By Ocient Staff
It’s challenging work to build hyperscale data solutions. While the technology always offers challenges, we hear from our customers that it’s often the humans at Ocient that make a difference. With approximately 160 employees (and growing) around the world, the majority of our colleagues are best-in-class software engineers laser focused on building a scalable platform and features to help our customers make sense of all the data around them. This month, we are excited to feature a Senior Software Engineer, John Wirtz, for our employee spotlight.
Let’s learn more about John’s background and see how he fits into his role here at Ocient.
What is your name, what do you do at Ocient?
My name is John Wirtz and I am a Senior Software Engineer at Ocient that concentrates on testing and automation.
Where are you based and how do you take advantage of our remote first policy?
I am based in a suburb just outside of Chicago called Oak Park. There’s a lot of great opportunities that the remote first policy has offered me. Since there is no commute, I have more time in the morning and evening to spend with my family.
How many years have you been with Ocient?
I have been at Ocient 2 and ½ years.
What are some things you like to do in your free time?
I like to have an active lifestyle, such as playing basketball or working out at the gym. I love spending time with my family, and I always enjoy having a couple of craft beers with my friends.
What’s the next place you would like to check off on your travel bucket list? Or, if you are not into traveling, are you binge watching any shows right now?
I would love to go back to Italy, I went once during high school on a trip but it would be great to go back as an adult and it is also number 1 on my wife’s list of places to go. I would love to see Rome, Florence, and Venice again.
What is your go-to comfort food?
I always love eating a good cheeseburger with fries. We are very spoiled in Chicago with how many good burger places we have, so I try to enjoy a lot of them.
Which core value do you resonate the most with in your daily working life with Ocient?
The Ocient core value of being “Efficiently Effective” resonates with me. When you are in an environment like Ocient that is always busy and moving, it is critical to be efficient with your work and maximize the value of your work when you are executing it. I really take pride in my testing that the tests are effective and by using automation the test execution becomes very efficient.
What is one (or some) of your proudest moments while working at Ocient?
I was very proud of my feature team’s execution around the CTAS feature which was under pressure to deliver for a customer deal. The team all worked together to make a high-quality feature, but also created a lot of greats tests to make sure the feature was stable then and into the future.
What career advice would you give your younger self?
Testing is not always easy or simple, and when you hit your bumps or walls, just keep moving forward. This is not always easy but when you get past those obstacles the feeling of success is worth dealing with all the adversity.
Would you like to give an employee shoutout? (someone at Ocient who has inspired you or helped you out along the way)
James McDonald has been a great technical mentor and has helped me build great test automation and tooling with our brainstorming chats or code reviews. His collaboration has led to higher quality tests and tools that we use in our test automation.
Interested in joining the team?
Ocient is a remote-first company full of efficiently effective & craft driven contributors. We are passionate about delivering the very best in hyperscale data solutions to our customers. See what open positions we have on our Job Postings page or explore our Partnership Opportunities.