Software Development Engineer II, EC2 Core Platform
AI in this role
As a Software Development Engineer II at Amazon, you will design, build, and operate large-scale, high-availability systems that serve millions of customers. You own components and features end-to-end — from design through implementation, testing, deployment, and operations — and you raise the technical bar for your team through high-quality code, thoughtful design, and strong engineering practices. SDE IIs operate with significant autonomy on well-scoped problems and are trusted to deliver complex features with limited oversight.
Key job responsibilities
- Design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain scalable, secure, and reliable software systems and services.
- Own the delivery of medium-to-large features or components, breaking ambiguous problems into well-defined tasks and driving them to completion.
- Write high-quality, maintainable, well-tested code and clear technical documentation and design docs.
- Participate in and contribute to design and code reviews, improving quality and consistency across the team.
- Operate what you build: monitor service health, respond to operational events, participate in on-call, and drive down operational load through automation and root-cause fixes.
- Collaborate with product managers, other engineers, and partner teams to clarify requirements, define technical approaches, and manage cross-team dependencies.
- Improve engineering practices — CI/CD, testing, observability, performance, and security — and reduce technical debt.
- Mentor junior engineers (SDE I / interns) and contribute to a strong, inclusive team culture.
A day in the life
You start your morning reviewing a design document from a teammate, providing feedback that strengthens their approach. Mid-morning, you pair with engineers to resolve a tricky integration challenge between your service and a partner team's API. After lunch, you lead a technical discussion to evaluate trade-offs for an upcoming feature, then spend focused time writing code for a critical component where your expertise has the most impact. You wrap up by checking operational dashboards and ensuring your team's alarms and runbooks are up to date.
About the team
Our team builds software that directly impacts how customers experience Amazon. We operate in an environment where engineering excellence, collaboration, and pragmatic problem-solving define how we work together. We are focused on building reliable, scalable systems while investing in the growth of every engineer on the team. If you want to shape technical strategy, tackle meaningful challenges, and work alongside talented colleagues who value quality and inclusiveness, this is the place for you.
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 score this
Software Development Engineer II, EC2 Core Platform at Amazon scores 27 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 1 of 4 (Little AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.
AI Level 1. The work itself involves no AI, or AI only appears as scenery, such as a company tagline.
- AI Level 480 to 100
- AI Level 360 to 79
- AI Level 240 to 59
- AI Level 10 to 39
Bands come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
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