System Development Engineer, Bottlerocket

AI in this role

As a Systems Development Engineer on the Bottlerocket team, you will design, build, and operate the systems and infrastructure behind Bottlerocket, AWS's open-source, security-first container operating system trusted by thousands of customers to run production workloads at massive scale.

As a SysDE II, you will work in Rust and Go in the open on GitHub, building and automating the systems that produce and deliver the OS to millions of hosts worldwide: the build and packaging pipeline, the update and release mechanisms, image generation across variants and architectures, and the tooling that keeps delivery safe and repeatable. You will solve hard problems in Linux internals, security hardening, and performance at high container density, and own the CI/CD, observability, and release automation that make OS delivery fast, reliable, and rollback-safe.

This is a uniquely open team within AWS: real open source, an active community, and genuinely low-level systems engineering on infrastructure customers rely on to run their most important workloads.

Key job responsibilities
- Design, implement, and maintain Rust-based OS components including system services, API servers, and update infrastructure for Bottlerocket
- Own features end-to-end from design through production, operating with high autonomy and delivering results on ambiguous problems
- Contribute to and maintain open-source code on GitHub, participating in public code reviews and community engagement
- Investigate and resolve complex systems issues spanning kernel, userspace, container runtimes, and orchestrator integrations (EKS, ECS)
- Build and improve CI/CD pipelines, release tooling, and automated testing frameworks that ensure safe, rapid OS delivery
- Harden security defaults and implement OS-level protections that reduce customer operational burden without sacrificing flexibility
- Partner cross-functionally with EKS, ECS, and security teams to design integrations and align on container host requirements
- Mentor engineers through code reviews, design feedback, and technical guidance, raising the quality bar across the team
- Participate in on-call rotations and operational excellence practices supporting production container infrastructure at scale
- Write technical design documents, contribute to roadmap planning, and communicate trade-offs clearly to stakeholders

Basic qualifications

- Experience in automating, deploying, and supporting large-scale infrastructure
- Experience programming with at least one modern language such as Python, Ruby, Golang, Java, C++, C#, Rust
- Experience with Linux/Unix
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines build processes

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with distributed systems at scale

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 - 129,200.00 - 174,800.00 USD annually

How we rate this

System Development Engineer, Bottlerocket at Amazon rates 35 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.