Senior Software Development Engineer, AWS Config

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Arlington (VA)

On-site

USD 168,000 - 227,000

Full time

8 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Basic Life & AD&D insurance

Supplemental life plans

EAP

Mental Health Support

Medical Advice Line

Flexible Spending Accounts

Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon Development Center U.S., Inc. in Arlington, VA is seeking a senior software development engineer (SDE III) to own architecture and technical direction of the AWS Config Reaction platform, including the rules evaluation engine, conformance packs, advanced query, aggregators, and automated remediation.

You will lead design of distributed systems at scale, mentor engineers, and drive delivery across the team, working with a Principal Engineer and coordinating with related services.

Qualifications

5+ years of 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 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

Leadership

Mentoring

Architecture

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Job description

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.

Description

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.

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.