Middle SDET — Data Platform / Query Engine

About the Client:

Our client is a leading enterprise data platform company building an open, high-performance data lakehouse for AI and analytical workloads. The platform combines an intelligent SQL query engine, an AI-ready semantic layer, and an open catalog built on Apache Iceberg — enabling Fortune 500 companies across finance, energy, manufacturing, and logistics to unify, query, and govern data at massive scale across cloud and on-premise sources.

About the Role:

We are looking for a Middle-level SDET to design and maintain automated tests for a large-scale distributed data platform. You will validate the correctness, performance, and reliability of the query engine, connectivity layer, and backend services across all major clouds.

This is a data-heavy, backend-focused role. We are not looking for web/UI QA engineers — the work centers on validating distributed query execution, data correctness at scale, connectivity drivers, and backend microservices.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain automated tests in Python / pytest for backend services, REST APIs, and distributed data components.
• Write end-to-end, integration, and regression tests covering SQL query execution, data correctness, and platform APIs.
• Support performance and load testing with JMeter, including workloads over JDBC / ODBC / Arrow Flight drivers.
• Validate data-intensive scenarios — query plans, result correctness across data sources, metadata consistency, and behavior under concurrency.
• Contribute to CI/CD test pipelines in Jenkins — configure, maintain, and troubleshoot.
• Provision and manage test environments in Kubernetes (GKE / EKS / AKS) across GCP, AWS, and Azure using Docker.
• Investigate failures across the stack — query engine, distributed services, drivers, infrastructure — and drive them to resolution with engineering.
• Collaborate with US-based developers on testability and quality gates.

Required Qualifications:

• Education: B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Programming: Strong proficiency in Python, including pytest, with a solid grasp of OOP and software design principles.
• SQL & Data: Strong SQL skills and solid understanding of how relational and analytical data systems work.
• Data-intensive testing experience: Hands-on experience testing data-intensive systems — query engines, ETL/ELT pipelines, streaming platforms, or analytical databases. Candidates with only web/UI QA backgrounds are not a fit.
• Testing experience: 3+ years in backend/system test automation or SDET roles.
• CI/CD & DevOps basics: Practical experience with Jenkins pipelines and deploying/maintaining test environments.
• Containers: Working knowledge of Docker and basic Kubernetes (running workloads, debugging pods, kubectl fluency).
• Cloud: Comfortable operating in at least one major cloud (GCP, AWS, or Azure).
• Version Control: Confident with Git / GitHub workflows.
• English: Upper-Intermediate or higher (B2+) — daily written and verbal communication with a US-based engineering team.
• Availability: Able to work EU hours with a 2–3 hour shift toward US West Coast time to ensure daily overlap with the client team.

Desired Skills:

• Experience testing REST APIs and backend microservices at scale.
• Familiarity with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, Kafka) and MPP SQL query engines (e.g., Presto, Trino, or similar).
• Understanding of modern data lakehouse concepts, open table formats (Apache Iceberg), and data warehousing.
• Experience with data connectivity drivers: JDBC, ODBC, Arrow Flight.
• Performance testing with JMeter or comparable load-testing tools.
• Kubernetes on managed services (GKE / EKS / AKS) and multi-cloud exposure.
• IaC tools such as Terraform.
• Understanding of query plan generation, query acceleration / materializations, and metadata integrity in distributed data systems.