Oliver's primary area of research is Databases, although his research interests frequently cross over into Programming Languages and Datastructures. His work focuses on self-service analytics, as well as making approachable tools for managing messy data, schema design, and physical layout decisions. Through real-world usage metrics gathered from industry collaborations and the use of real-world testbeds, Oliver's work aims to address the practical problems faced by data consumers everywhere. His projects include a UI for ad-hoc cleaning and analytics called Mimir and a universal, Just In-Time Datastructure.