Software Development Engineer - RDS SQL Server

About the Role

Amazon RDS offers highly durable and available database services, supporting multiple database engines including MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MariaDB, and Amazon Aurora. This position focuses on AWS RDS for SQL Server, a managed service simplifying SQL Server deployment and scalability in the cloud. The engineer will address complex systems problems involving performance, timing, distributed algorithms, and state machine logic to maintain always-on databases.

Key Responsibilities

• Take full ownership of feature development throughout all phases—from requirements collection and design to implementation, testing, launch, and ongoing support—with minimal supervision.
• Develop clean, efficient, production-quality code that aligns with reliability and scalability goals while contributing to design reviews and fostering code quality improvements.
• Translate loosely-defined problems into clear plans, balance trade-offs between immediate delivery and long-term sustainability, and help guide architectural and engineering best practices without explicit oversight.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to junior engineers through code reviews and design advice, participate actively in recruiting efforts, and elevate team engineering standards.
• Work backward from customer needs to drive prioritized improvements, collaborating cross-functionally with teams across locations to deliver impactful results.

A Day in the Life

This role involves predominantly hands-on coding coupled with technical leadership responsibilities. Daily activities include feature design and implementation, code reviews, production debugging, authoring design documents, and mentoring peers. The engineer independently manages their feature areas, making informed trade-offs and driving continuous improvement.

About the Team

The team manages Amazon RDS for SQL Server, aiming to simplify cloud-based SQL Server usage through tackling challenging distributed systems problems such as automated failover, zero-downtime patching, and cloud-scale scaling. The culture emphasizes collaboration, ownership, fast delivery, customer focus, and minimal bureaucracy.

Basic Qualifications

• Professional experience in software development beyond internships.
• Proven design or architectural experience in new or existing systems, including design patterns, reliability, and scaling considerations.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language.
• Familiarity with professional software engineering practices covering the full software development life cycle, including coding standards, architecture, code reviews, version control, continuous deployment, testing, and operational excellence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or an equivalent discipline.
• Experience analyzing, profiling, and implementing best practices in large-scale software systems.

Additional Information

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity strongly. Hiring decisions are skill-based. Candidate privacy and data security are treated as top priorities. Accommodations for applicants with disabilities are available throughout the hiring process.