Principal Software Engineer, AWS Distributed SQL

AWS Databases is hiring Principal/Sr Principal Engineers to lead query processing for two of its key database engines. Amazon Redshift is a petabyte-scale cloud data warehouse used by tens of thousands of customers. Amazon Aurora DSQL is a serverless distributed SQL database built for active-active availability and virtually unlimited scale. Both engines depend on the same discipline: turning SQL into well-optimized plans and running them fast at massive scale. Depending on your depth and interests youll join one of three teams: Redshift Query Optimization the Redshift Execution Engine or Aurora DSQL Query Processing.

Key job responsibilities
- Set and execute a multi-year technical strategy for query optimization and execution that improves price-performance against Databricks Snowflake Google BigQuery and other cloud databases.
- Own core query processing architecture including parsing and semantic analysis query rewriting cost-based planning statistics and cardinality estimation plan caching and physical execution.
- Build high-performance execution engines (vectorized and pipelined operators memory management code generation massively parallel and distributed execution) that serve analytical and transactional workloads.
- Advance optimization over open table formats and heterogeneous storage such as Iceberg and Parquet data lakes and federated sources. Build adaptive execution that corrects plans at runtime.
- Turn ambiguous customer and business requirements into concrete projects and personally own design code deployment and operations from end to end.
- Partner across AWS Databases on product vision and integration with the broader database portfolio. Work directly with customers on adoption and roadmap.
- Raise the engineering bar through design reviews coding standards and operational excellence. Mentor senior engineers and help hire and grow a strong team.

- 10 years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 10 years of leading design or architecture (design patterns reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems
- Deep experience in database internals or query processing (query optimization execution engines or both) and in distributed systems
- Proficiency in C Rust Java or a similar systems language building and operating mission-critical highly available systems
- Experience as a technical leader driving strategy and complex high-impact projects across organizational boundaries
- Experience mentoring engineers or leading engineering teams

- Masters or PhD in databases distributed systems or a closely related field
- Expert knowledge of optimizer frameworks: cost-based optimization join enumeration plan-space exploration rewrite rules cardinality estimation and statistics (histograms sampling feedback-driven re-optimization)
- Expert knowledge of execution engines: vectorized execution operator pipelines memory management and code generation
- Deep understanding of the PostgreSQL query engine
- Experience optimizing queries over data lake formats (Iceberg Parquet Hudi) and federated sources
- Publications or active involvement in the database research community (SIGMOD VLDB)

Amazon 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 Companys reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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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 CA East Palo Alto - 230100.00 - 311200.00 USD annually
USA NY New York - 220100.00 - 297700.00 USD annually
USA WA Seattle - 200100.00 - 270600.00 USD annually