Senior Software Development Engineer, Data Center Builder Tools

The Data Center Builder Tools team is looking for a seasoned self-directed Senior Software Development Engineer to lead the design and evolution of the real-time middleware and runtime platform that powers industrial control systems across AWS Data Centers worldwide. Contribute to Amazons vision of developing the safest most secure reliable and efficient data centers on Earth.

As a Senior Software Development Engineer (SDE III) on this team you will set the technical direction for the software that sits between industrial hardware and the cloud a unified real-time data plane that lets control applications device drivers and cloud services exchange data reliably on industrial computing hardware. This is deep systems work at the boundary of software and hardware: you will own the architecture of the runtime the communication layer and the protocol and cloud integrations that the entire platform is built on and you will be the engineer others turn to for the hardest problems in real-time distributed and embedded systems.

In this role you will

Own the architecture: of the real-time middleware and runtime the data-exchange layer canonical type system and communication patterns (publish/subscribe and request/reply) that connect distributed control applications across languages and hardware and drive it through multiple iterations as requirements scale.

Set technical strategy: for how the platform integrates with industrial automation platforms and hardware protocols (e.g. IEC 61131-3 EtherCAT PROFINET Modbus OPC-UA IO-Link) and how new device drivers are built so the platform scales to many protocols without bespoke effort.

Define the edge-to-cloud contract: how telemetry metrics and commands flow between devices and AWS services with the right delivery guarantees quality-of-service and failure semantics for each class of data.

Solve the defining hard problems: of a system where correctness means both the right result and the right timing bounded latency determinism resource constraints on embedded hardware and graceful degradation when connectivity is lost.

Multiply the team: establish engineering standards mentor SDE I/IIs and raise the bar in hiring reviews and design and align hardware controls security and operations partners around a shared technical vision.

If youre excited by low-level systems real-time data movement and connecting physical equipment to the cloud at scale and by being the technical leader who makes it happen this is the role for you.




Key job responsibilities
As an SDE III on this team you are a technical leader accountable for the architecture and long-term health of the runtime and middleware platform not just individual components. You will operate across multiple workstreams and teams make the consequential design decisions and remain deeply hands-on where it matters most.

Your primary responsibilities will include:

Architecting the platform not just components: owning the end-to-end design of the runtime and real-time middleware across embedded/edge controllers and the cloud making the durable decisions on type systems serialization memory layout schema evolution and communication patterns that everything else depends on.

Driving multi-quarter technical strategy: defining the roadmap for the next iteration of What comes next industrial protocol support and cloud integration sequencing the work and making explicit build-vs-buy and short-term-vs-durable tradeoffs with the data to back them.

Owning real-time correctness at system scale: reasoning about latency budgets throughput determinism and failure modes across a distributed system adjacent to physical control loops and setting the standards that keep those guarantees intact as the system grows.

Leading cross-team and cross-discipline efforts: turning ambiguous org-level requirements into clear technical direction and aligning hardware controls security and operations partners (and other software teams) around shared interfaces and contracts.

Raising the engineering bar broadly: establishing standards for testing (unit integration and on-hardware validation) performance benchmarking operational excellence and code quality and holding the team to them through design and code review.

Growing engineers: mentoring Junior and Mid level SDE developing their technical judgment and contributing as a strong interviewer and bar raiser in hiring.

De-risking the hardest problems: personally diving into the highest-ambiguity highest-impact technical challenges (new protocol integrations performance-critical paths cross-language data exchange) and bringing them to a proven maintainable end state.

The ideal candidate is a senior systems engineer with a track record of owning the architecture of complex software systems and delivering them to production. You have depth across several of: real-time or embedded systems industrial automation platforms and hardware protocols distributed systems middleware/messaging (pub/sub RPC) and cloud communication and the breadth to reason about how all of these fit together into a coherent platform. You are comfortable working close to the metal (memory concurrency serialization timing) and setting direction at the system and organizational level. You influence beyond your own team make sound decisions under ambiguity and hardware/timing constraints and lift the engineers around you. Experience with Rust C/C or Python and with technologies such as industrial automation platforms OPC-UA DDS/Zenoh or similar real-time middleware is a strong advantage.

A day in the life
AWS Infrastructure Services (AIS) owns the design planning delivery and operation of all AWS global other words were the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers storage networking power and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain and were looking for talented people who want to help.

Youll join a diverse team of software hardware and network engineers supply chain specialists security experts operations managers and other vital roles. Youll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And youll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.

About the team
The Data Center Builder Tools team develops tooling for device frameworks and device lifecycle management in AWS Data Centers. This includes both frontend and backend services use by internal development teams and on-site customers. Our tools power the industrial controls systems deployed in our data centers.

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

Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the worlds most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating thats why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS its 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 conferences inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Mentorship & Career Growth
Were continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earths Best Employer. Thats why youll find endless knowledge-sharing mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

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 theres nothing we cant achieve in the cloud.

- Experience as a mentor tech lead or leading an engineering team
- Experience programming with at least one modern language such as Java C or C# including object-oriented design
- Experience in professional non-internship software development
- Experience leading the architecture and design (architecture design patterns reliability and scaling) of new and current systems
- Knowledge of professional software engineering & best practices for full software development life cycle including coding standards software architectures code reviews source control management continuous deployments testing and operational excellence

- Bachelors degree in computer science or equivalent
- Experience with full software development life cycle including coding standards code reviews source control management build processes testing and operations
- Experience with industrial automation platforms hardware protocols or real-time middleware (e.g. IEC 61131-3 OPC-UA DDS/Zenoh ROS2)

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