Dev Engineer, DDB Index and Search

Senior Software Development Engineer DynamoDB Search and Indexing


Amazon DynamoDB is looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer to help build two new initiatives: native vector full-text and hybrid search; and Krupa which aims to provide strongly consistent global secondary indexes (GSIs). These initiatives expand how customers access operational datafrom finding semantically relevant results to querying current data through alternate keys.

You will work on problems at the intersection of database internals distributed systems information retrieval and consistency protocols. This role offers the opportunity to shape foundational architecture write performance-critical software and lead engineering work across multiple DynamoDB components.

Search introduces a new set of indexing and retrieval challenges. How do you organize high-dimensional vectors across a partitioned dataset Combine approximate nearest-neighbor retrieval with selective attribute filters Rank results that mix semantic similarity and keyword relevance You will help build the infrastructure behind these capabilities including vector and inverted indexes distributed query execution and hybrid ranking. Your designs will balance recall relevance latency freshness and cost while the underlying data changes continuously.

Krupa addresses a different foundational problem: strongly consistent access through GSIs. Asynchronous index propagation creates a gap between a successful table write and its visibility in an index. Closing that gap requires reasoning about updates across independently partitioned table and index data concurrent operations transaction interactions and partial failures. You will help design and implement the mechanisms that preserve these guarantees through retries recovery and changes in partition ownership.

Across these initiatives the engineering challenge extends through the entire index lifecycle. Indexes must be built over existing data while writes continue maintained as workloads evolve and recovered when machines fail. You will work closely with engineers across storage replication transactions routing and the control plane to make these capabilities correct performant and operable.

As an SDE III you will own significant technical decisions and carry them through implementation validation launch and production operation. You will lead designs spanning component boundaries identify risks early and create interfaces and implementation plans that enable other engineers to deliver independently. This is an opportunity to combine deep systems engineering with technical leadership on new DynamoDB capabilities.





Key job responsibilities

- Own architecture and implementation. Lead substantial work across search and indexing translating ambiguous requirements into precise designs working software and measurable customer outcomes.
- Build vector and text retrieval infrastructure. Develop vector indexing approximate nearest-neighbor search inverted indexes text analysis and relevance scoring.
- Deliver distributed search partition selection query fan-out filter execution candidate retrieval top-k merging and hybrid ranking using techniques such as rank fusion or reranking.
- Develop strongly consistent indexing mechanisms. Design and implement coordination between table mutations and index visibility including concurrent updates index-key changes retries and failure recovery.
- Build the index lifecycle. Deliver online creation backfill incremental maintenance compaction rebalancing and deletion while customer traffic continues.
- Make guarantees testable. Define correctness invariants and search-quality criteria; build concurrency tests failure-injection scenarios and benchmarks that expose architectural weaknesses.
- Optimize the complete system. Investigate CPU memory storage and network bottlenecks; quantify tradeoffs among retrieval quality coordination overhead write amplification throughput and tail latency.
- Lead across teams. Resolve design questions with partner teams define clear contracts and drive changes that span storage replication transactions and query processing.
- Raise engineering capability. Mentor engineers lead design and code reviews and break complex work into independently deliverable pieces with clear testing and rollout plans.
- Own production outcomes. Build diagnostics and recovery mechanisms participate in operations and use production evidence to improve architecture and reliability.

- 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
- 5 years of non-internship professional software development experience or Bachelors degree in computer science or equivalent
- 5 years of programming with at least one software programming language experience or Bachelors degree or foreign equivalent in computer science or equivalent
- Experience leading the design or architecture of distributed systems databases search infrastructure storage engines or comparable data platforms.
- Strong understanding of algorithms data structures concurrency and system performance.
- Experience leading technical work across multiple engineers or teams and mentoring other engineers.
- Experience taking complex systems through implementation testing deployment and production operation.

- 5 years of full software development life cycle including coding standards code reviews source control management build processes testing and operations experience
- Bachelors degree in computer science or equivalent
- - Depth in one or more of the following areas:
- Vector search approximate nearest-neighbor algorithms full-text retrieval or hybrid ranking.
- Secondary indexes distributed transactions replication concurrency control or consistency protocols.
- Storage engines including logging LSM trees compaction caching snapshots and recovery.
- Knowledge of vector-indexing approaches such as HNSW IVF clustering or product quantization.
- Knowledge of inverted indexes BM25 query planning filtering or distributed top-k retrieval.
- Experience with online backfills partition splits rebalancing or recovery under concurrent writes.
- Experience with formal modeling deterministic simulation fault injection or performance and retrieval-quality benchmarking.
- Experience developing systems software in Java Rust C or a comparable language.

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 for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt 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 WA Seattle - 168100.00 - 227400.00 USD annually