AmazonSenior Software Development Engineer, Amazon Low Earth Orbit, LEO Pop DataPlane
Amazon is hiring a Senior Software Development Engineer, Amazon Low Earth Orbit, LEO Pop DataPlane in Sunnyvale, United States. It pays $193k-$262k 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.
- Pay on this posting starts 15% higher than the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- The posting mentions AWS, CI/CD and networking software among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a senior role.
- Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
Architect and build traffic processing pipelines connecting satellite networks to the internet for Amazon LEO.
Key job responsibilities
- Design and own the architectural direction of the Pop DataPlane traffic processing systems, balancing scalability, performance, and security tradeoffs across the full software lifecycle.
- Lead multi-engineer projects to build networking functions on AWS cloud infrastructure, establishing best practices for development, testing, and deployment processes.
- Collaborate with satellite network, ground station, and customer-facing teams to gather requirements, define interfaces, and ensure your systems integrate into the broader LEO architecture.
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, automated tests, and operational dashboards to ensure system reliability and rapid delivery of new capabilities.
- Coach and mentor engineers on the team, driving a culture of high-quality code, thorough design reviews, and continuous improvement.
Export Control Requirement:
Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
A day in the life
You will start many mornings reviewing operational metrics for the data-plane services your team owns, then shift into design discussions with satellite network and ground station engineers to define how new traffic flows will be processed. Afternoons often blend hands-on coding with code reviews, where you help teammates raise the quality bar. You will regularly partner with product and systems engineers to translate customer connectivity requirements into technical designs, and you will participate in on-call rotations to keep the services that connect customers to the LEO network running smoothly.
About the team
The Pop DataPlane team within Amazon LEO owns the software layer where customer traffic enters and exits the satellite network. As Amazon LEO moves toward worldwide service launch, the team is focused on building reliable, high-throughput data-plane systems that deliver connectivity to customers around the globe. We value an inclusive culture where every team member's perspective strengthens our engineering decisions. If you want to work on a product whose impact you can see from space, this is the team to join.
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.
Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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, Sunnyvale - 193,300.00 - 261,500.00 USD annually
How we rate this
Senior Software Development Engineer, Amazon Low Earth Orbit, LEO Pop DataPlane at Amazon rates 0 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.
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.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $193k
- Typical software engineer job
- $168k
This posting starts 15% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where networking software was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where traffic processing was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where c was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where java was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Networking Software, Traffic Processing, Distributed Systems, C, and Java. 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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