u/PerfPivot2026

I'm close to 3.5 years into my job doing Non Functional Testing and performance engineering. I'm looking to switch out to a product-based firm soon, but I want to avoid roles that are going to force me through a brutal LeetCode/DSA interview gauntlet. I suck at that and want it out of my way.

I'm currently doing my AWS SAA to get my cloud knowledge back up to speed since I haven't really touched it since 2022. For after I'm done, I'm looking at a longer transition into FinOps or Governance. I think I like controlling costs and I kind of excel at it naturally since it feels pretty adjacent to optimizing system performance and tracking down resource hogs.

Has anyone made a similar jump from testing/performance into FinOps? Just looking to hear from people who might have figured out if this is a realistic long-term plan, and what I can do alongside my SAA to be battle-ready faster.

I’ve been in performance testing for about 3.5 years. I’ve run projects end-to-end getting applications ready before release. Now I want to switch out because I don't see the growth that tech-driven product firms provide, and I want to make sure I'm moving toward something that is harder for AI to replace.

Ideally, I still don't want to code heavily. I suck at DSA and LeetCode grinding. I want out of that step so it can't creep into the interview process. I'm okay to let go of the title Software Engineer. Infrastructure, Platform, Cloud, DevOps, Resiliency, Chaos - anything in that realm works.

I have some DevSecOps experience and I've worked with GitLab CI/CD. I also have an academic research background in system vulnerabilities and stress-testing, so I naturally lean toward breaking systems.

I'm doing my AWS SAA right now. After I'm done with it, what is the broader idea of where to head my career? If I target Resiliency or Chaos Engineering, can I bypass the heavy DSA rounds? Would love to hear from people who have figured out the why/why not of this transition.