
. Proficient in Java, with the ability to write and maintain test automation scripts.
. Solid experience with Cucumber and BDD (Behaviour-Driven Development) practices.
. Proven experience working in Agile/Scrum environments, collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams.
. Experience integrating performance tests into CI/CD pipelines, using tools like Jenkins, GitLab or similar.
. AWS knowledge and experience.
. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex performance issues.
. Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Desirable:

. Active SC Clearance.
. Experience in working with MongoDb.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, DWP guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".