Performance Engineer

Who We Are:

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

The opportunity:

We need a Performance Engineer to join our growing team on a permanent basis. The individual should possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills and have an eye for detail. We require a highly motivated individual with well-developed interpersonal skills. You will be the technical performance analyst in a specialist performance team working across VML’s broad client base.

What you’ll be doing:

You will be involved in the defining and creating performance scripts, executing the performance testing, and then analysing, in detail, the results. You will need to identify any problematic features and be confident in making recommendations to the wider team to resolve these.

This is a key role, responsible for the delivery and support of many high-profile eCommerce systems. The challenges you will face include different architectures, application components and their interaction.

What we want from you:

• Knowledge & experience in performance testing of eCommerce applications.
• Solid experience Performance test load generation using Gatling or JMeter.
• An excellent understanding of Java, including profiling, ability to review java source code and recommend optimisations.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a proven ability to collaborate with stakeholders.
• Experience setting up performance monitoring using Grafana, APM’s or other tooling.
• Previous knowledge of working within an Agile environment.
• Hands on experience performance problem determination and root cause analysis.
• Good knowledge and proven experience working on Linux and cloud (AWS or Google) environments.
• Experience tuning highly scalable applications, including reviewing configurations around cache sizes and heap sizes.
• Experienced in load forecasting for peak times and assessing likely resilience of systems as well as making recommendations on how to improve based on business needs.
• Experienced in pinpointing performance issues in live systems.
• Very good backend testing skills – conversant in databases (DB2, Oracle), SQL knowledge, use of DB Visualiser or other tools.
• Competent in logging identified issues and tracking them through to resolution.
• Highly organized and owns their own deadlines, willing to go above and beyond what was promised to deliver quality service.
• Wanting to learn and grow, the role will be constantly changing allowing exposure to different technologies and tools.

If you know some of this even better:

• Experience with writing and maintaining Terraform infrastructure as code.
• Experience with other load generation tools e.g. K6 or LoadRunner.
• Ecommerce platform expertise and experience performance testing and analysis on IBM WebSphere Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC), SAP Hybris or Magento and SOLR, FredHopper or other search services.
• Experience interpreting and analysing real user monitoring statistics (RUM).
• Experience implementing performance testing in a continuous delivery environment.
• Experience in front end page load analysis, profiling and optimisation using Webpagetest, Pagespeed Insights, Speedcurve, sitespeed.io or other tools.

What we can offer you:

Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we’ll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We’ll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are.

AT VML Enterprise Solutions

Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world’s leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands.

We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges, Shell and Tiffany & Co. We’ve built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business.

As our business grows internationally, we’re looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client’s successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team.

At VML, we are committed to fostering an all-inclusive work environment that is both rewarding and career-forward. Our Inclusion, Equity & Belonging initiatives, alongside the VML Foundation, reflect our dedication to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities and beyond. Our people are the heartbeat of our organization—creators, doers, innovators, makers, and thinkers—who drive not just marketing, but meaningful experiences that resonate in every action and interaction.

VML is a WPP Agency. For more information, please visit our website, and follow VML on our social channels via Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

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