Software Development Engineer, AWS IAM Distributed Database System

Amazon is hiring a Software Development Engineer, AWS IAM Distributed Database System in Seattle, United States. It pays $144k-$194k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions AWS, Distributed Database and software engineering among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a mid-level role.
Amazon has 20,000+ other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Software Development Engineer building next-generation distributed identity and authorization systems for AWS.

AWSDistributed Database

software-engineeringdistributed-systemscloud-securityapi-design

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Identity team builds, operates, and innovates the identity, authentication, and authorization stack for the AWS cloud. Our mission is to push the technical boundaries to enable AWS customers to run their business workloads confidently and securely. As part of this mission, we leverage customer obsession and technologies to help customers set appropriate access controls across all their AWS environments.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) enables customers to secure their workloads in the cloud by providing authentication and authorization mechanisms. With the growth of AWS, the workloads and access patterns keep evolving, demanding the next order of magnitude scalability. We are looking for strong software engineers to build the next generation of IAM systems. Individuals interested in this position should have experience building high-performing, reliable systems in a complex, multi-tenancy, and distributed environment in a fast-paced environment.

You’ll thrive in this role if you are interested in building highly available, fault-tolerant distributed systems, low latency request processing, and p100 anomalies. You are capable in one or more programming languages and open to learning new ones. You include customer experience when discussing engineering alternatives and value creating APIs that make "The right thing, the easy thing." You value operational sustainability and advocate for eliminating flaky tests as soon as possible. You also think having fun goes together with tackling hard problems like supercomputing, high availability, streaming, and building loosely coupled micro-services all while continuing to securely and reliably handling massive traffic with millisecond latency.

About the team
We're a diverse team that's intentional about building an inclusive culture. Our members are active across Amazon's many affinity groups spanning a wide range of backgrounds and communities. We value work-life balance and offer flexible hours — our on-call rotation is roughly one week every two months, and we invest in fault-tolerant systems so pages are rare. When they happen, we fix root causes together. We're committed to your growth through hands-on mentorship, thoughtful code reviews, and projects chosen to stretch your skills and advance your career.

Basic qualifications

- 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 2+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience programming with at least one software programming language

Preferred qualifications

- 3+ 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, WA, Seattle - 143,700.00 - 194,400.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Software Development Engineer, AWS IAM Distributed Database System 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.

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

Software Development Engineer, AWS IAM Distributed Database System is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $144k-$194k a year.
The role is based in US, WA, Seattle.
The job was posted on June 5, 2026.
Seniority: mid.
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

Software EngineeringDistributed SystemsCloud SecurityAPI DesignAWSDistributed Database

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python Java C++Kubernetes TypeScript React

Pay

This job starts at: $144k
Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting starts 14% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where software engineering 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 cloud security was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where api design was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used AWS in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, Cloud Security, API Design, and AWS. 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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