diff --git a/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/exceptions.py b/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/exceptions.py
index 12b83d2f11b..d71f313d894 100644
--- a/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/exceptions.py
+++ b/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/exceptions.py
@@ -69,3 +69,8 @@ class GenieJobNotFoundError(GenieError):
 class GenieLogNotFoundError(GenieError):
     """Error when a log is not found."""
     pass
+
+
+class JobTimeoutError(GenieError):
+    """Error when a job runs longer than a specified timeout."""
+    pass
diff --git a/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/jobs/running.py b/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/jobs/running.py
index 07af016cba3..c9d4d8f5296 100644
--- a/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/jobs/running.py
+++ b/genie-client/src/main/python/pygenie/jobs/running.py
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
 from ..conf import GenieConf
 from ..utils import dttm_to_epoch
 
+from ..exceptions import JobTimeoutError
+
 
 logger = logging.getLogger('com.netflix.genie.jobs.running')
 
@@ -600,7 +602,8 @@ def username(self):
             str: The username.
         """
 
-    def wait(self, sleep_seconds=10, suppress_stream=False, until_running=False):
+    def wait(self, sleep_seconds=10, suppress_stream=False, until_running=False,
+             job_timeout=None, kill_after_job_timeout=False):
         """
         Blocking call that will wait for the job to complete.
 
@@ -615,6 +618,10 @@ def wait(self, sleep_seconds=10, suppress_stream=False, until_running=False):
                 complete (default: False).
             until_running (bool, optional): If True, only block until the job
                 status becomes 'RUNNING' (default: False).
+            job_timeout (int, optional): The number of seconds to wait for the
+                job to finish (default: None).
+            kill_after_job_timeout (bool, optional): Whether to kill the job or
+                not after the job_timeout (default: False).
 
         Returns:
             :py:class:`RunningJob`: self
@@ -625,10 +632,22 @@ def wait(self, sleep_seconds=10, suppress_stream=False, until_running=False):
         statuses = {s for s in RUNNING_STATUSES \
             if not until_running or s.upper() != 'RUNNING'}
 
+        start_time = time.time()
+
         while self._adapter.get_status(self._job_id).upper() in statuses:
             if i % 3 == 0 and not suppress_stream:
                 self._write_to_stream('.')
             time.sleep(sleep_seconds)
+
+            # handle client-side job timeout
+            if (job_timeout is not None) and (time.time() - start_time > job_timeout):
+                if kill_after_job_timeout:
+                    self.kill()
+                    return self
+                else:
+                    raise JobTimeoutError("Timed out while waiting for job {} to finish" \
+                        .format(self.job_id))
+
             i += 1
 
         if not suppress_stream:
diff --git a/genie-client/src/main/python/setup.py b/genie-client/src/main/python/setup.py
index dcf05052674..5494572b276 100644
--- a/genie-client/src/main/python/setup.py
+++ b/genie-client/src/main/python/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name='nflx-genie-client',
-    version='3.0.28',
+    version='3.0.29',
     author='Netflix Inc.',
     author_email='genieoss@googlegroups.com',
     keywords='genie hadoop cloud netflix client bigdata presto',