diff --git a/nix/dev-shell.nix b/nix/dev-shell.nix
--- a/nix/dev-shell.nix
+++ b/nix/dev-shell.nix
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@
   # shell commands to be ran upon entering shell
   shellHook = let
     socket = "mysql-socket/mysql.sock";
+    awsDev = lib.getDev aws-sdk-cpp;
   in ''
     if [[ "$OSTYPE" == 'linux'* ]]; then
       export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT=''${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/run/user/$UID}/${socket}
@@ -101,6 +102,8 @@
       export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${lib.makeLibraryPath [ stdenv.cc.cc.lib zlib ]}
     fi
 
+    export AWSSDK_CORE_HEADER_FILE=${awsDev}/include/aws/core/Aws.h
+
     echo "Welcome to Comm dev environment! :)"
   '';
 }
diff --git a/nix/overlay.nix b/nix/overlay.nix
--- a/nix/overlay.nix
+++ b/nix/overlay.nix
@@ -10,6 +10,20 @@
 prev:
 
 {
+  # Patch aws-sdk-cpp to automatically pick up header location
+  # when using `find_package(AWSSDK COMPONENTS [comps])`
+  aws-sdk-cpp = (prev.aws-sdk-cpp.overrideAttrs(oldAttrs:{
+    postPatch = oldAttrs.postPatch + ''
+      substituteInPlace cmake/AWSSDKConfig.cmake \
+        --replace 'C:/AWSSDK/''${AWSSDK_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/aws/core' \
+          'C:/AWSSDK/''${AWSSDK_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/aws/core"
+          "${placeholder "dev"}/include/aws/core'
+    '';
+  })).override {
+    # avoid rebuildilng all 300+ apis
+    apis = [ "core" "s3" "dynamodb" ];
+  };
+
   # add packages meant for just this repository
   amqp-cpp = prev.callPackage ./amqp-cpp.nix { };