Ceph Performance Engineer

Introduction

At IBM Infrastructure & Technology, we design and operate the systems that keep the world running. From high-resiliency mainframes and hybrid cloud platforms to networking, automation, and site reliability. Our teams ensure the performance, security, and scalability that clients and industries depend on every day. Working in Infrastructure & Technology means tackling complex challenges with curiosity and collaboration. You’ll work with diverse technologies and colleagues worldwide to deliver resilient, future-ready solutions that power innovation. With continuous learning, career growth, and a supportive culture, IBM provides the opportunities to build expertise and shape the infrastructure that drives progress.

Your role and responsibilities

As a Software Performance Analyst: Storage, you will work throughout a product life cycle to ensure performance goals are met. You will collaborate with product planners, owners, and development teams to design and implement enhancements that improve software performance. Your primary responsibilities will include: • Establish Performance Goals: Work with product planners and owners to establish measurable performance goals that meet market requirements, ensuring software performance meets client needs. • Design and Implement Workloads: Design and implement workloads reflecting actual client usage patterns, requesting measurements and performing analysis to verify performance goals are met. • Collaborate on Enhancements: Work closely with development teams on design and implementation enhancements, making tuning recommendations to improve software performance. • Develop Capacity Planning Guidance: Develop and provide capacity planning and investigation guidance and tools to Sales and Support teams, enabling effective solution delivery. • Analyze and Optimize Performance: Perform analysis and make recommendations to optimize software performance, ensuring solutions meet client needs and expectations.

• Develop and execute comprehensive performance testing plans for Ceph storage systems

• Analyze metrics, identify improvement areas, and collaborate with teams for enhancements

• Conduct scalability and interoperation testing to ensure system robustness with different associated products

• Design, implement, and maintain automated Ceph storage test scripts

• Troubleshoot and resolve system failures promptly

• Establish and maintain Ceph storage benchmarking standards

• Conduct regular performance at scale tests, assess capabilities, and identify potential bottlenecks

• Collaborate with teams to optimize system performance based on benchmarks

• Generate detailed performance reports and maintain documentation

• Communicate performance and interoperability test progress, results, and risks to relevant stakeholders

• Collaborate across teams to enhance overall system performance.

Required technical and professional expertise

Exposure to Performance Analysis: Familiarity with methods and tools for analyzing software performance, including workload design and measurement techniques. • Understanding of Product Life Cycle: Knowledge of the various stages involved in a product life cycle, including planning, development, and deployment. • Experience with Workload Design: Exposure to designing and implementing workloads that reflect real-world client usage patterns. • Familiarity with Capacity Planning: Basic understanding of capacity planning principles and techniques for delivering effective solutions. • Exposure to Collaboration Tools: Familiarity with collaboration tools and techniques for working with cross-functional teams, including development, sales, and support.

• 1-2 years of experience in performance testing and automation

• Basic knowledge of performance testing tools and reporting tools

• Strong scripting (Python, Bash, etc.) and programming skills (C/C++)

• Early experience with benchmarking tools and methodologies

• Basic knowledge of Ceph storage architecture, components, and deployment

• Hands-on experience with configuring and tuning Ceph clusters.

Preferred technical and professional experience

Familiarity with Performance Optimization Tools: Exposure to tools and techniques for optimizing software performance, including profiling and benchmarking. • Knowledge of Storage Technologies: Understanding of storage technologies and their impact on software performance, including storage area networks and disk arrays. Experience with Data Analysis: Exposure to data analysis techniques and tools, including data visualization and statistical analysis, to identify performance trends and opportunities for improvement.

Knowledge of open source development, and working experience in open source projects

Certifications related to Ceph storage and performance testing are a plus

Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their storage services

Experience with container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes

Knowledge of monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana) and logging frameworks

Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, cross-functional team environment

Knowledge of AI/ML, exposure to Gen AI.

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.