Software Engineer – Query Execution

Dremio; United States; Remote; USD 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Dremio is seeking a Software Engineer to join the Query Execution team, focusing on the runtime that executes analytical queries at scale. You’ll work with experienced engineers to deliver well-scoped improvements to the execution engine and help turn query plans into efficient execution.

The role emphasizes writing clear Java code, testing, debugging, and collaboration across teams, with opportunities to learn vectorized processing and memory management in a distributed data platform.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Experience with Java and large Java codebases.
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and basic concurrency concepts.
• Ability to write tested, maintainable code and participate in code reviews.

Responsibilities

• Build and support execution-engine components: implement, test, debug, and maintain execution changes.
• Write clear, maintainable Java code and add unit/integration tests.
• Investigate query correctness, reliability, and performance using logs, benchmarks, and production data.
• Learn runtime and performance fundamentals: vectorized processing, memory usage, parallelism, and data exchange.
• Collaborate with senior engineers and partner teams to deliver incremental improvements.

Skills

Java

OO design

CS fundamentals

Problem-solving

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

Apache Arrow

Parquet

Spark

Job description

Headquarters: Portugal – Remote

Be Part of Building the Future

Dremio is the unified lakehouse platform for self-service analytics and AI, serving hundreds of global enterprises, including Maersk, Amazon, Regeneron, NetApp, and S&P Global. Customers rely on Dremio for cloud, hybrid, and on-prem lakehouses to power their data mesh, data warehouse migration, data virtualization, and unified data access use cases. Based on open source technologies, including Apache Iceberg and Apache Arrow, Dremio provides an open lakehouse architecture enabling the fastest time to insight and platform flexibility at a fraction of the cost. Learn more at www.dremio.com.

About the role Dremio’s Query Execution team builds the runtime responsible for executing analytical queries at scale. The team sits between query planning and table scans, building the systems that turn query plans into efficient, reliable execution.

As a Software Engineer, you’ll work with experienced engineers to build, test, and support well-scoped improvements to the execution engine. You’ll learn how Dremio’s query runtime works while contributing to areas such as query operators, expression evaluation, memory management, scheduling, and performance.

What you’ll be doing

• Build and support execution-engine components: Implement, test, debug, and maintain well-defined changes to query operators, expression evaluation, execution scheduling, and resource management.
• Develop reliable software: Write clear, maintainable Java code; add unit and integration tests; and follow established engineering practices for code review, testing, and documentation.
• Investigate issues: Help diagnose query correctness, reliability, and performance issues using query profiles, logs, telemetry, benchmarks, and production data.
• Learn runtime and performance fundamentals: Build familiarity with vectorized processing, concurrency, memory usage, parallelism, data exchange, and disk spilling.
• Collaborate with the team: Work closely with senior engineers and partner teams to understand requirements, break work into manageable tasks, and deliver incremental improvements.
• Use AI-assisted development tools: Apply AI tools to code comprehension, debugging, test generation, and documentation, while validating results through testing, review, and sound engineering judgment.
• Grow your engineering skills: Participate actively in design discussions and code reviews, seek feedback, and steadily take on broader technical responsibility.

What we’re looking for

• Software engineering foundation: Up to two years of professional software development experience, or equivalent experience through internships, coursework, or substantial personal projects.
• Programming skills: Proficiency in Java or another object-oriented programming language; willingness to learn and work in a large Java codebase.
• Computer science fundamentals: Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and basic concurrency concepts.
• Problem-solving ability: Able to work through well-defined technical problems, ask good questions, and apply feedback to reach a solution.
• Quality mindset: Commitment to writing tested, maintainable code and learning established development, testing, and review practices.
• Communication and collaboration: Able to communicate progress, surface blockers early, and work effectively with teammates.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Bonus points if you have

• • Exposure to database internals, query processing, distributed systems, or large-scale data processing.
  • Familiarity with performance-oriented software concepts such as profiling, memory management, concurrency, or vectorized processing.
  • Experience with C++, Apache Arrow, Parquet, Apache Iceberg, Spark, Hadoop, or cloud object stores.
  • Contributions to open-source projects.

What we value

At Dremio, we hold ourselves to high standards when it comes to People, Thinking, and Action. Our Gnarlies (that’s what we call our employees) communicate with clarity, drive accountability, and are respectful towards each other. We confront brutal facts and focus on results while operating with a sense of urgency and building a “flywheel”. People who like to jump in and drive momentum will thrive in our #GnarlyLife.

Dremio is an equal opportunity employer supporting workforce diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other unlawful factor.

Dremio is committed to providing any necessary accommodations for individuals with disabilities within our application and interview process. To request accommodation due to a disability, please inform your recruiter.

Dremio has policies in place to protect the personal information that employees and applicants disclose to us. Please click here to review the privacy notice.