Software Development Manager, Amazon ElastiCache

Amazon Elasti Cache is a massive at‑scale in‑memory data store powering some of the top companies around the world. At Amazon Elasti Cache, we build some of the largest distributed systems in the world, and we’re deeply committed to advancing open source innovation through our work with Valkey, a high‑performance open source in‑memory data store.

We are looking for a leader passionate about open source software, solving challenges in distributed systems, and building highly talented teams. In this role, you will lead a team chartered to advance Valkey open source development, delivering foundational software to grow both the open source community and our business over the next decade.

You are expected to draw from deep and broad technical expertise to mentor engineers, complete hands‑on technical work, and provide leadership on complex technical issues. You will manage a team of engineers and be responsible for delivering some of our most strategic technical projects, designing new software systems at the forefront of distributed database technology, and having a significant impact on both the Valkey OSS community and Elasti Cache.

• Build and lead an open source‑focused team: hire, mentor, and lead a database software development team committed to open source principles and community collaboration.
• Drive open source innovation: lead design, implementation, and deployment of highly distributed, large‑scale services that contribute to both Valkey OSS and Amazon Elasti Cache.
• Bridge community and AWS: serve as the primary interface between the Valkey open source community (including maintainers and TSC) and Amazon Elasti Cache, ensuring alignment on technical direction and fostering strong relationships.
• Lead complex, high‑impact projects: identify and lead work on complex, large‑scale systems that have major impact on both the open source project and the company.
• Collaborate across teams and communities: serve as a lead on demanding, multi‑team, cross‑functional projects that span internal teams and external open source contributors.
• Grow talent: actively participate in hiring and growing talented engineers passionate about open source, and assist in career development of others both on and outside your team.
• Shape technical strategy: play a critical role in business planning and open source roadmap development, working with Valkey community leaders and internal stakeholders to develop technical goals, business targets, and resource requirements.
• Contribute to open source governance: participate in Valkey TSC discussions, contribute to project governance, and help shape the future direction of the open source project.
• Demonstrate technical excellence: show high levels of creativity and sound judgement in balancing open source community needs with business objectives.
• Stay current: maintain deep understanding of open source trends, distributed systems technology, and in‑memory database innovations.
• Advance innovation: contribute to both Amazon’s intellectual property and the Valkey open source project through patents, code contributions, and external publications.

• 3+ years of engineering team management experience
• 7+ years of working directly within engineering teams
• 3+ years of designing or architecting new and existing systems (design patterns, reliability, and scaling)
• 8+ years of leading the definition and development of multi‑tier web services
• Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations
• Experience partnering with product or program management teams
• Experience in communicating with users, open source community members, other technical teams, and senior leadership to collect requirements, describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy
• Experience in recruiting, hiring, mentoring/coaching, and managing teams of software engineers to improve their skills, and a track record of building teams that contribute to open source projects

Equa…