Software Development Engineer, AWS Networks

Are you passionate about building systems that keep one of the world's largest networks running? We're looking for a Software Development Engineer to join a team that builds traffic engineering and fast-reroute solutions for the AWS global backbone network — the infrastructure behind S3, EC2, Direct Connect, and every AWS service.

In this role, you'll design and build software that detects congestion and failures across 400+ global sites and automatically reroutes traffic to healthier paths. You'll work at the intersection of distributed systems and networking, solving problems that directly impact the reliability and performance of AWS for millions of customers.

You'll be part of a hybrid team of software, systems development, and network engineers across the US and Australia. This position is based in Seattle and sits at the heart of AWS global networking.

Why you'll love it here:

-You'll work on problems that few teams in the world get to tackle — steering traffic for the entire AWS backbone

-Our team has a broad mix of experience levels and tenures, and we genuinely invest in mentorship — through 1:1 pairing, kind code reviews, and projects tailored to your growth

-We care about your career: we assign work based on what will help you develop as an engineer, not just what needs shipping next

Key job responsibilities

-Design, build, and maintain software services that steer traffic across the AWS global backbone network

-Develop and extend traffic engineering controllers that detect congestion and failures in real time and automatically reroute traffic to healthier paths

-Write clean, well-tested code in a production environment where availability directly impacts AWS customers

-Contribute to system design discussions — from API design to data modelling to choosing the right trade-offs for scale and reliability

-Build and improve monitoring, alerting, and automation tooling to give the team better visibility into network health

-Collaborate with network engineers, systems engineers, and partner teams to translate operational needs into software solutions

-Participate in code reviews, providing thoughtful and constructive feedback to teammates

Participate in on-call rotations (typically one week every two months), working with the team to resolve issues and fix root causes

-Identify opportunities to simplify, automate, or improve existing systems and processes

A day in the life

You'll spend most of your time building software that gives us visibility and control over traffic across the AWS backbone. On any given day you might be designing a new feature, reviewing a teammate's code, or debugging issues. You'll work closely with network engineers and partner teams — a lot of what you build is about detecting problems and mitigating them before customers notice. Beyond coding, you'll join design discussions and on-call rotations. The work mixes building new things with keeping existing systems reliable at massive scale.

About the team

We build the systems that keep traffic flowing across the AWS global backbone — connecting every region and edge location worldwide. Our network grows ~70% year-on-year, so the problems we solve constantly evolve. The team is distributed across the US and Australia, and this role is based in Seattle. We have a broad mix of experience levels and backgrounds, and we genuinely value mentorship and knowledge sharing. What matters most is curiosity and a willingness to solve hard problems.

Basic Qualifications

• 3+ years of non-internship professional software development 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

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