Principal, Senior Principal and Distinguished Engineer, AWS Database Services

What You'll Work On

Three forces are reshaping this landscape right now: AI-assisted development is changing how engineers build on top of databases; agentic AI is creating entirely new requirements for low-latency, high-consistency data access; and the boundary between operational and analytical data is collapsing. You will be at the center of all three — not as an observer, but as an architect and builder.

Our Portfolio

• AWS Aurora & RDS — The world's most widely deployed managed relational databases, serving enterprise workloads that cannot fail
• AWS DynamoDB — A single-digit millisecond NoSQL engine operating at a scale most engineers will never encounter anywhere else
• AWS DocumentDB — MongoDB-compatible document storage built for the cloud
• AWS Neptune — Graph database powering knowledge graphs, fraud detection, and recommendation engines at scale
• AWS ElastiCache & MemoryDB — In-memory data stores where microseconds matter
• AWS Timestream — Purpose-built time-series for IoT, DevOps, and industrial telemetry
• AWS Keyspaces — Serverless Cassandra-compatible storage at AWS scale

Key job responsibilities

• Define architecture for services that cannot go down, cannot lose data, and must scale to meet demand that grows faster than most companies ever see
• Drive technical strategy across your service area, shaping roadmap, investment decisions, and the direction of engineering teams
• Solve the unsolved — the distributed systems problems, the consistency models, the performance cliffs, the failure modes that don't have a textbook answer yet
• Build, prototype, and ship — from early-stage experiments and proof-of-concepts to production systems trusted by the world's largest enterprises
• Raise the bar for the engineers around you through design reviews, mentorship, and the kind of technical judgment that only comes from having done this before
• Engage directly with customers running their most critical workloads on your systems — and translate what you learn into better architecture
• Invent — evaluate emerging technologies, prototype new approaches, and push the boundaries of what managed database services can do, including how AI reshapes the way databases are built, queried, and operated

Basic Qualifications

• A track record of technical decisions that held up — at scale, under pressure, over time
• The instinct to build first: you prototype to learn, ship to validate, and iterate without waiting for perfect conditions
• The ability to influence without authority and earn trust through technical credibility
• Experience working across organizational boundaries to drive outcomes that no single team could achieve alone
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and a bias toward action
• Curiosity about how AI is changing the way engineers build on and with databases — and the drive to be ahead of that curve, not behind it

Priorities

• Deep expertise in one or more of: distributed systems, database internals, storage engines, query optimization, replication protocols, consensus algorithms, or high-performance systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise in one or more of: distributed systems, database internals, storage engines, query optimization, replication protocols, consensus algorithms, or high-performance systems

Company

AWS is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit here for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner. The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at here.