Sr. Software Development Engineer, DynamoDB Index and Search

Senior Software Development Engineer DynamoDB Search and Indexing

Amazon DynamoDB is a serverless distributed NoSQL database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at virtually any scale. The DynamoDB Search and Indexing organization is building native search capabilities that allow customers to perform vector similarity search full-text search and hybrid search across their operational data.

We are looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer to help design and build the distributed indexing retrieval and ranking infrastructure behind these capabilities. You will work on problems at the intersection of databases distributed systems information retrieval and machine-learning infrastructure.

The role includes designing vector and text-indexing architectures that operate across partitioned datasets; integrating approximate nearest-neighbor algorithms and inverted indexes with DynamoDBs storage and query systems; and building hybrid retrieval that combines semantic similarity lexical relevance and structured filtering.

You will help determine how search indexes are created maintained rebuilt rebalanced and recovered while the underlying DynamoDB data continues to change. You will also shape query planning distributed execution relevance ranking and result aggregation while delivering predictable performance across latency throughput recall freshness availability and cost.

This is an opportunity to shape new DynamoDB capabilities from foundational architecture through customer launch and operation at DynamoDB scale.

Key job responsibilities

* Design and implement distributed vector full-text and hybrid-search capabilities for DynamoDB.
* Build vector-indexing and approximate nearest-neighbor retrieval mechanisms for high-dimensional embeddings.
* Develop full-text indexing and retrieval capabilities including tokenization text analysis inverted indexes relevance scoring and phrase or term-based search.
* Build hybrid retrieval and ranking that combines vector similarity lexical relevance and structured attribute filters.
* Evaluate ranking and result-fusion techniques for combining semantic and lexical results including score normalization rank fusion and reranking.
* Design distributed query execution including partition selection query fan-out local retrieval top-k result merging filtering and aggregation.
* Build index lifecycle mechanisms covering creation backfill incremental updates compaction schema or configuration changes rebalancing recovery and deletion.
* Ensure that indexes remain sufficiently synchronized with changes to the underlying DynamoDB data and define clear search-freshness and consistency semantics.
* Integrate search indexes with DynamoDBs distributed storage partitioning replication and query-processing systems.
* Optimize tradeoffs among search quality recall relevance query latency ingestion throughput index freshness memory usage storage amplification and infrastructure cost.
* Develop benchmarking and correctness frameworks for measuring retrieval quality recall ranking relevance performance scalability and behavior during failures.
* Design systems that remain available and operationally manageable during node failures partition movement traffic spikes index rebuilds and software deployments.
* Work closely with database storage search and machine-learning engineers to define interfaces and end-to-end system architecture.
* Translate ambiguous customer requirements into technical designs and deliver production-quality capabilities.
* Provide technical leadership through design reviews implementation guidance operational-readiness reviews and mentoring.
* Operate the service in production and use operational data to improve reliability performance search quality and customer experience.

Basic qualifications

* 5 years of non-internship professional software development experience.
* 5 years of programming with at least one software programming language.
* 5 years of leading the design or architecture of new and existing systems including design patterns reliability and scaling.
* Experience building distributed systems databases search infrastructure storage engines or other high-performance data platforms.
* Strong understanding of algorithms data structures concurrency and system performance.
* Experience taking complex systems from design through implementation launch and production operation.

Preferred qualifications

* Experience with vector search full-text search hybrid search approximate nearest-neighbor search or large-scale information retrieval.
* Knowledge of vector-indexing techniques such as HNSW IVF clustering product quantization or comparable approaches.
* Knowledge of full-text retrieval concepts such as inverted indexes analyzers tokenization BM25 relevance scoring query parsing and ranking.
* Experience combining lexical semantic and structured retrieval through rank fusion score normalization filtering or reranking.
* Experience building distributed query-planning and execution systems including query fan-out and top-k result aggregation.
* Experience integrating secondary indexes with database storage and query systems.
* Experience with storage-engine concepts such as LSM trees write-ahead logging compaction caching snapshots and recovery.
* Experience designing partitioned or sharded systems with replication online rebalancing and failure recovery.
* Experience developing performance and quality benchmarks that evaluate latency throughput recall relevance freshness memory and storage tradeoffs.
* Experience with Java Rust or another systems-programming language.
* Masters degree or PhD in computer science engineering mathematics or a related field.


- 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 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

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