Software Development Engineer 4

Overview

We are hiring for a US-based remote position. Must be able to work PST hours. This role will start as a 5 month engagement and could extend up to 18 months.

Are you passionate about empowering developers and solving complex technical challenges at a leading technology company? Aquent, a key partner to an industry giant, is seeking a visionary engineer to dramatically improve how developers debug and validate critical system components. This is your chance to make a profound impact by building the tools and diagnostics that will transform the developer experience, reducing bugs and accelerating innovation across a vast ecosystem.

About the Role
Join a forward-thinking team dedicated to revolutionizing how developers interact with complex systems. This role is crucial in shifting from reactive bug triage to proactive, self-service debugging. You will be at the forefront of creating innovative diagnostic tools and validation layers that empower developers to identify and fix issues early, significantly enhancing product quality and development efficiency. Your work will directly reduce bug volume, accelerate resolution times, and elevate the overall quality of incoming issues, driving success across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement advanced validation layers, checks, and diagnostics for complex system components, drawing inspiration from existing debug frameworks.
• Identify common usage patterns and failure modes, translating them into clear warnings, errors, and actionable guidance for developers.
• Enhance diagnostic logging, traceability, and developer-facing error messages for system pipelines.
• Collaborate closely with various engineering and support teams to understand and address top recurring bug categories.
• Develop user-friendly debugging guidance, examples, and recommended workflows to streamline the developer experience.
• Validate tooling against real-world applications, drivers, and reproduction scenarios to ensure effectiveness and usability.

Qualifications

• Must have 6+ years of professional software development experience.
• 4-6 years of experience of systems level debugging and diagnostic engineering.
  • Hands‑on experience debugging low‑level, performance‑sensitive software such as media pipelines, graphics systems, runtimes, or OS components. Proven ability to analyze failures, design runtime validation checks, and turn complex issues into clear, actionable diagnostics.
• 3-5 years of developer facing diagnostic tooling and validation.
  • Experience designing or enhancing debug layers, validation logic, error messaging, logging, or tracing that helps application developers identify incorrect API usage or configuration issues early. Ability to prevent bugs through tooling rather than reactively debugging them after release.
• 3+ years of experience with technical communication and bug taxonomy.
  • Strong capability translating recurring bug patterns into structured diagnostics, validation rules, and developer guidance. Demonstrated experience writing clear technical documentation, debugging guidance, and actionable error descriptions that reduce low‑quality bug submissions and speed root‑cause discovery.
• Strong understanding of system pipelines, graphics APIs, or runtime validation concepts in complex systems.
• Proven experience building developer diagnostics, validation layers, runtime checks, logging, or trace tooling.
• A strong developer experience mindset, capable of translating low-level failures into actionable, understandable feedback.
• Extensive experience in systems programming, working closely with operating systems, drivers, runtimes, or performance-sensitive components.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, comfortable working across diverse platform teams and advocating for tooling improvements that reduce ecosystem friction.

About Aquent Talent
Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world’s biggest brands.
Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. More information on our awesome benefits!
Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We’re about creating an inclusive environment—one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.