Principal Software Engineer

Are you interested in building hyper-scale database services in the cloud? Do you want to revolutionize the way databases are built for the cloud? Do you want to have direct and immediate impact on hundreds of thousands of users who use AWS database services? Amazon Aurora Engine team is looking for experienced technical experts in relational databases, who are excited about building large scale database systems that run across thousands of servers across multiple datacenters worldwide. These are core systems development positions where you will own the design and development of significant system software components critical to our industry leading database services architected for the cloud.
Amazon Aurora is an exciting new area of innovation for AWS, and the MySQL-compatible and PostgreSQL-compatible editions of Amazon Aurora are built on one of the most active code bases in the Opensource community. We are one of the fastest growing businesses within Amazon Web Services.
As an Amazon Web Services Principal Engineer, you’ll be a technical leader. You’ll help establish technical standards and drive Amazon’s overall technical architecture and engineering practices. You’ll work on Amazon’s hardest problems, building high quality, architecturally sound systems that are aligned with our business needs. You’ll think globally when building systems, ensuring AWS builds high performing, scalable systems that fit well together. Amazon.com Principal Engineers are pragmatic visionaries who can translate business needs into workable technology solutions. Your expertise is deep and broad; you’re hands on, producing both detailed technical work and high-level architectural designs.
Utility Computing (UC)
AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations — from foundational services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (Iot), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS, including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.



Key job responsibilities
• Serve as a technical lead on our most demanding, cross-functional projects.
• Ensure the quality of architecture and design of systems.
• Functionally decompose complex problems into simple, straight-forward solutions.
• Fully and completely understand system interdependencies and limitations.
• Possess expert knowledge in performance, scalability, enterprise system architecture, and engineering best practices.
• Leverage knowledge of internal and industry prior art in design decisions.
• Effectively research and benchmark Amazon technology against other competing systems in the industry.
• Contribute intellectual property through patents
• Assist in the career development of others, actively mentoring individuals and the community on advanced technical issues and helping managers guide the career growth of their team members.
• Exert technical influence over multiple teams, increasing their productivity and effectiveness by sharing your deep knowledge and experience.
You are a leader, builder and operator. You have experience leading or contributing to multiple simultaneous product development efforts and/or IT projects and initiatives. You are able to balance technical leadership and savvy with strong business judgment to make the right decisions about technology. You’ll strive for simplicity and will demonstrate significant creativity.


About the team
About AWS
Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.
Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (diversity) conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Mentorship and Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related technical field
• 10+ years of relevant experience in relational database internals and systems programming in C/C++ is required
• Experience leading the delivery of large-scale systems focused on managing the infrastructure layer of the technology stack
• Technical expertise in at least one major technical area: large scale Unix systems engineering, building complex distributed systems, building monitoring or management tools for large-scale environments
• Project management experience
• Experience leading development life cycle process and best practices
• Experience with Agile Management (SCRUM, RUP, XP), OO Modeling, working on internet, UNIX, Middleware, and database related projects
• Experience mentoring/training the engineering community on complex technical issues

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Passion for customer experience and usability, including successful delivery of customer self-service tools and automated management/optimization of services, and a strong services orientation
• Master’s degree or higher preferred
• 15+ years of relevant experience