System Development Engineer, Lambda/Serverless

Amazon is hiring a System Development Engineer, Lambda/Serverless in Seattle, United States. It pays $129k-$175k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Amazon.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions AWS Lambda, Ecs and Eks among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a mid-level role.
Amazon has 21,000+ other open roles on Level.
Posted within the past week.

AI in this role

Build and support AWS Lambda and container services in air-gapped cloud environments while automating operational workflows.

aws-lambdaecseksecrfargateci-cd

systems-engineeringserverlesscloud-computingautomationobservability

The Amazon Dedicated Cloud (ADC) Serverless team is hiring a cleared Systems Development Engineer to join the team. This is an exciting opportunity to use the latest cloud computing technologies to help U.S. Government agencies implement innovative serverless and container solutions and solve technical problems at scale.

In this role, you will join a team of highly talented engineers that build and support AWS Lambda and container services (ECS, EKS, ECR, Fargate) in air-gapped cloud environments, as well as services and tooling to improve how we operate and deliver these platforms. This role enables you to deliver impact at scale: the work you do unlocks the latest in serverless and container capabilities for all of our US ADC customers.

A successful Systems Development Engineer on our team is focused on building services and tooling that enhance our operational posture and eliminate toil. They think about the scalability, availability, and operational readiness of what they create. They operate at the intersection of commercial service architecture and ADC partition constraints, balancing long-term design decisions against the urgency of customer delivery. They build automation that replaces manual processes, and they drive reliability improvements through software rather than procedure.

This position requires that the candidate selected must currently possess and maintain an active TS/SCI security clearance. The position further requires that, after start, the selected candidate obtain and maintain an active TS/SCI security clearance with polygraph or commensurate clearance for each government agency for which they perform AWS work.

Key job responsibilities
- Designing and building automation, tooling, and CI/CD pipelines that enable safe, continuous delivery of AWS Lambda and container services into isolated cloud environments
- Identifying and eliminating operational toil through software: replacing manual processes with self-service tools, automated remediation, and scalable infrastructure
- Diving deep into service inter-dependencies and region-specific configurations to find root causes and drive permanent resolutions through code
- Proactively identifying and resolving system variances that could affect major services globally, before they impact customers
- Building and maintaining monitoring, alerting, and observability systems that ensure fault tolerance across distributed serverless and container infrastructure
- Collaborating with commercial service teams to understand architecture changes and implement ADC-specific adaptations

A day in the life
On a typical day as a System Development Engineer (SysDev), you will contribute to development efforts across internal service teams to improve system health and status, maintainability, operational efficiency, tooling, and product builds. You will identify repetitive operational work and replace it with automated solutions that scale without human intervention. Additionally, you will support complex customer technical challenges and drive global solutions through software. As a member of the Amazon Dedicated Cloud community, you will provide on-call support when necessary across Serverless and Container technology stacks.

The team focuses on the delivery and operational excellence of AWS Lambda and container services, some of the most widely adopted compute platforms in the cloud. We thrive in a high trust environment with our internal service teams, moving quickly together to solve issues through code and drive positive customer experiences. The team values engineers who eliminate toil through automation and who drive reliability improvements through software rather than manual process.

About the team
Why AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

AWS Infrastructure Services (AIS)
AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help.

Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.

Work/Life Balance
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

Mentorship and Career Growth
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

Diverse Experiences
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying..

Basic qualifications

- Bachelor's degree, or CSSLP (Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional)
- 2+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 1+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience programming with at least one modern language such as C++, C#, Java, Python, Golang, PowerShell, Ruby
- Knowledge of fundamentals of networking, security, databases (relational or NoSQL), operating systems (Unix, Linux, and/or Windows)
- Current, active US Government Security Clearance of Top Secret with SCI eligibility or above

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with distributed systems at scale
- Experience building services using AWS products
- Experience working in an Agile environment using the Scrum methodology

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, Lambda/Serverless 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

System Development Engineer, Lambda/Serverless is an open job at Amazon.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $129k-$175k a year.
The role is based in US, WA, Seattle.
The job was posted on October 27, 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

Systems EngineeringServerlessCloud ComputingAutomationObservabilityAWS LambdaEcsEks

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where systems engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where serverless was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where cloud computing 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?
Tell me about a project where observability was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Systems Engineering, Serverless, Cloud Computing, Automation, and Observability. 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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