Principal Systems Development Engineer, Region Services

Amazon; City Of London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading cloud services provider in London is seeking a Principal Engineer with expertise in DevOps and Systems Development Engineering. The role involves improving operational workflows, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and ensuring engineering best practices. Ideal candidates will have experience in complex distributed systems and a strong coding background. The position supports flexible schedules, emphasizing work-life harmony and career growth opportunities.

Benefits

Flexible schedules

Mentorship and career growth

Inclusive culture

Qualifications

• Experience working with complex distributed systems.
• Excellent coding skills to develop high-quality software solutions.
• Expertise in systems design, including single component and distributed.

Responsibilities

• Support and guide the service launch and customer traffic management.
• Drive process improvements and operational efficiencies.
• Collaborate with senior engineers for build/deploy automation.
• Work with customers to identify needs and influence AWS service features.
• Define operational improvement frameworks and mentor engineers.

Skills

Distributed systems

High-quality software development

Systems design

AWS service portfolio knowledge

Job description

Overview

AWS is looking for a talented Principal Engineer with a focus on DevOps / SRE / Systems Development Engineering, to join our fast-moving, and passionate Region Services team in the UK. This role is based in London. AWS builds and operates large internet infrastructure and provides cloud services to customers of all sizes. The role will own automation, improvement and simplification of operational and business workflows, identifying and resolving systemic issues, and working closely with development, operations, solutions architects, and customers/partners to strengthen AWS services.

As a Principal Engineer, you will be a technical leader and evangelist, working with cross-functional teams for broad outcomes and solving complex business and architectural problems. You must be a practitioner of resilience engineering who defines standards for engineering best practices and operational excellence. The team values work-life harmony and supports flexible schedules.

Key responsibilities

• Provide support and guidance as the department prepares to bring the service online and receive customer traffic for the first time.
• Measure operational activity in local teams, drive process adoption and improvements to operational efficiencies, including CI/CD pipelines, metrics collection, and service performance; increase consistency and quality through automation.
• Collaborate with PEs and senior SDEs responsible for build/deploy automation across AWS services and with the Fitness/Perigree program in the US Dedicated Cloud Solutions team.
• As the service matures (2026), work with customers to identify needs, influence new AWS service features, and design and develop new capabilities.
• Capture requirements, perform conceptual design, and assist dev teams in ramping up to deliver and launch resulting products in the UK, if applicable.
• Define and iterate an operational improvement framework; mentor local engineers; build relationships with US teams and PEs; promote and maintain Amazon day one culture.

Basic Qualifications

• Experience working with complex distributed systems.
• Excellent coding skills with the ability to develop high-quality software solutions and mentor engineers in best practices.
• Expertise in systems design (single component and distributed).
• Breadth of experience across AWS service portfolio.

Preferred Qualifications

• Large-scale enterprise experience, preferably in highly complex and/or heavily regulated industries.
• Start-up experience is advantageous (complementary to large-scale/high-complexity experience).
• Ability to dive deep into problems around automation, security and operational excellence.
• Cryptography, cross-domain and deep security experience are desirable but not essential.

Note: This role requires UK nationality and the ability to obtain and maintain UK Government Security Clearance.

Benefits and Culture

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We value diverse experiences and encourage candidates to apply even if all qualifications are not met. We support work-life harmony and provide flexibility; we foster an inclusive culture and offer mentorship and career growth opportunities as part of AWS’s efforts to be Earth’s Best Employer.