Software Development Manager, DynamoDB Storage Engine

Come help us shape the future of one of the largest NoSQL database services on the planet!

Amazon DynamoDB is one of the largest distributed database systems in the market, delivering single-digit-millisecond performance at any scale. At DynamoDB, we continue to believe it is Day 1! The DynamoDB Storage Engine team is the custodian of all customer retrievable data stored on disk in DynamoDB and owns services, components and libraries that persist customer data on disk, keep it secure and make it available for timely retrieval.

We are looking for a Software Development Manager who is passionate about building and leading high-performing teams that solve the hardest problems in storage systems at massive scale. In this role, you will lead engineers who write performance-critical systems code in C and Rust, own the on-disk data path for one of the world's largest databases, and push the boundaries of what storage technology can achieve.

Many of the world's fastest growing businesses, such as Lyft, Airbnb, and Redfin, as well as enterprises, such as Samsung, Toyota, and Capital One, depend on the scale and performance of DynamoDB to support their mission-critical workloads. Your team's work will directly impact the latency, durability, and efficiency experienced by these customers at planetary scale.


Key job responsibilities
Lead, grow, and inspire a team of systems engineers working on the DynamoDB storage engine — spanning performance optimization, persistence, data structures, and storage internals.
Set the technical direction for the storage engine in partnership with principal engineers: define the roadmap, make architectural tradeoffs, and prioritize across performance, durability, cost, and operational simplicity.
Hire exceptional systems engineers with deep expertise in C, Rust, and storage-engine internals — and build a team culture that attracts and retains them.
Dive deep technically: participate in design reviews, understand the codebase at a systems level, and make informed decisions about architecture, tradeoffs, and risk.
Own operational excellence for the storage engine — drive the bar on availability, durability, and incident response for the most critical data path in DynamoDB.
Mentor and develop engineers at all levels, creating clear growth paths for both individual contributors and emerging technical leaders.
Work cross-functionally with dependent teams across DynamoDB (request routers, replication, control plane) and with hardware/infrastructure teams to co-optimize the full stack.

What We're Looking For

Proven experience managing teams of systems engineers working in performance-sensitive, low-level codebases (C, C++, or Rust).
Strong technical depth in at least one of: storage systems, database internals, operating systems, or high-performance distributed systems — sufficient to earn the trust of senior ICs and engage meaningfully in architecture discussions.
Track record of building and scaling high-performing engineering teams: hiring, developing, retaining, and promoting strong talent.
Experience operating mission-critical systems where data durability and availability are non-negotiable.
Ability to balance long-term technical investments against near-term business needs, and to communicate that strategy clearly upward and outward.
Demonstrated judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes technical and organizational situations.
What Would Set You Apart

Prior hands-on engineering experience in C and/or Rust — managers who have written systems code themselves earn deeper trust and make better technical judgments.
Experience leading teams that own storage engines, database kernels, file systems, or similarly low-level infrastructure at scale.
Familiarity with storage-engine internals: LSM trees, write-ahead logging, compaction, compression, on-disk formats, crash recovery.
Experience with hardware-aware software development: understanding how your team's software interacts with CPU microarchitecture, memory hierarchies, and storage devices.
Background leading through major architectural transitions or migrations in high-scale systems.

About the team
We are the custodians of every byte of customer data stored on disk in Amazon DynamoDB. Our team owns the services, components, and libraries that persist data, keep it secure, and make it available for single-digit-millisecond retrieval — at a scale few systems on Earth operate at.

We write performance-critical code in C and Rust, working at the boundary between software and hardware: data structures tuned to cache hierarchies, on-disk formats designed for durability and compression, and I/O paths optimized down to the microsecond. When a customer reads or writes to DynamoDB, our code is on the critical path.

The problems here are deep. You won't context-switch across dozens of microservices — you'll spend days reasoning about a single compaction strategy, a subtle crash-recovery invariant, or how to shave 50 microseconds off a hot read path. If you're the kind of engineer who finds that exhilarating rather than tedious, you'll fit right in.

We're a small, tight-knit group that values technical depth, intellectual honesty, and a genuine respect for each other's time. We believe the best storage systems are built by teams that think carefully, review rigorously, and ship with confidence.

Basic Qualifications

- 3+ years of engineering team management experience
- 7+ years of engineering experience
- 8+ years of leading the definition and development of multi tier web services experience
- 1+ years of providing technical leadership and project management for all aspects of the software development lifecycle experience
- 1+ years of developing large-scale, multi-tiered distributed software systems using Java, C#, or C++ experience
- 1+ years of developing large-scale, multi-tiered distributed software systems using service-oriented architecture experience
- 1+ years of developing large-scale, multi-tiered distributed software systems using distributed programming experience
- 5+ years of Software Engineer, Software Developer, or related occupational experience
- Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
- Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations
- Experience partnering with product or program management teams

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience in communicating with users, other technical teams, and senior leadership to collect requirements, describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy
- Experience in recruiting, hiring, mentoring/coaching and managing teams of Software Engineers to improve their skills, and make them more effective, product software engineers

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

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, WA, Seattle - 184,900.00 - 250,200.00 USD annually