AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) - Database Engineer
AWS Database Migration Service has migrated more than 1.5 million workloads to AWS, helping enterprises move from commercial databases (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2) to open-source Aurora and RDS (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
As a DMS Database Engineer, you are the front line for customer success. You diagnose complex replication and migration failures, propose database-specific workarounds, and guide customers through production incidents involving CDC, schema migration, and data validation across heterogeneous database engines. You work at the intersection of deep database internals knowledge and customer-facing problem solving - turning ambiguous production failures into root causes and fixes.
What you'll do:
Diagnose and resolve complex customer escalations involving heterogeneous database migration and replication (Oracle CDC, SQL Server log reading, PostgreSQL logical decoding, MySQL binlog parsing).
Perform root cause analysis on production incidents - analyzing core dumps, task logs, metrics, and database behavior to identify whether issues originate in the source, target, or DMS engine.
Design and validate migration strategies for large-scale customer engagements, including data validation approaches, performance tuning, and cutover planning.
Develop and maintain database-specific test scenarios for our Scalable Test Platform (STP), improving coverage across migration paths and parameter combinations.
Collaborate with SDEs to refine migration and replication engine behavior - translating customer-observed database edge cases into reproducible test cases and code fixes.
Contribute to Pre-Migration Assessment (PMA) rules that proactively detect configuration issues before customers begin migrations.
Leverage and improve AI-powered diagnostic tools (DMS Oncall Agent, Meshclaw) to accelerate troubleshooting and reduce time-to-resolution.
Author runbooks, knowledge base articles, and escalation documentation that enable support teams and fellow engineers to resolve issues without service team engagement.
Participate in on-call rotation, triaging Sev-2/Sev-3 tickets and providing database-expert guidance to support engineers.
AWS DMS is a part of AWS Utility Computing (UC) which provides product innovations - from foundational services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS’s services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you’ll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (Iot), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS, including support for customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.
Key job responsibilities
Leverage deep expertise in database internals (storage engines, transaction logs, replication mechanisms, query optimization) across PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, or DB2 to diagnose and resolve complex production issues.
Investigate and resolve customer-facing database problems including performance degradation, data corruption, replication lag, CDC failures, and schema migration edge cases.
Build automation, log analysis tools, and diagnostic scripts using SQL and scripting languages (Python, Bash, Perl) to accelerate troubleshooting and reduce manual investigation effort.
Apply knowledge of database replication technologies - CDC (Change Data Capture), logical replication, log-based capture, and data validation - to guide customers through migration and replication challenges.
Collaborate with SDEs on root cause analysis by reading and reasoning about C/C++ or Java code in the DMS replication engine to trace failures from customer symptoms to code-level defects.
Operate within the AWS ecosystem (RDS, Aurora, DMS, Redshift, S3, CloudWatch) to investigate issues end-to-end across infrastructure, networking, and database layers.
Document complex technical findings clearly — writing root cause analyses, runbooks, and knowledge base articles that enable support teams, engineering peers, and customers to resolve issues independently.
A day in the life
As you design and code solutions to help our team drive efficiencies in software architecture, you’ll create metrics, implement automation and other improvements, and resolve the root cause of software defects. You’ll also:
Build high-impact solutions to deliver to our large customer base.
Participate in design discussions, code review, and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
Work cross-functionally to help drive business decisions with your technical input.
Work in a startup-like development environment, where you’re always working on the most important stuff.
About the team
Our team is dedicated to supporting new members. We have a broad mix of experience levels and tenures, and we're building an environment that celebrates knowledge-sharing and mentorship. Our senior members enjoy one-on-one mentoring and thorough, but kind, code reviews. We care about your career growth and strive to assign projects that help our team members develop your engineering expertise so you feel empowered to take on more complex tasks in the future.
The DMS engine team operates across Dublin, Poland, and the US. We're a team that takes ownership of a complex system and makes it better every release - reducing crashes, closing security gaps, and making migrations reliable enough that customers don't need our help to succeed. We leverage AI extensively: from autonomous bug-fixing to an on-call agent that cuts troubleshooting time dramatically.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent, or experience with database administration
- Experience in relational database technology (such as Redshift, Oracle, MySQL or MS SQL)
- Experience with at least one scripting language (shell, Python, Perl) and a procedural language for at least one database (PL/SQL, T-SQL etc.)
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- Deep understanding of data replication with hands-on experience in at least one replication technology (CDC, logical replication, log shipping)
- Knowledge of database design and implementation or equivalent
- Experience with general troubleshooting/debugging of hardware, or experience debugging, profiling, and implementing best software engineering practices in large-scale systems
- Experience with automation and any version control tools, or experience with threat modeling and penetration testing and experience in SQL Server/MySQL
- Experience supporting large-scale database migrations (thousands of databases, multi-tenant architectures).
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