Principal Engineer: Architect of Ultra-Scale Database Infrastructure

Amazon Web Services (AWS); Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 311,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Job summary

Amazon.com Services LLC in Seattle, WA is seeking a Principal Engineer to own architecture for resilient, scalable database services used by millions of customers. You will drive strategy, mentor engineers, and engage with customers to continuously improve systems that power critical workloads across the AWS portfolio.

Ideal candidates bring deep expertise in distributed systems and database internals, with a track record of delivering high-impact, production-grade systems at scale.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in distributed systems, database internals, storage engines, query optimization, replication protocols, consensus algorithms, or high-performance systems.
• Track record of making high-stakes technical decisions at scale.
• Ability to prototype, ship, and mentor across teams.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture for services that cannot go down, cannot lose data, and must scale.
• Drive technical strategy across the service area and influence roadmap.
• Solve distributed systems challenges and performance cliffs with no textbook answer.
• Build, prototype, and ship production systems trusted by large enterprises.
• Mentor engineers and raise the bar through design reviews and technical judgment.
• Engage with customers running critical workloads to translate learnings into better architecture.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and push the boundaries of managed database services, including AI reshaping databases.

Skills

Distributed systems

Database internals

Storage engines

Query optimization

Replication protocols

Consensus algorithms

High-performance systems

Job description

Amazon.com Services LLC in Seattle, WA is seeking a Principal Engineer to own architecture for resilient, scalable database services used by millions of customers. You will drive strategy, mentor engineers, and engage with customers to continuously improve systems that power critical workloads across the AWS portfolio.

Ideal candidates bring deep expertise in distributed systems and database internals, with a track record of delivering high-impact, production-grade systems at scale.