Performance Engineer

Jamal Ghaus

US citizen; US Department of Defense Security Clearance (1994 to 1997)

Home: 408-***-****; Mobile: 408-***-****; **********@*******.***

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamalghaus

I am Passionate about software performance and optimal use of hardware resources. I am a hands-on performance architect with extensive experience in all aspects of performance analysis: Profiling and debugging code, capacity planning, tuning JVM and applications, writing non-functional requirements and detailed test-plans, managing Agile performance projects, analyzing customer production data, deploying applications, writing Java code, analyzing performance test results.

I have excellent analytical and interpersonal skills which have helped me work across teams to accomplish projects: with Product Management teams to develop performance requirements and test scenarios, with Development teams to profile the code and debug runtime issues, with Project Managers to realistically schedule Agile Development projects, with IT to setup complex test environments.

I am intimately familiar with performance analysis tools: PERFMON, NMON, AppDynamics, Introscope, NewRelic etc. used to profile code and to collect resource utilization data. LoadRunner, SilkPerformer, SOAPUI, Oracle AWR reports, used for obtaining response time and throughput data. JSTACK, JHAT, YourKit, JConsole, Fire Bug, IE F12, Unix NETSTAT, VMSTAT, SAR, TOP, etc. used for debugging.

I have written significant parts of performance test automation in ANT and Hudson (predecessor of Jenkins). Wrote Java/JDBC code for populating performance testing databases, wrote Silkperformer and Loadrunner scripts. Familiar with Python and Linux/Unix scripting

I have extensive experience in configuring, installing and tuning middleware: JVM tuning, WebLogic, WebSphere, Tomcat, .NET, etc., on Windows, AIX, HPUX, Red Hat, LINUX. I am very familiar with the effects of VM configuration on the reproducibility of performance test results.

EXPERIENCE

Performance engineering

Veritas Inc, Mt. View, CA; (March 2017 to Nov. 2017)

I was the first person in the eDiscovery Platform team with performance analysis background. I worked closely with engineers and customer-relations personnel to reproduce and analyze customer’s performance issues. Acquired profiling tools and setup methods to identify performance problems. Evaluated load testing tools. Interviewed for hiring performance engineers in India.

Performance Architect

ACI Worldwide, Elkhorn, NE; (July 2013 to February 2017)

Lead teams of engineers to analyze performance of ACI's credit card payment processing, Internet banking and fraud detection applications. I wrote non-functional requirements and workflow documents. Developed schedules and detailed test plans; worked with Product Management group to develop load-test scenarios; work with IT to setup performance test-beds. Furthermore, I wrote SilkPerformer scripts for load testing and wrote Java code for seeding performance databases. During test execution phase, I worked closely with engineers to profile the code and debug complex runtime/performance issues. Analyzed performance test results and execute hardware capacity planning.

Principal Performance Engineer

Computer Associates Inc, San Francisco, CA; (May 2009 to July 2013)

Planned and executed performance tests to assess the CPU, memory and Response time overhead of Introscope, company’s flagship product used for performance profiling the applications in production environments. Performance tested and worked closely with development teams to debug Introscope on WebShphere, WebLogic and .NET platforms. Developed ANT based automation for performance tests. Received CA's "Above and Beyond" award for an initiative to improve reproducibility of performance testing results.

Lead Performance Engineer

Ning Inc, Palo Alto, CA; (May 2008 to May 2009)

Started from a one-person performance team. Interviewed and hired two other engineers earned praises for the work. Arranged vendor presentations and implementation plans for Introscope in production environment. Identified and trouble-shoot several performance issues. Developed a method for using Firebug in conjunction with Silk Performer to obtain web page performance details under load. Quantified uncertainties in the performance-regression analysis. Developed a structure for organizing performance testing scripts in the software repository (SVN). Developed SilkPerformer scripts for the performance-regression analysis of Ning software. Designed and implemented performance, scalability and stability tests for various parts of the Ning software system.

Senior Software Engineer/Performance Engineering Lead

BEA Systems Inc. / Plumtree Inc., San Francisco, CA; (April 2004 to May 2008)

Reported to the Director of QA/SETI Department in Plumtree Inc (bought out by BEA Systems Inc in 2006 which in turn was bought out by Oracle in 2008). Had complete responsibility for the performance, scalability and capacity analysis of several BEA products [Portal Server, Collaboration Server, Pathways, Analytics Server, Search Server]. Worked with the development teams, early in the dev cycles to identify areas requiring focused performance testing and developed performance testing plans accordingly. Developed tools to generate large database for scalability and performance testing of Pathways (enterprise search and social computing product) and Collaboration Server. Worked with dev teams to debug complex performance problems. Developed application deployment architecture considering performance, Search Server Clustering & Index partitioning, and product licensing issues. Developed JVM tuning parameters for Sun, HP, IBM and BEA JRockit JVMs. Tuned application servers: Weblogic, WebSphere, Tomcat and .NET Framework. Investigated hardware performance characteristics.

Setup and managed Performance Testing labs consisting of Windows, HPUX, Sun, Red Hat, Suse and ESX machines. Familiar with remote systems management tools such as Raritan, Avocent and VMWare tools (Virtualcenter and Labmanager). Worked with DBA to install and maintain performance testing databases in Oracle, Oracle RAC, MS SQL server and DB2.

Started “Code for Performance” initiative in BEA BID: Implemented Introscope or JRockit Management Console for developers to test performance as they developed. Worked with developers to identify performance issues.

Senior / Principal Consultant

BEA Systems - Professional Services, San Jose, CA; (1999 to 2001)

Developed J2EE/Weblogic applications for various BEA clients. Also performed load testing, performance tuning, trouble-shooting, and architectural reviews. Typical projects were:

Charles Schwab: Developed the Mutual Fund trading system for a large equity trading application. The system utilized JSP, Servlets, EJB and other Java technologies.

Electronic Arts: Developed a JMS based application for collecting marketing data. Also developed an application to monitor the performance of several components of ea.com website. The application utilized JSP, Servelts, and JNI.

Hewlett Packard Inc: Participated in the full lifecycle of a J2EE application: Participated in the requirements gathering, developed Use Case document, developed UML/Rational Rose based architectural diagrams, participated in coding, and performed complete load testing using Mercury LoadRunner and Introscope.

EDUCATION, PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL

BS in Nuclear Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

MS in Nuclear Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Professional Organizations and Interests:

Organizer of Saratoga Java User Group; Member of Silicon Valley Java User Group; Member of JBB, a San Francisco Java User Group. Member of American Nuclear Society.

Volunteer Work: Developed software tools and infrastructure to organize BEA employees to deliver effective volunteer support to Habitat for Humanity, San Francisco Food Bank etc. Volunteered as judge for Monta Vista High School Debating team. Other charity work.

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