Software Development Engineer, ElastiCache

Amazon • Seattle, WA

45d

About The Position

This is an opportunity to join one of AWS's most foundational and high-impact
engineering teams — the In-Memory Computing Platform team, part of Amazon
ElastiCache. We build the next-generation, high-performance in-memory
distributed data storage platform that powers some of the world's most demanding
real-time applications. Our work sits at the intersection of distributed
systems, database internals, and cloud-scale infrastructure, and it directly
shapes how millions of AWS customers build low-latency, high-throughput
applications.

If you've ever found yourself deep in a conversation about CAP theorem,
consistent hashing, Paxos, or gossip protocols — and you want to apply those
ideas to real-world systems at massive scale — this team is where you belong. We
are the engineers behind the acclaimed Amazon Dynamo paper, and we continue to
push the boundaries of what NoSQL systems can do. We're not just building a
cache; we're building a durable, highly available, and scalable in-memory
database platform that bridges the best of RDBMS and NoSQL worlds.

Day-to-day, you can expect a dynamic mix of deep technical work and
collaborative engineering. A typical week might look like:

Writing and reviewing production-quality code in Java or C/C++ for distributed
storage components, scaling systems for monitoring plane owned services.
Participating in design reviews and architecture discussions, where you'll
debate tradeoffs around consistency, availability, and partition tolerance — and
then go build the solution.

Collaborating with peer engineers across the team to debug complex distributed
systems issues, analyze failure patterns, and drive root cause analysis.
Working closely with the monitoring plane and operations team to improve
observability, tune auto-remediation workflows, and reduce mean time to
recovery.

Engaging with product and customer service teams to understand real-world use
cases — from IoT and mobile applications to large-scale analytics — and
translating those needs into platform capabilities.
Mentoring junior engineers through code reviews, design feedback, and pairing
sessions, helping them grow their technical skills and Amazon engineering
judgment.

Contributing to the team's operational excellence by participating in on-call
rotations and driving improvements to system reliability and operational
tooling.

Requirements

• 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 2+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• 1+ years of software development engineer or related occupational experience
• 1+ years of designing and developing large-scale, multi-tiered, multi-threaded, embedded or distributed software applications, tools, systems, and services using: C#, C++, Java, or Perl experience
• 1+ years of Object Oriented Design experience
• Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
• Experience programming with at least one software programming language

Nice To Haves

• 3+ 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

Responsibilities

• Designing and building the next-generation in-memory NoSQL database platform, enabling developers to create highly available, scalable, and high-performance applications at unprecedented scale.
• Leading software development of large-scale distributed in-memory storage systems, primarily in Java and C/C++, leveraging open-source technologies such as Redis and Memcached alongside Amazon-proprietary technologies.
• Developing and operating HTTP/REST services, asynchronous messaging systems, and event-driven architectures that form the backbone of our platform.
• Building and improving real-time failure detection and auto-remediation systems capable of detecting node failures in large distributed clusters and initiating recovery within seconds.
• Driving horizontal and vertical scaling capabilities, management and monitoring plane workflows, fault tolerance mechanisms, and backup and restore technologies.
• Contributing to disaster recovery and prevention strategies to ensure the highest levels of availability and durability for our customers.
• Mentoring and growing junior engineers on the team, serving as a technical leader and role model for engineering best practices.
• Managing individual project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables with a high degree of autonomy and accountability.

Benefits

• 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
• parental leave

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level