If solving complex distributed systems problems at massive scale excites you, EBS Placement is the place to do it. Our team builds and operates the systems that decide where every EBS volume lives across AWS's storage fleet - infrastructure that serves exabytes of data and trillions of I/Os every day. Every EBS customer, from startups to the world's largest enterprises, depends on the decisions our systems make.
We're looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer to drive the technical direction of placement systems - from real-time decision engines that place customer volumes in milliseconds to background fleet optimizers that continuously rebalance heat and respond to shifting fleet topology and customer workload patterns. You'll lead the design of solutions to complex problems involving multi-dimensional optimization - balancing performance, availability, durability, density, and cost - at a scale and complexity few systems operate at.
Placement sits in the critical path for EBS. We shape how EBS evolves to support new volume types, new server capabilities, and new customer workload patterns. We regularly partner with principal engineers, scientists, and teams across EC2 and EBS to deliver integrations that make the broader AWS fleet more efficient. If you want your technical leadership to have real impact at AWS scale, and you're excited by multi-year investments in systems that power one of AWS's largest businesses, we'd love to talk to you.
Key job responsibilities
As a Senior SDE on the EBS Placement team, you will:
- Drive technical design and architecture for placement systems that make real-time decisions at AWS scale, balancing performance, availability, durability, density, and cost
- Translate ambiguous requirements - new volume types, new storage hardware, shifting workload patterns - into durable, extensible solutions that keep placement fast as the fleet grows
- Lead features end-to-end - from design through implementation, deployment, and launch - and own operational excellence for the systems you build
- Identify and drive cross-team technical initiatives that improve placement capabilities and strengthen EBS platform architecture
- Collaborate with and influence engineers across EBS, EC2, and partner AWS teams to deliver cross-service integrations and platform improvements
- Lead design reviews, raise the engineering bar through code reviews, and establish technical best practices for the team
- Mentor engineers across levels and contribute to a team culture of technical excellence and operational rigor
A day in the life
No two days look the same. You might spend the morning leading a design review for a new placement algorithm, the afternoon diving into fleet data to measure whether a recent change is doing what you predicted, and end the day partnering with a principal engineer on a multi-service integration that changes how EBS and EC2 coordinate.
We value senior engineers who lead through ambiguity, elevate those around them, and balance delivering for customers with investments in long-term system health. You'll influence technical decisions across Placement, across EBS, and across AWS.
About the team
You'll join a group of strong engineers who proudly own some of EBS's most critical responsibilities. We design and operate sophisticated algorithms that make workload placement decisions while accounting for tens of different optimization objectives. We own real-time, highly available systems that place customer volumes in a fraction of a second, alongside background fleet optimizers that continuously rebalance heat and adapt to changing fleet topology. We move fast to deliver for customers while maintaining operational excellence across these mission-critical services.
In this role, you will regularly partner with principal engineers and scientists to make high-judgment decisions backed by data, influence teams across the organization, and shape how one of AWS's largest storage businesses evolves.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
- 4+ 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
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Experience effectively using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Kiro, Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) to accelerate data analysis, software design, implementation, review, and investigation.
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 - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually
