Senior Query Routing & Database Compatibility Engineer (USD 8K/month CONTRACTOR)

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Engineer with strong expertise in distributed systems, database internals, and query execution architecture. This role focuses on understanding how queries move across system boundaries, how different database engines interpret and execute them, and how to ensure compatibility when routing workloads across heterogeneous backends.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical knowledge of distributed systems with a strong understanding of SQL dialects, query transpilation, and database engine behavior.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement query routing and workload offloading mechanisms across heterogeneous database engines.
• Understand and address engine-boundary compatibility challenges, including SQL dialect differences and unsupported features.
• Develop query transpilation and adaptation strategies to ensure compatibility across database backends.
• Analyze differences in result types, data semantics, and execution behavior across database engines.
• Evaluate query execution paths, routing decisions, and backend capabilities.
• Troubleshoot complex distributed query execution and interoperability issues.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to improve query processing, reliability, and performance.

Must-Have Qualifications

• Deep distributed-systems expertise , including an understanding of execution across multiple services or database backends.
• Strong database engine and SQL dialect literacy , including the ability to reason about differences in syntax, semantics, and execution behavior.
• Hands-on experience with query routing, workload offloading, or similar cross-engine execution architectures.
• Experience with SQL transpilation, query rewriting, or query adaptation between different database systems.
• Ability to identify unsupported features and design appropriate compatibility or fallback strategies.
• Strong understanding of result types, data type mappings, and semantic differences between database engines.
• Proven ability to debug complex interoperability issues at system and engine boundaries.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Apache Arrow, Apache DataFusion, Substrait, Apache Calcite, SQLGlot, or similar query-processing technologies.
• Familiarity with modern analytical database architectures and query execution engines.
• Experience building database proxies, protocol-compatible interfaces, or backend emulators.
• Contributions to open-source database or query-engine projects.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for an engineer who can reason deeply about both distributed systems and database engine boundaries—not just someone who can write SQL or build conventional backend services.

If you have hands-on experience with query routing, cross-engine compatibility, and the internals of query processing systems, we'd love to hear from you.