Senior Performance Engineer Jobs in Acton, MA (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary

Design, plan, and implement software and data services that support and enrich research productivity and reliability. Develop software and data services with researchers to ensure that modern standards of reproducible research are kept.

Job-Specific Responsibilities

This position reports to the Director of Data Science and Product Research at IQSS and, occasionally, co-reports to other Directors of IQSS depending on specific products.

This position manages the design, the implementation and delivery of QA processes, programs and policies for several products at IQSS: those developed or forked by our development and IT teams.

In particular, this position supports both the Dataverse open source project and its instance called Harvard Dataverse Repository. It may also support other IQSS products, as needed.

It is responsible for the execution and coordination of QA testing activities, performs troubleshooting, and identifies and reports issues to the development teams of each product. It also supports deployment engineering tasks at the time of every new software release.

It supports the Harvard Dataverse by advising and answering questions from internal support staff regarding users or system issues and by responding to service availability issues, troubleshooting and resolving them with knowledge gained used to improve the Dataverse project.

Risk assessment and compliance

Identify and assess potential risks, ensure compliance, and recommend changes for each product. Conduct functional and performance testing. Independently identify, triage, and track issues to resolution.

Work with development team and contractors to address identified or potential issues before development code is merged into production.

Deployment and release engineering

Conduct release engineering tasks, including building and deploying to the test environment, merging approved changes into the production environment, tagging and building public releases, preparation of release deliverables: release notes, auxiliary configuration files, and binaries. Publish release notes.

Define, build, and maintain test, demo, and performance test infrastructure servers.

Quality Assurance design and execution

Review, design and implement quality standards and ensure execution on every stage of solution implementation.

Apply established standards to existing programs and services by creating automatic testing. Perform manual and visual quality assurance tests across all functions of an application.

Independently perform quality assurance tests and test scenarios based on requirements and specifications and report results. Execute database queries for stress testing the products.

The size and complexity of the software products being developed and enhanced requires continual (re)engagement with product owners, developers, user community to develop test case scenarios and translate them into concrete QA test steps for either delivery of automated test scripts as a regression testing suite, or manual end user testing documentation. Continually reviews new and existing development work and patches.

Conduct and stage weekly production database backups.

RT (Request Tracking) support and monitoring

Respond to and investigate production service issues identified by response time/restart script. Discuss problem and solutions with development team. Work with Library Technical Services in some cases to mitigate issues related to Harvard Dataverse installation. Research better diagnostic and monitoring tools.

Technical Advice

Advise technical support on most complex issues.

Write documentation to explain QA facts, policies and practices at IQSS and specific guidelines for each product.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience

Additional Qualifications and Skills:

• Bachelor in Computer Science or related technical degree preferred.
• Minimum 5 years working in QA, achieving a senior level of responsibility preferred. Could substitute half experience with related Technical Support or system admin/devops experience.
• Experience working with build environments such as Github, Jenkins.
• Working familiarity with modern web application stacks and frameworks.
• Working knowledge of at least one programming language and IDE and associated debugging tools.
• Understanding of how programs use system resources, including memory.
• Knowledge of a scripting language. Basic Unix skills, including admin skills.
• Working knowledge of databases, including SQL, basic database design.
• Understanding of basic performance testing concepts.
• Experience working as a performance engineer or significant experience conducting performance tests preferred, as well as experience implementing test automation preferred.
• Experience with Git and GitHub (including GitHub Actions).
• Familiarity with Unix-based operating systems (Rocky Linux, macOS).
• Ability to use Chrome DevTools or similar browser debugging tools.
• Understanding of web application architecture and REST APIs.
• Basic scripting skills (bash, Python, or JavaScript).
• Familiarity with automated testing tools (Cypress preferred).
• Ability to identify points of failure and troubleshoot issues.
• Basic understanding of React or modern front-end frameworks.
• Experience running or maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Exposure to load/performance testing tools (e.g., JMeter).
• Comfort working with logs, servers, and multi-environment setups.

Additional Information

• Appointment End Date: One-year term (from date of hire)
• Standard Hours/Schedule: 35 hours per week
• Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position
• Pre-Employment Screening: Identity, Criminal

Other Information

• We are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position.
• All formal offers will be made by FAS Human Resources.

Work Format Details

This position has been determined by school or unit leaders that some of the duties and responsibilities can be effectively performed at a non-Harvard location. The work schedule and location will be set by the department at its discretion and based upon operational needs. When not working at a Harvard or Harvard-designated location, employees in hybrid positions must work in a Harvard registered state in compliance with the University’s Policy on Employment Outside of Massachusetts. Additional details will be discussed during the interview process. Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment.

Salary Grade and Ranges

This position is salary grade level 058. Please visit Harvard's Salary Ranges to view the corresponding salary range and related information.

Benefits

Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Because here, you are what matters. Our benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Generous paid time off including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Support for families and caregivers
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks

Learn more about these and additional benefits on our Benefits & Wellbeing Page.

EEO/Non-Discrimination Commitment Statement

Harvard University is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We seek talent from all parts of society and the world, and we strive to ensure everyone at Harvard thrives. Our differences help our community advance Harvard's academic purposes.

Harvard has an equal employment opportunity policy that outlines our commitment to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, religion, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or identified in the university's non-discrimination policy. Harvard's equal employment opportunity policy and non-discrimination policy help all community members participate fully in work and campus life free from harassment and discrimination.