SDE Intern – High-Performance Query Processing, Query Optimization

Amazon Web Services (AWS) internships are for 12 consecutive weeks during summer. By applying to this position, your application will be considered for the locations listed on this posting.

Amazon Redshift is the world’s most popular fully managed cloud data warehouse. Tens of thousands of enterprise customers use Redshift to crunch through exabytes of data in the cloud to make business critical decisions every day. To stay ahead in such a mission critical setting, at Redshift, we must always re-invent ourselves for customers. We are always looking for the innovative engineers to help shape the future of Redshift.

About the team

Query Processing team is at the heart of Redshift data plane and is responsible for query analysis, query optimization and massively parallel execution engine. Query Processing team is focused on maintaining Amazon Redshift’s lead on price-performance.

Query Processing team delivers extreme performance by uniquely combining novel techniques for distributed query planning, code generation, query compilation, query scheduling, resource-planning, and superscalar query execution with optimized data encodings accessed with high performance SIMD kernels, and hardware conscious algorithms. We also work closely with AWS platform teams in shaping requirements for next generation platforms to run database/analytics applications.

Our team consists of industry leading innovators, with multitudes of patents and research publications in this space. We are a fun-loving team, that is passionate about ideating, designing and delivering query processing and overall database architecture towards extreme performance. We are distributed across many locations in US, Germany, and are expanding in other geographies.

This is a unique and rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor within a fast-growing business and help shape the technology powering analytical workloads for Fortune 500 companies, startups, and everything in between. You will bring deep technical, algorithmic and coding expertise with the ability to work within a fast moving and collaborative environment in the industry leading cloud company to deliver a broad business impact. If this sounds exciting to you - come build the future with us!



Key job responsibilities
As a software engineer in vectorized query execution team, you will:
• Design and implement state-of-the-art distributed data processing algorithms for the parallel execution query engine.
• Identify opportunities for performance improvement by in-depth analysis of the query plan and query execution states.
• Deploy and monitor new features in a highly available and fault tolerant system running in the cloud.

Basic Qualifications

- Are enrolled in a academic program that is physically located in the United States
- Knowledge of computer science fundamentals such as object-oriented design, operating systems, algorithms, data structures, and complexity analysis
- Are 18 years of age or older
- Experience with at least one modern language such as Java, Python, C++, or C# including object-oriented design
- Work 40 hours/week minimum and commit to 12 week internship maximum
- Experience managing teams
- Are enrolled in a Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Electrical Engineering, or majors relating to these fields with graduation conferral date after December 2025

Preferred Qualifications

- Knowledge of programming languages such as C/C++, Python, Java or Perl
- Experience with distributed, multi-tiered systems, algorithms, and relational databases
- Experience in optimization mathematics such as linear programming and nonlinear optimization

Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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 https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $99,500/year in our lowest geographic market up to $200,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits. This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.