Information Technology Specialist (Performance Test Engineer)
What you'd do
WHAT IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY? A description of the business units can be found at: https://www.jobs.irs.gov/about/who/business-divisions Position(s) are to be filled in following area(s): IT - Filing Season and Legislative Delivery - Filing Season & Legislative Delivery REVIEW THE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW FOR FURTHER DETAILS
Major duties
The following are the duties of this position at the full working level. If this vacancy includes more than one grade and you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform these duties and receive training to help you grow in this position. Leads the design, development, and execution of performance, load, and stress testing strategies for enterprise applications and systems. Develops performance test plans, scripts, and scenarios using industry-standard tools such as LoadRunner and JMeter, and demonstrates proficiency in Java, Python, and C to support script development, execution and test automation across complex systems. Establishes performance testing frameworks integrated into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines using platforms such as GitHub to support continuous delivery and system validation across cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure. Serves as a technical expert and advisor on performance testing methodologies, tools, and best practices, evaluating emerging technologies and advising leadership on their applicability and effectiveness. Translates complex technical and non-functional requirements, including response time, throughput, scalability, and resource utilization, into actionable performance test strategies aligned with federal engineering standards. Leads the full lifecycle of performance testing solutions, including planning, design, development, documentation, implementation, integration, and maintenance. Develops technical documentation, including Performance Engineering Models, test strategies, and performance testing reports. Executes performance tests using industry-standard tools and monitoring platforms (e.g., AppDynamics and Splunk), analyzes results, identifies bottlenecks, and publishes detailed metrics and reports. Ensures performance validation is embedded within Agile and DevSecOps processes through automated testing and continuous monitoring, while identifying risks, addressing performance constraints, and providing technical leadership on complex, enterprise-scale systems to ensure compliance with performance and government standards. Collaborates with developers, architects, and infrastructure teams to ensure systems meet defined performance and scalability requirements. Works closely with stakeholders to define performance criteria and ensure alignment with mission objectives. Supports cross-functional teams in interpreting test results and implementing improvements. Develops and manages project scope, including objectives, timelines, resources, and risk strategies related to performance testing efforts. Serve as a technical point of contact for stakeholders, resolving performance-related issues and ensuring clear communication of testing outcomes. Prepare and present technical reports, dashboards, and briefings to leadership on system performance, risks, and recommendations.
What you need to qualify
Federal experience is not required. Experience may have been gained in the public sector, private sector or through Volunteer Service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-timework is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume. You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement. QUALIFICATION REQUIRMENTS: To qualify for this position, you must meet the qualification requirements outlined below: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADE 12 LEVEL UP (GS or Equivalent): To be eligible for this position, you must have at least one (1) year Information Technology related experience demonstrating each of the following nine competencies: 1) Attention to Detail, 2) Customer Service, 3) Decision Making, 4) Information Management, 5) Interpersonal Skills, 6) Oral Communication, 7) Problem Solving, 8) Teamwork and 9) Technical Competence. AND SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE GS-14: To be eligible for this position, you must have one (1) year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience includes: Leading or coordinating IT projects, application-related efforts, operational initiatives, or system-related activities that affect multiple users, teams, programs, or business processes. Applying advanced IT principles, concepts, methods, and practices to evaluate requirements; resolve technical issues; guide system, application, or code testing and configuration decisions; and ensure technical documentation and federal cybersecurity, privacy, or regulatory requirements are addressed. Engaging customers, stakeholders, users, product or business owners, and technical teams to define business or technical requirements, communicate technical impacts, and guide delivery of secure, reliable, scalable IT solutions. Evaluating system, service, or application performance, availability, reliability, security controls, usability, and operational effectiveness; identifying risks, issues, defects, or gaps; and leading corrective actions or improvement efforts. Analyzing competing technical approaches and providing authoritative recommendations to management, stakeholders, or IT specialists on the selection, design, configuration, implementation, or improvement of IT solutions with organizational impact. Experience developing and executing performance, load, and stress testing strategies to evaluate application performance, scalability, reliability, and system behavior under varying workload conditions. Experience designing, developing, and maintaining performance test frameworks, test scripts, and test scenarios used to validate system performance requirements. Experience conducting performance analysis by evaluating response time, throughput, resource utilization, capacity, and system behavior to identify performance limitations and improvement opportunities. Experience implementing automated performance testing processes within software development pipelines to support continuous system validation and delivery. Experience performing root cause analysis of performance issues by reviewing testing results, application behavior, monitoring data, and system performance metrics. AND You must also meet the following requirement(s): PERFORMANCE RATING: Current federal employees must have at least a fully successful or equivalent performance rating to receive consideration. TIME AFTER COMPETITIVE APPOINTMENT (TACA): By the closing date (or if this is an open continuous announcement, by the cut-off date) specified in this job announcement, current civilian employees must have completed at least 90 days of federal civilian service since their latest non-temporary appointment from a competitive referral certificate, known as time after competitive appointment. For this requirement, a competitive appointment is one where you applied to and were appointed from an announcement open to "All US Citizens" TIME IN GRADE (TIG): Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements. For positions above the GS-05, applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year (52 weeks) at the next lower grade level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the grade you are applying for. For positions at the GS-05, you cannot advance to the GS-05 if you have held a GS-02 in the past 52 weeks. There is no TIG restriction for GS-02, 03, or 04 positions. For more information on qualifications please refer to OPM's Qualifications Standards.
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