Lead 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. 

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Lead Performance Engineer to join our growing team in Portugal. This is a pivotal, permanent role that combines deep, hands-on technical expertise with strategic leadership, client engagement, and mentorship. Reporting to the Principal Performance Engineer, you will be a key figure responsible for safeguarding and enhancing the performance, scalability, and reliability of our clients' critical digital platforms.

We are looking for a multi-faceted professional who brings a blend of deep technical knowledge, strong leadership qualities, and a strategic, consultative mindset. You have extensive, hands-on experience in performance engineering, with a demonstrable history of improving performance for complex, large-scale, highly transactional applications. You are someone who not only solves technical problems but also builds relationships, guides teams, and drives business value.

What you’ll be doing:

Leadership, Strategy & Client Engagement:

• Act as a performance engineering consultant for key clients, building strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, providing expert guidance, and confidently leading technical discussions to non-technical audiences.
• Champion the value of performance engineering across the business, demonstrating its impact on user experience, conversion, and client ROI.
• Mentor and guide junior to mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of performance excellence and continuous learning.
• Contribute to and implement wider performance engineering strategies, evolving practices, and tooling (e.g., K6, Playwright, APM tools).
• Demonstrate strong AI literacy, with practical experience using generative AI (e.g., LLMs, code-gen tools) as a productivity multiplier for tasks such as script/data generation and analysis. Drive innovation in Performance Monitoring and Testing using AI.
• Collaborate with account and leadership teams to identify opportunities and contribute to commercial proposals.

Hands-on & Release Activities:

• Lead performance testing efforts, including workload modeling, test execution, root cause analysis, and reporting.
• Develop and present clear, actionable reports on key performance metrics (including Core Web Vitals) to both technical and business stakeholders.
• Own the configuration and maintenance of APM and observability tools (e.g., New Relic, DataDog, Dynatrace), including designing meaningful dashboards and robust alerting strategies, as dedicated observability engineers are not always present.
• Act as the performance authority within development teams, providing expertise and oversight, particularly regarding the impact of changes on analytics and sales revenue.
• Drive the agenda for performance optimization, introducing new testing capabilities within allocated projects.

What We Want from You:

Technical Expertise:

• Programming: Strong proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript is critical for new development in K6; additional languages (e.g., Python, Java) are a plus.
• Performance Tooling: Deep, practical expertise with APM/RUM tools like New Relic (our primary tool), DataDog, AppDynamics, or Dynatrace. Strong hands-on proficiency with modern load testing tools, specifically K6 and Playwright; experience with JMeter and Locust is also valuable. Experience with K6 browser testing is a significant advantage.
• Cloud Platform Experience: Demonstrable experience on major cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Web Technologies: Solid experience with front-end performance analysis (Core Web Vitals) and a strong grasp of platforms and architectural concepts (e.g., Next.js, Magento, SAP Hybris, Shopify).
• Analytical Skills: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an understanding of concepts like parameterization in performance testing.

Leadership & Soft Skills:

• Communication: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to curate the right level of content for different audiences, from developers to senior leadership.
• Growth Mindset: A proactive, self-starting attitude with the drive to push boundaries and champion best practices. You remain cool and collected under pressure, can handle constructive feedback, and have a keen awareness of emerging technologies.
• Mentorship & Collaboration: A passion for mentoring with proven experience guiding less experienced engineers. You share knowledge proactively, collaborate across disciplines, and advocate for integrating performance early in the SDLC.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to connect dots between complex business challenges and technical solutions, collaborating with architects and other subject matter experts to drive results, moving beyond a siloed approach.

Consultancy & Business Acumen:

• Client Leadership: An assertive and confident approach to client engagement, with the ability to act as a trusted advisor and stand your ground effectively on large, complex projects.
• Commercial Mindset: Strong commercial acumen, comfortable discussing business drivers like cost and ROI, and an eagerness to contribute to business development activities.

If you know some of this, even better:

• Deeper eCommerce Expertise: Proven experience in performance testing and analysis of e-commerce applications, preferably with platforms like IBM WebSphere Commerce, SAP Hybris, or Magento, or SFCC Sports.
• Broader Stack Exposure: Experience with SRE practices, caching/CDNs, containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes), or infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform) from a performance perspective.
• Continuous Delivery Integration: Experience implementing performance testing and performance gates in CI/CD pipelines, including test automation, environment strategy, and integration with observability tooling.
• Formal Line Management Experience: Experience managing one or more team members with accountability for professional development, performance management, and day-to-day well-being.
• Frontend Performance Analysis: Experience with front-end page load analysis, profiling, and optimization using tools like WebPageTest, PageSpeed Insights, SpeedCurve, or sitespeed.io.

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.

Permanent only:
We offer a great benefits package including  training opportunities, medical insurance, Dental insurance, Meal cards, social events, family friendly policies, discounts with hundreds of retailers and much more.

Our personality and behaviours: We believe that we are what we do, not just what we say. Our shared values and behaviours show how to bring the VML Enterprise Solution's culture to life through the actions we all take every day:

• Connect Meaningfully
• Inspire Creatively
• Include Purposefully
• Approach Positively

Our brilliant, talented people are what makes VML Enterprise Solutions what we are. That’s why we look for people who go beyond and always push our thinking to be better than yesterday.

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.

#LI-AS1 #LI-EMEA

WPP (VML Enterprise Solutions) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers. 

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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