Staff Software Engineer - Performance

Business runs on contracts. Every dollar earned, relationship formed, and advantage gained comes down to the contract that makes it real. But getting a contract done is more complicated than it should be. And when contract data is buried, leaders can’t see risks, obligations, or act in time.

Ironclad is the leading AI contracting platform that transforms agreements into assets. Contracts move faster, insights surface instantly, and agents push work forward, all with you in control. Whether you’re buying or selling, Ironclad unifies the entire process on one intelligent platform, providing leaders with the visibility they need to stay one step ahead. That’s why the world’s most transformative organizations, from OpenAI to the World Health Organization and the Associated Press, trust Ironclad to accelerate their business.

We’re consistently recognized as a leader in the industry: a Leader in the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contract Lifecycle Management, a Fortune Great Place to Work six years running, and one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Workplaces. Ironclad has also been named to Forbes’ AI 50 and Business Insider’s list of Companies to Bet Your Career On.

We’re backed by leading investors including Accel, Y Combinator, Sequoia, BOND, and Franklin Templeton. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

This is a hybrid role based out of our San Francisco office. Office attendance is required at least twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for collaboration and connection. There may be additional in-office days for team or company events.

Performance Engineering @ Ironclad

As a Performance Engineer, you’ll play a critical role in ensuring Ironclad’s platform remains fast, scalable, and reliable as we continue to grow at an incredible pace. With our fast-paced release cycle and an influx of large-scale enterprise customers, our goal is to maintain development velocity while proactively identifying and eliminating performance bottlenecks. You’ll have the opportunity to shape performance strategy from the ground up, build and maintain performance frameworks, analyze system behavior under load, and work cross-functionally to integrate performance-first principles throughout the product development lifecycle.

We are seeking a Senior/Staff Performance Engineer to enhance performance, scalability, and reliability, collaborating with development teams to eliminate bottlenecks, execute performance tests, and drive optimizations. This growing team offers high impact, visibility, and autonomy as we tackle complex scalability challenges and optimize performance amid rapid expansion. With big technical problems ahead, your work will directly shape how Ironclad scales. If you thrive in a high-impact, performance-driven culture and value collaboration, let’s talk!

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and execute performance tests using various tools and techniques to identify bottlenecks and performance issues.

• Own end-to-end performance testing, including strategy, requirements gathering, test planning, scripting, execution, monitoring, and results analysis.

• Collaborate with engineering teams to diagnose and resolve performance issues across application code, infrastructure, and database layers.

• Monitor and analyze performance metrics using tools like Datadog or New Relic, and provide optimization recommendations.

• Develop and maintain performance testing frameworks, and coverage scripts, ensuring scalability and automation.

• Conduct in-depth performance analysis and tuning, participate in code reviews, and offer deep performance insights.

• Work with stakeholders to understand and establish performance requirements, refine performance benchmarks, KPIs, and SLAs.

• Stay up to date with performance best practices and emerging technologies to continuously improve system reliability.

• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills with an aptitude for learning new technologies

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in performance engineering with a strong focus on optimization, scalability, and system reliability.

• Hands-on expertise in performance testing methodologies, including load, stress, chaos, and c