OVERVIEW

We’re hiring a Reliability & Performance Engineering Manager (Contract) to join our Application Delivery & Operations function, focused on ensuring the high availability, responsiveness, and performance of business-critical systems in a regulated financial services environment.
Our tech stack is Microsoft-centric (.NET, ColdFusion, SQL Server, IIS), and the role will be pivotal in meeting the stringent service level expectations required by UK banking clients—including aggressive RTOs/RPOs and 99.99% uptime across key systems. This is a hands-on role, suited to someone who thrives on solving complex infrastructure and application performance challenges before they impact end users.

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Strong background in performance engineering, reliability ops, or production support
• Hands-on expertise in:
• ColdFusion performance tuning (essential for this role)
• SQL Server optimisation and diagnostics
• IIS web server configuration and load handling
• Supporting production-grade .NET applications
• Familiarity with enterprise-grade monitoring tools (e.g. New Relic, AppDynamics, SQL Profiler, SolarWinds)
• Experience working to banking-grade SLAs: high availability (HA), tight RTOs/RPOs, zero-tolerance production downtime
• Comfortable managing incidents in high-pressure, regulated environments

CONTRACT ROLE: RELIABILITY & PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING MANAGER

Hybrid (UK-based)
Day Rate: £500–£650/day (Outside IR35)
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Length: Initial 6 months, with strong extension potential

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Proactively monitor and optimise performance of .NET and ColdFusion applications hosted on IIS, backed by SQL Server
• Define, track, and manage SLAs/SLOs/SLIs in line with banking industry standards – e.g. sub-second response times, 99.99% uptime, low-latency query performance
• Implement synthetic monitoring, real-time alerting, and automated dashboards to detect degradations before they breach SLAs
• Lead deep dives into SQL Server query performance, indexing strategies, blocking/deadlocks, and storage bottlenecks
• Partner with development teams to build resilient, self-healing, observable systems
• Drive post-incident reviews and proactive remediation plans to prevent recurrence
• Support the initial hands-on delivery phase with a view to potentially shaping a small team as needs evolve