Senior SDE, OpenSearch, AWS OpenSearch

Amazon is hiring a Senior SDE, OpenSearch, AWS OpenSearch in Austin, United States. It pays $168k-$227k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: aI is not part of the work.
The listed pay starts close to the typical software engineer posting on Level.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Opensearch, Lucene and distributed systems.
Level lists 21,000+ other open roles at Amazon.
The role was posted within the past two weeks.

AI in this role

Design and develop cloud-scale security and search features for a distributed log analytics and search platform.

opensearchlucene

distributed-systemssecuritycloud-computingsearch-engines

Are you interested in building security for a cloud-scale distributed log analytics and search platform? Do you want to revolutionize the way people manage and secure vast volumes of data in the cloud? Do you want to have direct and immediate impact on a large number of AWS users? Do you want to be part of a fast-growing AWS service and work in a fast paced startup style environment?

Amazon Opensearch service makes it easy to deploy, operate, and scale Opensearch (for log analytics, application monitoring, full-text search, and more! Amazon Opensearch service is a fully managed service that delivers Opensearch’s easy-to-use APIs and real-time capabilities along with offering predictable performance and seamless scalability for production workloads.

The OpenSearch team is looking for innovative engineers with a passion for helping develop the next generation of security features to help users (both, opensource community users and AWS customers) secure and manage access to their data, all at cloud scale.

You should be somebody who enjoys working on complex system software, is customer-centric, and feels strongly about delivering results. You should be passionate about solving security hurdles in innovative ways. You'll be part of a world-class team in a fast-paced environment that has the entrepreneurial feel of a start-up. This is an opportunity to operate and engineer systems on a massive scale, and to gain top-notch experience in cloud computing. You'll be surrounded by people who are smart, passionate about cloud computing, and believe that world class service is critical to customer success.

About OpenSearch
---------------------------
OpenSearch is a community-driven, Apache 2.0-licensed open-source search and analytics suite built on Apache Lucene. Since launching in July 2021, the project has delivered multiple major and minor releases with innovations in core search, vector search, and analytics capabilities. Our next phase focuses on transforming OpenSearch into an intelligent retrieval engine - one that meets the evolving needs of customers running search, analytics, and AI-powered workloads across structured, unstructured, and multi-modal data.

Key job responsibilities
As a Software Development Engineer on the Amazon Opensearch Security team, you will:
1. Design, develop and support security for a world-class platform serving individuals and businesses of all sizes
2. Building technologies that help customers strengthen their security posture and better meet security requirements in the AWS Cloud
3. Work at the core of the AWS OpenSearch service, with ample opportunities to contribute to open source
4. Work on challenging problems in areas such as data storage, query optimization, JVM performance optimization, security, machine learning and more.
5. You will join a team that values strong intuition, but seek metrics and other data sources to back up their assumptions.
6. Supporting plugin teams in meeting the security requirements for host logging, patching, and vulnerability detection.
7. Continually challenge what exists and explore what should be changed to best meet evolving customer needs
8. Participate in setting a vision and objectives for AWS OpenSearch in alignment with customer needs and market opportunities

Basic qualifications

- 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

- 5+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

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, TX, Austin - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Senior SDE, OpenSearch, AWS OpenSearch at Amazon rates 35 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

Senior SDE, OpenSearch, AWS OpenSearch is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $168k-$227k a year.
The role is based in US, TX, Austin.
The job was posted on October 22, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
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 SystemsSecurityCloud ComputingSearch EnginesOpensearchLucene

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python Java C++Kubernetes TypeScript React

Pay

This job starts at: $168k
Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting starts close to the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

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 security was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where cloud computing was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where search engines was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Opensearch in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Distributed Systems, Security, Cloud Computing, Search Engines, and Opensearch. 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.

Want an expert to read your CV for this job?

Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. You get your review by email within 24 hours.

Get a free CV review Get your CV rewritten Check your resume with the ATS resume checker