Principal Engineer, Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX)

Amazon is hiring a Principal Engineer, Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX) in Seattle, United States. It pays $230k-$311k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions distributed systems, software architecture and technical strategy among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as an executive role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Principal Software Engineer setting technical strategy and developer platforms, with touchpoints on generative AI and agentic development.

distributed-systemssoftware-architecturetechnical-strategymentoring

As a Principal Engineer in Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX), you will be one of the most senior technical leaders in the organization, setting technical direction for platforms and services that thousands of Amazon builders depend on. You will tackle ambiguous, large-scale problems that span multiple teams and systems, and translate them into clear, durable technical strategies.

Principal Engineers at Amazon are hands-on technologists and force multipliers. You will combine deep technical expertise with broad influence — writing and reviewing designs, raising the engineering bar, mentoring senior engineers, and partnering with engineering leaders to make the right long-term architectural and investment decisions. Your work will directly shape developer experience, software quality, delivery velocity, and operational safety at Amazon scale.

Key job responsibilities
- Set and drive technical strategy for complex, high-impact platforms and services used broadly across Amazon's engineering community.
- Decompose ambiguous, large-scale problems into simple, scalable, and maintainable solutions, and define multi-year technical roadmaps.
- Lead the design and architecture of distributed systems that operate reliably at massive scale.
- Raise the engineering bar through design reviews, code reviews, operational excellence practices, and mentorship of senior and principal-track engineers.
- Partner with engineering, product, and science leaders to align technical direction with organizational goals and customer needs.
- Identify and prioritize the highest-leverage opportunities to improve how Amazon builders develop, build, test, deploy, and operate software — including opportunities created by Generative AI and agentic development.
- Influence engineering standards and best practices across team and organizational boundaries.
- Balance long-term transformation with incremental, measurable delivery of value.

A day in the life
You spend your time where the hardest technical problems are. You dive deep into architecture, write and critique design documents, and get close to the technology to understand root causes. You are frustrated by inefficiencies that make building software unnecessarily difficult, and you channel that into durable solutions. You move fluidly between hands-on technical work and high-leverage influence — unblocking teams, aligning stakeholders, and mentoring the next generation of technical leaders. You think in terms of systems and in terms of the builder's experience, and you consistently simplify complexity rather than add to it.

About the team
Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX) is the AWS organization dedicated to improving the experience of software builders across Amazon. ASBX owns the foundational platforms, tools, and services that Amazon's engineering community uses to design, build, test, deploy, and operate software — at a scale measured in millions of operations every day.

Amazon builders are both our customers and our proving ground: the systems ASBX creates are used by thousands of engineers to ship features for Amazon's customers worldwide. Our teams work across the full software development lifecycle — source control, build systems, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), testing and verification, developer tooling, and the broader developer productivity ecosystem.

We are operating at an inflection point. Generative AI and coding agents are fundamentally reshaping how software is created, reviewed, and released. ASBX is at the forefront of reimagining developer tooling for an AI-native future — where both human and AI builders collaborate to produce software faster, more safely, and at greater scale than ever before. This creates a rare opportunity to influence the direction of software engineering practice across one of the world's largest and most sophisticated development communities.

Basic qualifications

- Extensive professional software development experience, including significant experience designing and architecting new and existing large-scale systems.
- Demonstrated experience designing and building large-scale, multi-tiered, distributed, or highly concurrent software systems and services.
- Deep expertise in software design patterns, reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.
- Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages (e.g., Java, C++, C#, or similar).
- Experience leading technical direction across multiple teams and influencing engineering decisions beyond a single team's scope.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred qualifications

- Experience as a Principal Engineer or equivalent senior technical leadership role at scale.
- Experience building developer-facing platforms, tools, or services (e.g., source control, CI/CD, build systems, testing/verification, or developer productivity tooling).
- Experience applying Generative AI or agentic approaches to software development, tooling, or developer productivity.
- Experience building services on AWS.
- Track record of mentoring senior engineers and growing technical leaders.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical trade-offs clear to both technical and non-technical audiences.

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, CA, Cupertino - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually
USA, CA, Santa Clara - 230,100.00 - 311,200.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Arlington - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Herndon - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 200,100.00 - 270,600.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Principal Engineer, Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX) at Amazon rates 30 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Principal Engineer, Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX) is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $230k-$311k a year.
The role is based in US, WA, Seattle.
The job was posted on October 23, 2026.
Seniority: executive.
Applications are handled by Amazon. Apply on Amazon

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Distributed SystemsSoftware ArchitectureTechnical StrategyMentoring

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where software architecture was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where technical strategy was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where mentoring was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Distributed Systems, Software Architecture, Technical Strategy, and Mentoring. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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