Software Development Engineer II

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

AI in this role

Build AI-enhanced deployment pipelines and intelligent automation systems for cloud infrastructure at Amazon.

pythonaws

ai-automationsoftware-developmentmachine-learningcloud-infrastructureautomated-testing

Join Amazon’s Deployment Safety team and build the intelligent systems that keep our most critical cloud infrastructure running flawlessly. As a Software Development Engineer II, you’ll use AI and automation to design, test, and deploy updates for EC2 Frontier with precision and scale. You’ll own every stage of the development lifecycle—from crafting AI-enhanced deployment pipelines that predict risks to creating automated testing tools that catch defects before they reach production. By integrating machine learning models to analyze deployment data and real-time monitoring to flag anomalies, you’ll help millions of Amazon customers rely on infrastructure that’s safer, faster, and more resilient.

This role is for collaborative engineers who thrive on solving ambiguous problems, mentoring peers, and turning cutting-edge AI concepts into practical, high-impact solutions. If you’re passionate about blending cloud-native engineering with intelligent automation, we want to hear from you.

#AI #MachineLearning #DeploymentSafety #Cloud #Frontier

Key job responsibilities
- Design and implement software features across the full development lifecycle, including working backwards from customer needs, architecting solutions, writing production-ready code, testing, deploying, and operating services at scale.
- Identify root causes of operational issues and drive permanent fixes, while continuously improving system reliability, performance, and maintainability for your team's software.
- Mentor and coach other engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and knowledge sharing, helping raise the overall quality bar of the team's output.
- Evaluate technical tradeoffs between competing approaches, balancing short-term delivery needs with long-term architectural goals, and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure solutions align with business and customer priorities.
- Write clear documentation for the software you build — covering design decisions, operational runbooks, and system architecture — so that others can maintain and extend it effectively.

A day in the life
Your morning begins with a collaborative code review—leveraging AI-assisted tools to provide feedback that elevates the team’s code quality and readiness for deployment. After a focused standup where you align on AI-driven metrics and automation priorities, you dive into building a feature you scoped last week: writing clean, scalable code to integrate a machine learning model that predicts deployment risks. You pair with a teammate to tackle a tricky integration point, using real-time debugging tools to ensure seamless automation.

Post-lunch, you join a design review where you help streamline an architecture proposal—applying AI-first principles to simplify complexity and boost efficiency. Then, you investigate an operational metric that’s flagged by your anomaly detection system, tracing it to a root cause using ML-powered correlation engines. Within hours, you’ve drafted a fix that not only resolves the issue but also enhances your predictive safety models.

Your day balances deep, heads-down coding on cloud-native features with cross-functional problem-solving—all while driving operational excellence and mentoring peers. Every task you tackle reinforces our mission: building smarter, safer systems that millions of Amazon customers rely on daily.

About the team
Our team builds software that millions of Amazon customers and internal partners depend on daily. We combine operational excellence with AI-driven insights and automation-first practices to deliver reliable, high-quality systems. Every engineer’s voice matters here—we thrive on clear thinking, open collaboration, and a shared commitment to learning from both successes and challenges. As we scale EC2 Frontier to serve even more users, we’re focused on elevating the customer experience and empowering our team with cutting-edge tools, from AI-enhanced deployment pipelines to real-time monitoring frameworks.

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
- 1+ years of software development engineer or related occupational experience
- 1+ years of designing and developing large-scale, multi-tiered, multi-threaded, embedded or distributed software applications, tools, systems, and services using: C#, C++, Java, or Perl experience
- 1+ years of Object Oriented Design experience
- Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field
- 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 II at Amazon rates 85 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● 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. Open the description and count.

Key facts

Software Development Engineer II is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $144k-$194k a year.
The role is based in US, WA, Seattle.
The job was posted on September 29, 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

AI AutomationSoftware DevelopmentMachine learningCloud InfrastructureAutomated TestingPythonAWS

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Python LLM AWS AI agents Kubernetes Generative AI

Pay

This job starts at: $144k
Typical software engineer job: $168k

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

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a workflow you automated with AI tools, end to end.
Tell me about a project where software development was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where cloud infrastructure was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where automated testing was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI Automation, Software Development, Machine learning, Cloud Infrastructure, and Automated Testing. 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.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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