Principal Software Development Engineer in Test – Performance, Bare-Metal

Akamai Technologies

. Define and own test strategy for hypervisor behavior, VM performance, and fleet-level quality gates .

Posted 10/14/2026full-timeRemote • Massachusetts • United StatesLead💰 $169,300 - $304,700 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in defining test strategies for hypervisor behavior and VM performance, with a strong focus on statistical rigor and systems-level testing. Proficient in developing automated performance benchmarks and validating deployment safety across IaaS platforms.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Performance TestingHypervisor PlatformsKVM/QEMU/Libvirt InternalsTest Harness DevelopmentStatistical Thinking

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Performance TestingSystems EngineeringStatistical AnalysisTest Harness DevelopmentVM Performance ValidationDebugging Across ArchitecturesExperimental DesignBaseline AnalysisChange-Point DetectionRegression Gating

Soft Skills

MentoringStakeholder Communication

Tools & Technologies

GoPythonPerlLinux PerfVTuneEBPFBashJenkinsSaltStack

Industry Keywords

Hypervisor BehaviorVM PerformanceIaaS PlatformFleet-Level Quality GatesDeployment SafetyRollback StrategiesNUMA EffectsCache Effects

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

JenkinsLinuxPerlPythonSaltStackGo

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Define and own test strategy for hypervisor behavior, VM performance, and fleet-level quality gates
Mentor SDETs on statistical rigor and systems-level testing
Design reproducible test environments that emulate bare-metal VM conditions using containers
Validate data integrity without requiring physical hardware
Develop automated performance benchmarks with statistical baselines, change-point detection, and regression gating for CI/CD pipelines
Collaborate with product and SRE to define SLO measurement
Validate deployment safety and rollback strategies
Write test harnesses and performance analysis pipelines in Go, Python, and Perl
Own VM/fleet test strategy, performance quality gates, and hypervisor behavior validation across the IaaS platform

Requirements

What you’ll need

12 years in testing, including performance testing, hypervisor platforms, and systems engineering or its equivalent
Experience in KVM/QEMU/libvirt internals, VM-exits, and NUMA/cache effects on performance
Experience debugging across x86 and ARM architectures on bare metal and emulated environments
Linux fundamentals, including scheduler, memory management, I/O subsystems, storage architectures, and block devices
Statistical thinking, including experimental design, baseline analysis, variance control, and stakeholder communication
Proficiency in Linux perf, VTune, eBPF, Bash, Jenkins, and SaltStack
Experience writing test harnesses and performance analysis pipelines in Go, Python, and Perl

Benefits

Comp & perks

Healthcare
401K savings plan
Company holidays
Vacation in the form of PTO
Sick time
Parental leave
Employee assistance program
Mental wellness support
Financial wellness support
Annual bonus or incentives
Equity awards
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
Flexible work arrangements through FlexBase: work at home, in an office, or a combination of both