Staff SDET

At Yugabyte, we are on a mission to become the default transactional database for enterprises building cloud-native applications. Our flagship product, YugabyteDB, is a PostgreSQL-compatible distributed database purpose-built for cloud-native workloads. It is resilient, scalable, and flexible—capable of running across any cloud or on-premises infrastructure. With familiar APIs and developer-friendly tools, YugabyteDB empowers developers to be instantly productive.

The transactional database market is projected to reach $64B by 2025, and YugabyteDB’s cloud-native design, horizontal scalability, and geo-distribution capabilities position us perfectly to meet this demand. Many of the world’s leading enterprises are migrating from legacy RDBMSs (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2) to YugabyteDB to power their mission-critical applications.

Join the Database Revolution at Yugabyte!

Team

The Database QA team is where distributed systems theory meets real-world chaos. We own the end-to-end quality of YugabyteDB, rigorously validating everything from core storage and language layers (YSQL/YCQL) to high-impact features like Change Data Capture. By blending performance engineering with system-level stress testing, we ensure our database thrives in the most unpredictable production environments. We are the champions of correctness in a distributed world.

Role

Are you obsessed with finding the 'impossible' bug? In this role, you will build and break distributed systems at scale. As an SDET at Yugabyte, you will design sophisticated automation and chaos-testing frameworks that simulate real-world disasters to validate our database’s core promises. You’ll dive deep into cross-feature integration and security, collaborating with development teams to influence the product's evolution. We’re looking for a technical leader who can transform complex customer scenarios into rigorous stress tests, ensuring YugabyteDB remains the gold standard for distributed SQL.

Responsibilities

• Architect, develop and maintain test automation frameworks. 
• Design and execute comprehensive test suites focusing on the "hard problems" of distributed databases: stress, resiliency, scalability, and performance.
• Design and orchestrate distributed systems tests that simulate real-world failure modes.
• Own the end-to-end quality of major features, from initial design review and test planning to production-ready automation
• Modernize existing test footprints by identifying opportunities for redesign, improved efficiency, and higher stability in CI/CD pipelines.
• Uncover deep-seated bugs such as data corruption and consistency violations.
• Deep-dive into the codebase to understand technical dependencies and execution paths, ensuring tests target the most critical logic.
• Scale our test infrastructure, ensuring that the built tests scale with our growing feature set.
• Define and inspire changes to our product with our development engineering team based on feedback from tests and customer issues.
• Act as a technical lead for junior engineers and serve as an internal advocate for the customer experience.
• Develop and contribute to internal and external knowledge bases. Be a champion for our customers.
• Go above and beyond to ensure customers are getting the most out of their investment in the Yugabyte database.

Requirements

• 5–8 years of experience in Software Development in Test (SDET) or Systems Engineering, with a BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field.
• Strong foundation in Distributed Systems: Deep understanding of distributed architecture, including consistency models (linearizability, serializability), the CAP theorem, and consensus protocols (Raft).
• Database Internals Expertise: Highly desirable knowledge of query processing, transactions (ACID), recovery logs, and concurrent B-tree access.
• Proficient in Data Structures and Concurrent Programming. Must be comfortable reading and navigating the complex C++ codebase to identify potential failure points.
• Working knowledge of Python, Java programming languages and advanced SQL.
• Sound understanding of JDBC APIs and database connectivity.
• Hands-on experience with Linux, shell scripting, Git, and architecting scalable CI/CD pipelines 
• Ability to leverage generative AI and LLM-based coding assistants to accelerate the authoring, refactoring, and optimization of complex test suites.
• Exceptional troubleshooting skills with a "break-it" mindset; ability to trace issues from high-level test failures down to the code level for both internal and customer-reported bugs.
• A proven track record of identifying complex bugs, specifically data corruption and consistency issues.

As an equal opportunity employer, Yugabyte is committed to a diverse workforce. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws.

Yugabyte is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable laws.

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