Pankaj D.

About Pankaj D.

Performance Engineering Leader and Platform Architect with 18+ years designing high-throughput distributed systems, performance frameworks, and cloud-native architectures for enterprise SaaS at scale. What I do: • Architect performance testing frameworks, observability platforms, and infrastructure recommendation engines that operate at enterprise scale• Lead cloud-native migrations (EC2 to Kubernetes) with predictive auto-scaling, saving millions in annual infrastructure spend• Build automation that eliminates manual bottlenecks, including a post-test analysis pipeline that reduced engineering analysis time by 83%• Design and benchmark microservices (Identity, Central Messaging) with P50/P95/P99 profiling and capacity planning• Mentor and grow engineering teams, scaling a performance org from 2 to 18 engineers with 3 promoted to senior roles Notable work: • Co-designed a patented Performance Benchmarking Service (PBS) with an infrastructure recommendation engine that analyzes production deployments and recommends EC2 right-sizing, saving millions across 200+ customer environments• Resolved a critical EC2-to-Kubernetes migration blocker by switching load balancing from Round Robin to Least Request, reducing P95 queue wait time by ~80%• Built \"Dyno,\" a Dockerized self-service regression suite that shifts performance testing left, reducing post-merge incidents by ~40%• Engineered end-to-end automated workflows (Sentinel/n8n) from lab provisioning to workload execution to results analysis• Built AI-powered performance skills using Claude Code for automated code analysis, Playwright-based script generation, and N+1/caching anti-pattern detection I speak at conferences (RubyConf), participate in architecture design reviews for major features, and champion hackathon-driven innovation. Currently focused on Kubernetes migration strategies, predictive scaling, and observability-driven cost optimization. Tools & Technologies: Gatling, JMeter, LoadRunner, k6, Playwright, AWS (EC2, ECS, EKS, RDS), Kubernetes, Docker, New Relic (NRQL, APM, Infra, API), Datadog, Dynatrace, Grafana, ELK, Jenkins, n8n, Claude Code, Python, Scala, Java, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, MongoDB Open to conversations about senior technical leadership, platform architecture, and SRE strategy roles.

Experience

1. Lead Performance Engineer

   Coupa Deutschland GmbH

   Nov 2017 — Present

   Architected a modular Gatling-based performance framework from scratch with parallel multi-instance execution and CI/CD integration, expanding coverage by 3x while reducing maintenance effort by ~70%.Co-designed the Performance Benchmarking Service (PBS), a patented platform profiling customer transaction flows and identifying latency hotspots; deployed to 100+ enterprise customers. Enhanced PBS with an infrastructure recommendation engine analyzing production telemetry for EC2 right-sizing, saving millions annually across 200+ environments.Debugged a critical EC2-to-Kubernetes migration blocker caused by passenger queuing, switched load balancing from Round Robin to Least Request, reducing P95 queue wait time by ~80% and unblocking the migration org-wide.Built “Dyno,” a Dockerized self-service regression suite for developers to validate performance on feature branches before merge, reducing post-merge incidents by ~40%.Engineered automated post-test analysis using New Relic API and Google Apps Script, reducing per-engineer analysis from 60 to 10 minutes (83% reduction), reclaiming ~100+ engineering hours monthly.Designed end-to-end automated workflows (Sentinel/n8n) from lab provisioning to results analysis. Built AI-powered skills using Claude Code for code analysis, Playwright script generation, and N+1/caching anti-pattern scanning.Spearheaded Resque jobs and frontend server migration to Kubernetes, engineered predictive auto-scaling based on historical traffic, achieving ~35% cost reduction while handling 2x traffic spikes.Established release validation gates for major upgrades (Elasticsearch, Redis, Ruby, Rails), catching 12+ regressions pre-production. Ran daily workload suites with root cause profiling, reducing repeat incidents by ~30%.Grew the India performance team from 2 to 18 engineers, 3 promoted to senior roles. Presented at RubyConf and Engineering All Hands. Championed hackathon culture, delivering POCs that shipped to production.

Education

• Symbiosis Center of Distance Learning

  Master's degree, Information Technology

  2008 — 2010

• Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati

  Bachelor's Degree, Computer Sciences (B.C.S)

  2004 — 2007

• Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati

  High School, Electrical and Electronics Engineering

  2002 — 2004

Skills

• Test Estimation
• Istqb
• Web Applications
• Web Testing
• Test Automation
• Web Services
• Black Box Testing
• Sdlc
• Saas
• Manual Testing
• Xml
• Soapui
• Databases
• System Integration Testing
• User Acceptance Testing
• Exploratory Testing
• Waterfall
• Android
• Sql
• Quality Center
• Eclipse
• Requirements Analysis
• Regression Testing
• Jira
• Bug Tracking
• UI Testing
• Wikis
• Bugzilla
• Scrum
• Qc
• Qtp
• Mind Mapping
• Integration Testing
• Regression
• Test Planning
• Selenium
• Automation
• Defect Tracking
• QA Automation
• Test Execution