Performance Engineer, Backend

Role Overview

Automattic is hiring a Backend Performance Engineer to optimize the performance of its products and improve user experience. You’ll collaborate with engineering teams to find bottlenecks, strengthen performance observability, and influence backend architecture decisions.

Responsibilities

• Identify and eliminate backend performance bottlenecks by profiling PHP applications.
• Analyze and optimize database performance using MySQL/MariaDB query analysis.
• Improve caching efficiency, including optimizing Memcached usage.
• Build and enhance performance observability by:
  • developing dashboards and instrumentation
  • implementing automated regression detection before issues reach production
• Partner with product and platform engineers to review code/architecture through a performance lens, advocating for:
  • efficient database access patterns
  • effective caching strategies
  • backend design decisions that support performance

Requirements

• Experience profiling PHP backend performance.
• Strong knowledge of MySQL/MariaDB query performance analysis.
• Experience optimizing Memcached usage.
• Ability to build/extend performance observability (dashboards, instrumentation, alerts).
• Collaboration skills to influence performance-focused code and architecture decisions.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with automated detection and regression monitoring in production environments.