Senior Performance Test Engineer Jobs in Novato, CA

This role follows a hybrid work model, with in-office attendance of three days a week in San Jose, CA.

Cisco's Customer Experience (CX) organization is one of the company's fastest-growing and most innovative teams, crafting a first-in-class digital experience for customers and partners wherever they connect with Cisco. The CX Platform supports the diverse needs of the organization through a platform-centric approach and is being built with emerging technologies, including predictive and generative AI, to drive greater customer success.

Within this organization, our high-impact quality engineering team operates across the US and India, dedicated to validating and optimizing the complex, data-intensive networking and cloud platforms that power CX Engineering. We are a fast-moving, data-driven group that prides itself on identifying performance bottlenecks early, leveraging next-generation AI-assisted automation, and utilizing deep telemetry to drive proactive system reliability. We thrive on teamwork and ownership, ensuring that the technology we build today remains scalable and resilient for the future.

As a Performance Test Engineer, you will architect and execute comprehensive testing suites-including load, stress, and endurance benchmarks-across UI, API, and back-end layers to ensure maximum system scalability. You will diagnose complex bottlenecks within Linux, enterprise networking, and AWS environments while embedding automated performance guardrails directly into CI/CD pipelines to catch regressions early. A key part of your role involves innovating testing workflows by leveraging AI tools and agentic frameworks to accelerate test case generation and create scalable, no-code harnesses. You will also translate granular system metrics and logs into actionable optimization strategies that guide architectural improvements across the engineering organization. This role is exceptionally exciting because you sit at the vanguard of performance engineering, using cutting-edge AI to modernize testing while solving mission-critical bottlenecks that directly impact our global customer experience.

• Bachelors + 5 years of related experience, or Masters + 3 years of related experience, or PhD + 0 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.
• Expertise in performance testing methodologies (load, stress, endurance, spike, and benchmarking) and tools like JMeter, NeoLoad, or LoadRunner, including UI performance auditing techniques.
• Proficiency in Python or Java for utility creation, custom script development, and test automation execution.
• Experience with hybrid environments (SaaS and on-premise), Linux/Unix operating systems, AWS cloud infrastructure, and log monitoring tools like Splunk.
• Strong understanding of core networking concepts and protocols.

• Applied experience with AI tools and agentic AI approaches to optimize test scripts and streamline execution.
• AWS certification (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect or Developer).
• Hands-on experience with observability/APM tools such as Dynatrace, AppDynamics, New Relic, or Grafana.
• Strong communication and documentation skills to effectively bridge technical findings with team goals.
• A solid sense of ownership, drive, and enthusiastic attention to detail.

At Cisco, we're revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era - and beyond. We've been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you'll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees

• 1 paid day off for employee's birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco

• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees

• Exempt employees participate in Cisco's flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)

• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours ofunused sick timecarried forwardfrom one calendar yearto the next

• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members

• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco's policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;

• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;

• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and

• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco's sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.