Job Description
Are you passionate about building software systems that operate at massive scale and directly impact millions of customers? As a Software Development Engineer III at Amazon, you will lead the design, development, and delivery of complex software solutions that span the full product lifecycle — from defining technical strategy to deployment and ongoing maintenance. In this role, you will tackle ambiguous, high-impact problems where the technology path forward is not yet defined, balancing competing constraints to deliver solutions that are performant, extensible, and secure. You will shape your team's architectural direction, mentor fellow engineers, and drive engineering best practices that raise the bar for quality across the organization. If you are a collaborative, creative engineer who thrives on solving hard problems and making systems simpler, we want to hear from you.
Our team provides the foundational services that every Amazon builder depends on to develop, deploy, and operate software from continuous deployment orchestration to testing infrastructure and configuration management. We ensure these services maintain parity, reliability, and security across all regions. Our team builds products and tools supporting the deployment experience and operations for Amazon Dedicated Clouds (ADCs) supporting U.S. Government agencies.
Developers at Amazon work on real world problems on a global scale, own their systems end-to-end, and influence the direction of our technology that impacts hundreds of millions customers around the world. Join a team of super smart, customer obsessed developers that think big and have fun.
The candidate selected must obtain and maintain a security clearance at the TS/SCI with polygraph level. Upon start, the selected candidate will be sponsored for a commensurate clearance for each government agency for which they perform AWS work
Key job responsibilities
- Lead the design and implementation of software systems consisting of multiple features, working across related teams to ensure solutions are well-architected, scalable, and maintainable.
- Own your team's technical direction by evaluating trade-offs between short-term delivery needs and long-term architectural health, and by guiding future technology choices with context and clarity.
- Drive engineering best practices across the team, including code quality standards, operational excellence through alarms, telemetry, and runbooks, and effective retrospective processes.
- Mentor and develop engineers on your team and across the organization by providing technical guidance, career coaching, and constructive feedback that strengthens the broader engineering community.
- Collaborate with cross-functional partners to work backwards from customer needs, identify the right problems to solve, and deliver incremental, high-quality software that creates measurable value.
A day in the life
You start your morning reviewing the latest operational metrics and addressing any alerts from overnight. Mid-morning, you join a design review where you help a teammate refine the architecture for a new feature, asking the right questions to uncover hidden dependencies. After lunch, you pair with an engineer to work through a tricky implementation challenge, then shift to writing a technical design document for an upcoming project. Throughout the day, you balance hands-on coding with guiding your team toward pragmatic, well-reasoned solutions.
About the team
Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
AWS Infrastructure Services (AIS)
AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We 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.
Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.
Mentorship and Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.
Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree, or CSSLP (Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional)
- 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
- 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
Preferred Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent
- 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- 5+ years of full stack development experience
- Experience with modern software development, web development frameworks, APIs
- 5+ years of distributed systems experience
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.
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.
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
USA, VA, Herndon - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually
More Information
Application Details
- Organization DetailsAmazon Web Services, Inc.


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