Senior Software QA Engineer - Connectors & I/O Performance

Job Title:   Senior Software QA Engineer - Connectors & I/O Performance

Location:  Remote (US Only) 

               *We cannot sponsor or transfer any visas, of any kind, at this time*

Hiring Manager:  Senior QA Engineering Manager

Estimated salary range: $145,000 to $190,000

• The salary offered for this position will be based on a candidate’s experience and skill demonstrated during interviews and other evaluations

About Ocient:

Ocient is a data analytics software solutions company that enables always-on, compute-intensive analysis of complex, large-scale data with outstanding performance that delivers up to 90% price savings. Ocient brings data transformation, loading, complex query processing, AI, OcientML® and OcientGeo® as a single, consolidated solution for deeper insights and data-driven decision making. Enterprises can deploy Ocient’s pilot-to-production solutions on premises, in the OcientCloud® or in the public cloud, with little to no resource-intensive integration. Ocient is a global, carbon-neutral company, headquartered in Chicago, and backed by leading investors including Greycroft, OCA Ventures, In-Q-Tel and Buoyant Ventures. For more information, please visit www.ocient.com.

Position Overview:

Ocient is seeking a Senior Software QA Engineer to join the Connectors, Integrations, and I/O Performance domain. This role focuses on validating correctness, performance, stability, and customer-facing behavior of Ocient’s database drivers (JDBC, Python), client integrations, and high-throughput I/O paths.

This is a hands-on, technically deep QA role for engineers who enjoy breaking complex systems, reasoning about performance bottlenecks, and partnering closely with developers to prevent regressions before customers ever see them.

Key Responsibilities:

•         Own end-to-end QA strategy for database connectors and integrations, including JDBC, Python drivers, Single Sign On integrations, and third-party tools including but not limited to Metabase, Tableau, and DBeaver.
•         Design and execute functional, performance, stress, and soak tests for client-server I/O paths, network behavior, and large result-set handling.
•         Validate query execution correctness and performance when exercised through external clients versus native SQL execution.
•         Analyze connector-level performance regressions, including result fetching, pagination, batching, serialization/deserialization, compression, and network utilization.
•         Develop and maintain automated test frameworks (primarily in Java and Python) for connector validation, regression coverage, and performance baselining.
•         Design and execute benchmarks to evaluate the performance impact of different indexing strategies, including their interaction with query execution, connector-driven access patterns, and I/O behavior across representative workloads.
•         Debug complex failures involving client drivers, networking, serialization formats, protocol mismatches, and server-side execution paths.
•         Partner closely with Software Engineers across Connectors, Query Processing, I/O, and Storage teams to isolate root causes and validate fixes.
•         Review execution plans, logs, metrics, and traces to assess correctness and performance impact.
•         Act as a quality gate for connector and I/O-related features prior to release, including customer-driven fixes and escalations.

Qualifications:

•         4-6+ years of experience in software QA with a strong systems focus.
•         Experience testing JDBC / Python / database drivers or client SDKs.
•         Deep experience testing database systems, drivers, APIs, or distributed systems.
•         Strong SQL skills and understanding of query execution, result materialization, and client-server interaction models.
•         Experience validating I/O performance-sensitive systems, including benchmarking, regression detection, and workload comparison.
•         Proficiency in Java and Python for test automation, data validation, and performance tooling.
•         Comfortable working in Linux environments, reading logs, using command-line tools, and debugging failures across system boundaries.
•         Strong analytical skills with the ability to own ambiguous, cross-component problems and drive them to resolution.

An ideal candidate will have:

•         Significant experience developing test applications for Database APIs, Integrations, and Drivers, particularly those interfacing with the JDBC or ODBC API.
•         Experience developing and maintaining test applications for SSO integrations such as Okta/EntraID/Google.
•         Experience testing or validating integrations with Apache Spark, distributed compute engines, or downstream analytics frameworks that interact with databases via JDBC or custom connectors.
•         Familiarity with networking concepts (latency, throughput, batching, backpressure, serialization costs).
•         Experience validating large result sets, streaming queries, pagination, and memory-sensitive I/O paths.
•         Experience benchmarking or validating indexing strategies, access paths, and data layout choices in analytical or distributed database systems.
•         Exposure to distributed database internals, query plans, execution pipelines, or storage engines.
•         Ability to reason about CPU, memory, and I/O tradeoffs when diagnosing performance issues.
•         A proactive mindset — comfortable questioning assumptions, proposing new test strategies, and preventing regressions.
•         Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially when explaining complex failures to engineering and product teams.
•         Desire to work in a fast-paced startup environment with high ownership and impact.

We are not open to using an agency or staffing company at this time. We do not accept unsolicited agency or staffing resumes and we are not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. 

Ocient provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and makes all hiring decisions without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

All official Ocient job postings and recruiting communications will come directly from our team via our Careers page, LinkedIn, or from an ocient.com email address. If you receive communication about a role from any other source, please treat it with caution and direct questions to [email protected].