How to hire a performance engineer

How to hire a performance engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step performance engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a performance engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new performance engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a performance engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a performance engineer, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect performance engineer also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   The following list breaks down different types of performance engineers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Performance Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Performance Engineer		$36-64
   Quality Analyst	Pumpers are individuals who take responsibility for setting the pumping system controls for product maximization. Their job requires them to set density, concentration, rate, and pressure... Show more	$26-44
   Tester	The role of technical testers is to test computer software for defects, bug errors, or any issues that may come across by an end-user. They mainly conduct product testing and prepare reports about any problems or recommendations for improvements... Show more	$20-47

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Java
   • Linux
   • Performance Issues
   • Performance Analysis
   • Profiling
   • JMeter
   • CPU
   • Splunk
   • Test Results
   • Dynatrace
   • Unix
   • Debugging
   • Test Data
   • Capacity Planning

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage SharePoint inter-office documentation in relation to projects and internal processes.
   • Prepare load runner scripts base off of the test cases that the QA team and the BA prioritize.
   • Collaborate with product managers and QA resources to create test scenarios for each and every function of the project.
   • Coordinate with DBA for optimizing UNIX server for querying data in SQL and running scripts.
   • Measure and characterize performance for TCP/IP file subsystem, and other system components of OSF1 UNIX.
   • Used Linux commands and shell scripts to perform testing of the command line module of the search engine.

   More performance engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your performance engineer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A performance engineer can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, performance engineers' average salary in nebraska is 39% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level performance engineers 43% less than senior-level performance engineers.
   • Certifications. A performance engineer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a performance engineer's salary.

   Average performance engineer salary

   $101,647yearly

   $48.87 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level performance engineer salary

   $76,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 19, 2026

   Average performance engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$138,066	$66
   2	Washington	$119,460	$57
   3	Delaware	$102,290	$49
   4	New Jersey	$97,677	$47
   5	Massachusetts	$96,652	$46
   6	District of Columbia	$95,144	$46
   7	Maryland	$94,662	$46
   8	New York	$94,426	$45
   9	New Hampshire	$94,201	$45
   10	Virginia	$93,792	$45
   11	Texas	$93,706	$45
   12	Arizona	$92,105	$44
   13	Colorado	$91,856	$44
   14	North Carolina	$89,947	$43
   15	Ohio	$89,676	$43
   16	Illinois	$88,699	$43
   17	Michigan	$88,424	$43
   18	Florida	$88,280	$42
   19	Connecticut	$87,566	$42
   20	Minnesota	$86,207	$41

   Average performance engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Meta	$163,567	$78.64	880
   2	ByteDance	$160,337	$77.09	87
   3	Dotdash	$153,507	$73.80
   4	Levi Strauss & Co.	$148,609	$71.45
   5	Apple	$147,259	$70.80	332
   6	eBay	$147,229	$70.78	13
   7	PayPal	$147,030	$70.69	6
   8	Google	$146,049	$70.22	432
   9	Sony Interactive Entertainment America	$141,217	$67.89
   10	ICE Mortgage Technology	$140,541	$67.57
   11	Safeway	$137,146	$65.94
   12	Box	$136,287	$65.52
   13	CyberCoders	$136,286	$65.52
   14	First Republic Bank	$135,948	$65.36
   15	Microsoft	$134,781	$64.80	302
   16	Veeva Systems	$132,081	$63.50	20
   17	Nutanix	$131,542	$63.24	11
   18	Cloudera	$130,922	$62.94
   19	NVIDIA	$130,891	$62.93	48
   20	Walmart	$129,643	$62.33	124

4. Writing a performance engineer job description

   A good performance engineer job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a performance engineer job description:

   Performance engineer job description example

   
   22WD60865
   
   Position OverviewAutodesk, the leading Design and Engineering Software Company, is transitioning to the cloud! As a global leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, Autodesk helps customers imagine, design, and create a better world. Our flagship product, AutoCAD, has become synonymous with CAD and is a fixture in design shops worldwide. We have industry-leading 3D solutions for industrial design and manufacturing; architecture, engineering, and construction as well as media and entertainment. Over 10 million professionals in 185 countries are using Autodesk products to save time and money, gain competitive advantage, and change the way ideas are brought to life. The success and growth of Autodesk can be attributed not only to its exceptional products but also to its unique culture, which brings together the best and the brightest in a combined mission of innovation and creativity. We are continually ranked as a top place to work by Fortune, Forbes, and Glassdoor.As we transition from a world of desktop products to that of products powered by cloud services, we're building our core underlying cloud fabric that is comprised of massively scalable, always-on, globally-deployed cloud infrastructure services that underpin our customer-facing systems. Engineers across product teams at Autodesk, utilize our services to build the next generation of rich customer experiences.
   Does automation and a fast-paced environment excite you? Do you thrive on building resilient systems - Do you have a passion for uptime? Our Platform Engineering team is seeking a highly motivated, Platform Engineer to help build dashboards and metrics around Page Performance and create hooks to integrate performance budgets into application engineering domain(s) build and deploy process to notify page performance optimization areas and support our web performance goals. Working side by side with engineering teams, supporting daily operations within web analytics and contribute towards site reliability.
   A successful candidate has a strong sense of ownership and is able to drive projects through completion.
   Responsibilities
   Design, develop, and test features/functions delivered via applications and services Hands-on software development for infrastructure that will perform at scale Write code that is tested, readable, and maintainable Perform code reviews, evaluate implementations, and provide feedback for tool improvements Engage in technical and architectural discussions Collaborate with stakeholders to understand requirements, understand use cases and build towards a cohesive technical strategy Automate processes where possible and propose new tools when needed Participate in on-call rotations to support production systems
   Minimum Qualifications
   Prior Industry expertise of working in Page Performance and Web AnalyticsExperience developing and building Content Management Systems like AEM, Wordpress, Drupal.Hands-on software development experience in Python, React, NodeJS or JavaKnowledge of cloud-based Infrastructure (AWS preferred) concepts Customer-facing and service-oriented person Understanding of CI/CD concepts (Jenkins/Circle CI/Spinnaker, etc.) Good self-management skills and ability to track and prioritize multiple tasks coming in simultaneously Great team player with great communication skills Exposure to CMS like Contentful is a plus
   Preferred Qualifications
   Hands on experience with cloud-based infrastructure (AWS Preferred) Understanding of networking and security concepts Experience implementing unit and integration tests Understanding of DevOps best practices, architectures, and methods REMOTE WORK
   
   At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.
   
   Are you an existing contractor or consultant with Autodesk? Please search for open jobs and apply internally (not on this external site). If you have any questions or require support, contact Autodesk Careers.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find performance engineers for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your performance engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit performance engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit performance engineers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a performance engineer applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new performance engineer

   Once you've decided on a perfect performance engineer candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new performance engineer. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a performance engineer?