Are you interested in building next-generation hyper-scale distributed systems in the cloud? Amazon Redshift is a rapidly growing, fast, and powerful fully managed petabyte-scale data warehouse service in the cloud. Tens of thousands of customers rely on Redshift to analyze exabytes of data every day to power their most critical analytics workloads.

Join the Amazon Redshift Data Foundation team to solve some of the most challenging problems in petabyte-scale distributed data systems. Our team owns the critical foundation that underpins Redshift's storage, metadata, durability, and reliability guarantees — the cornerstone on which every query, every table, and every customer workload depends. You will dive deep into complex interactions within the Redshift engine, tackling large-scale, high-complexity problems that span data storage architecture, durability mechanisms, and performance optimization at massive scale. We're looking for an engineer with a strong understanding of distributed systems, storage internals, and the curiosity to ask the right questions as we build a best-in-class cloud analytics database engine. You will design and deliver features that keep Redshift at the forefront of cloud analytics — ensuring data is always safe, always accessible, and always fast.

Key job responsibilities
Innovate system architectures that address scalability, reliability, and performance for large-scale distributed systems
Design and develop core storage, metadata, and catalog subsystems that operate reliably at petabyte scale
Solve large-scale, high-complexity problems spanning data durability, availability, consistency, and performance
Debug deep, cross-cutting issues that require understanding the full stack — from query planning to distributed storage to on-disk data formats
Drive performance improvements in storage I/O paths, metadata access patterns, in-memory caching, and catalog operations
Improve reliability and durability guarantees through resilient system design, automated recovery, and defensive engineering
Mentor and grow junior engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance
Raise the bar on operational excellence by building deep observability, reducing operational toil, and strengthening the team's ability to resolve complex customer-impacting issues

About the team
Our team owns the foundational data systems that keep Amazon Redshift running reliably and performantly at petabyte scale. We build and maintain the critical storage, metadata, and catalog infrastructure that manages every table, schema, permission, and byte of customer data across the fleet. Our work spans storage architecture and data organization, in-memory scaling and caching, data durability and recovery mechanisms, and multi-warehouse metadata consistency. We tackle large-scale, high-complexity problems that sit at the intersection of distributed systems, database internals, and cloud infrastructure. We value operational excellence: automating away toil, building deep observability, and resolving complex customer issues.

About AWS

AWS 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.

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 Amaze Con conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Mentorship & 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.

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.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

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 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 https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations 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 https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, CA, East Palo Alto - 193,300.00 - 261,500.00 USD annually