Senior Software Development Engineer, AWS Config

Socket.dev; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon in Arlington, VA is seeking an SDE III to own architecture and technical direction of the AWS Config Reaction platform, including rules evaluation, conformance packs, and advanced queries. You'll shape design across millions of resources and drive delivery at scale.

You will lead distributed systems, mentor engineers, and participate in on-call and incident response while aligning with cross-team stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience.
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language.
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems.
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and delivery of high-scale, highly available distributed services that power the AWS Config Compliance Reporting platforms.
• Own team-level architecture decisions — define system boundaries, interfaces, and scaling strategies in complex problem spaces with visible risks, roadblocks, and constraints.
• Decompose large efforts into parallel workstreams, enabling the team to deliver cohesively at speed.
• Drive technical direction across the team and influence adjacent teams when projects cross boundaries.
• Improve platform scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency proactively — identifying problems before they become incidents.
• Mentor and raise the bar for L4 and L5 engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance.
• Participate in on-call rotation, drive root cause analysis, and build lasting operational improvements.
• Represent the team's technical perspective in roadmap discussions and contribute to multi-quarter planning.

Skills

Software development

Architecture leadership

Mentorship

Distributed systems

On-call / incident response

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Job description

Are you a senior software development engineer who wants to own the architecture and technical direction of systems that hundreds of thousands of AWS customers rely on to keep their cloud environments secure and compliant? The AWS Config Reaction team is looking for an SDE III to lead across our core compliance platform — including the rules evaluation engine, conformance packs, advanced query, aggregators, and automated remediation.

AWS Config is how customers enforce security policies, detect misconfigurations, and maintain compliance with frameworks like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and FedRAMP — both reactively and proactively, across entire AWS Organizations. Our platform continuously assesses millions of resources across thousands of accounts, aggregates compliance data at org scale, enables ad-hoc resource querying, and automates remediation — powering compliance at scale for enterprises worldwide.

You’ll own critical architecture end-to-end: defining the technical direction, leading the design of distributed systems in ambiguous problem spaces, and driving delivery across the team — all while operating at massive scale across every AWS Region.

Key job responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and delivery of high-scale, highly available distributed services that power the AWS Config Compliance Reporting platforms
• Own team-level architecture decisions — define system boundaries, interfaces, and scaling strategies in complex problem spaces with visible risks, roadblocks, and constraints
• Decompose large efforts into parallel workstreams, enabling the team to deliver cohesively at speed
• Drive technical direction across the team and influence adjacent teams (Resource Explorer, Security Hub, Weirwood, Control Tower) when projects cross boundaries
• Improve platform scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency proactively — identifying problems before they become incidents
• Mentor and raise the bar for L4 and L5 engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance
• Participate in on-call rotation, drive root cause analysis, and build lasting operational improvements
• Represent the team's technical perspective in roadmap discussions and contribute to multi-quarter planning

A day in the life

As an SDE III on the Config Reaction team, you’ll define architecture for distributed systems that evaluate compliance and aggregate data at massive scale. On any given day, you might be writing a design doc that decomposes a complex capability into parallel workstreams, leading a design review, resolving a scalability problem where constraints conflict, or aligning with engineers on adjacent teams.

You’ll work closely with a dedicated Principal Engineer and operate with high autonomy — owning technical direction end-to-end.

About the team

The Config Reaction team owns the services that run on top of Config Recording and Config Rules — a platform used by enterprise customers managing millions of resources across thousands of accounts and multiple regions. We build the systems that enable customers to continuously assess compliance, detect drift, and enforce security policy across their entire AWS environment.

Our team puts a high value on work-life balance. Striking a healthy balance between your personal and professional life is crucial to your happiness and success here, which is why we aren’t focused on how many hours you spend at work or online. Instead, we’re happy to offer a flexible schedule so you can have a more productive and well-balanced life—both in and outside of work.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ 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.

• 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
• Parental leave

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 - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually