Software Development Engineer, Nitro SSD

AWS Hardware Engineering Services support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help.

You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.

The AWS Hardware Engineering team is driving rapid innovation in the server and storage infrastructure used by Amazon Web Services. Our designs are industry-leading in frugality and operational excellence, and are critical to the success of the AWS business and the more than one million customers who use AWS today. Our Firmware Engineers solve challenging technology problems, and build architecturally sound, high-quality components to enable AWS to realize critical business strategies. 


The ideal candidate for this role will be an innovative self-starter. You will be an SSD firmware expert with experience in making architectural tradeoffs to optimize SSD performance for a variety of use cases. You will work with engineers across the company as well as external companies and lead firmware development efforts on custom solid-state devices. You will collaborate with internal and external development engineers (architecture, hardware, validation, software services). AWS Engineers are shaping the way people use computers and designing the future of cloud computing technology – come help us make history!

What you will do: You will be a member of a team designing AWS-specific hardware, firmware and software for non-volatile memory devices, including NAND-based SSDs. You will be a part of the firmware effort from conception, through validation and into production. You will contribute to FW development and support device characterization and benchmarking efforts. You will work closely with AWS software engineers to tailor devices for the AWS environment.

Why it matters: Public cloud IT services represent the majority of growth in the overall IT services market and will continue to do so for several years to come. The scale of AWS, combined with an understanding of how our hardware is used, creates a unique opportunity for component customizations that will directly benefit our customers.

Why you will love it: You will work with engineers across the company to build next-generation devices. You will have a direct impact on our bottom line and the ability to deliver improvements for our developers. You will be part of a growing, fast paced, and fun team. You will have ownership for the implementation of your work. You will see direct product improvements based on the results of your work.

Job location: Cupertino


Key job responsibilities
- Work backward from customer input and storage product requirements to design, plan, and build SSD product
- Deliver SSD firmware design and code while working closely with a diverse team of engineers.
- Own innovation on architecture and design
- Work with external vendors and partner teams to collaborate on firmware development
- Work closely with Hardware, Software, Firmware, validation teams, to drive product integration
- Build at-scale operational excellence into product development and deployment practices
- Deliver using Agile/Scrum development methodology and software development practices

A day in the life
- Participate in Sprint and operational standups
- Design and develop firmware
- Lead Design Reviews and technical discussions
- Lead cross-team technical collaborations
- Drive integrations and deployment at-scale
- Report progress and updates for Leadership review
- 1:1's with leadership team and key partners
- Audit quality and identify production improvements

About the team
Nitro SSD is the fastest growing NAND flash-memory based storage solution for AWS. The 3rd generation Nitro SSD is now available for AWS customers on both Intel and Graviton storage platforms. This is the latest milestone in the AWS Nitro SSD strategy. We deliver industry leading performance and tail latency, while offering a cost competitive, high density storage solution for AWS customers. We own ALL the firmware, hardware, software and telemetry/monitoring for ALL the devices in the fleet. We partner will global NAND vendors, SoC vendors and manufacturing partners to drive the full product-lifecycle for Nitro S