Software Engineering Manager

Amplitude Amplitude · Data AI · San Francisco, CA · Engineering : Data

Amplitude is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Query team responsible for their in-house OLAP engine, Nova. This role involves setting the direction for the Query platform, leading a team of ~10 engineers, driving platform evolution across storage, compute, and query execution, and guiding the design and operation of large-scale distributed systems. The role requires a strong background in distributed data systems and cloud infrastructure, with a focus on improving reliability, latency, or cost efficiency.

What you'd actually do

  1. Set the direction for the Query platform — define the roadmap, make priorities explicit, and align engineering, product, and cross-functional partners behind a clear plan.
  2. Lead and grow a team of ~10 engineers, partnering with your tech lead to define Nova's technical direction while coaching, developing, and scaling the team through hiring and performance feedback.
  3. Drive platform evolution across the query engine’s core layers — storage, compute and query execution — to define Amplitude’s next generation of analytics.
  4. Guide the design and operation of large-scale distributed systems, including load management, fault tolerance, capacity planning, and on-call practices. You own the SLOs g, and cost efficiency.
  5. Report to the Director of Data and partner across Product, Data Warehouse, Data Pipeline, Middleware, AI, and Support to co-define Amplitude's data strategy and shape how customers query and explore their data.

Skills

Required

  • 2+ years leading engineers
  • 6+ years building backend or infrastructure systems
  • distributed data systems (OLAP databases, data warehouses, stream processing, or large-scale storage)
  • modern cloud infrastructure (AWS S3, DynamoDB, Kafka, Redis/ElastiCache, Kubernetes, Terraform)
  • improving reliability, latency, or cost efficiency for a production system with clear SLOs and incident accountability
  • Strong communication skills
  • partnering with Product and cross-functional stakeholders to define roadmaps and measurable outcomes

What the JD emphasized

  • critical infrastructure pillars
  • large-scale distributed systems
  • reliability, latency, or cost efficiency