Sr. Systems Development Engineer, AFSS Compliance

Amazon is hiring a Sr. Systems Development Engineer, AFSS Compliance in Arlington, United States. It pays $151k-$205k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
The posting mentions Python, LLMs and RAG 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

Design and build AI-driven tooling, LLM systems, and RAG pipelines to automate compliance workflows and reduce manual effort.

PythonLLMsRAG

ragsystems-developmentsecurity-complianceautomationai-agentscloud-infrastructure

This is a builder role at the intersection of software/systems development, security, and compliance. You will design, build, and operate tooling that helps Amazon Foundational Security Services (AFSS) support its compliance programs more efficiently — reducing manual, repetitive effort in areas such as evidence gathering and data organization so that compliance specialists can focus their time on analysis, judgment, and control ownership.

As a Systems Development Engineer, you own the technical solution end to end: you write the code, design the pipelines and integrations, and apply modern tooling — including AI where appropriate — to streamline how compliance data and evidence are collected, organized, and surfaced for the team. Compliance specialists remain the owners of controls, assessments, and decisions; your tooling supports their work by removing manual toil and helping the team keep pace with growing demand.

You will partner closely with compliance specialists, security engineering teams, and Security Assurance, developing enough fluency in our compliance domain (audit programs, controls, evidence) to build the right tools and to explain how those tools work when needed. You will also work across government cloud environments, including FedRAMP and air-gapped (isolated) regions, and integrate with efforts like the compliance evidence library while ensuring the security and sovereignty of our data.

Key job responsibilities
Design, build, and operate automation and tooling that eliminates manual compliance work — starting with standard evidence collection, control testing, and audit response

Apply AI tooling hands-on — building agents, LLM-based systems, and RAG pipelines — to automate compliance workflows and improve accuracy at scale

Write, review, and maintain production-quality code and design the systems, pipelines, APIs, and integrations that support continuous, automated compliance monitoring

Force-multiply the compliance team — build the tools that let compliance specialists take on 2–3x more scope and reduce the manual surface area of auditor and evidence interactions

Integrate with the compliance evidence library (ARCL) and other Security Assurance systems while ensuring data sovereignty and security

Build tooling that operates across government cloud environments, including FedRAMP and air-gapped (isolated) regions, accounting for their unique evidence-collection and connectivity constraints

Develop enough compliance-domain fluency (audit programs such as SOX, FedRAMP, ISO, SOC 2) to build the right solutions and to credibly represent automated systems to internal and external auditors

Partner with security engineering, compliance specialists, legal, and product to translate compliance requirements into engineered solutions

Instrument, monitor, and continuously improve the reliability and correctness of the compliance automation you build

A day in the life
Amazon has a fast-paced environment—“Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History.” In this role, you will spend your time building: designing and shipping automation, writing code, applying AI tooling to compliance problems, and partnering with compliance specialists and engineering teams to identify the next manual process worth eliminating. You will look for new ways to automate operational compliance work and use AI and Amazon Security services to solve design problems.

Our team also puts a high value on work-life balance. A healthy balance between your personal and professional life is crucial to your happiness and success here.

Basic qualifications

- Experience leading the design, automation, deployment, and support of large-scale infrastructure
- Experience programming with at least one modern language such as Python, Ruby, Golang, Java, C++, C#, Rust
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines build processes
- Experience leading the design, build and deployment of complex and performant (reliable and scalable) software solutions in production
- Experience with any combination of the following: application security frameworks, identity and access controls, incident response, mobile security, cloud computing and security, AI security, threat intelligence, and penetration testing

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with distributed systems at scale
- Experience in communicating with executives to describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy
- Experience communicating across technical and non-technical audiences, including executive level stakeholders or clients
- Experience building tooling or automation in a security, compliance, audit, or GRC context
- Experience integrating with data/evidence repositories or building data pipelines with appropriate governance and access controls

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, VA, Arlington - 151,200.00 - 204,600.00 USD annually

How we rate this

Sr. Systems Development Engineer, AFSS Compliance at Amazon rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

●●●● 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

Sr. Systems Development Engineer, AFSS Compliance is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The listed salary is $151k-$205k a year.
The role is based in US, VA, Arlington.
The job was posted on September 25, 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

RAGSystems DevelopmentSecurity ComplianceAutomationAI agentsCloud InfrastructurePythonLLMs

Questions you could be asked

How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
Tell me about a project where systems development was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where security compliance was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where automation was part of your work. What did you do?
How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: RAG, Systems Development, Security Compliance, Automation, and AI agents. 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.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

Get your CV reviewed before you apply

Send your CV and the role you want next. Your review arrives by email within 3 days.

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