Software Dev Engineer, Amazon Security, ASCOT Engineering

Amazon; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon ASCOT Engineering is seeking engineers to design, build, and own secure distributed systems on AWS. You will work on AI-powered security tooling, incident response automation, and scalable delivery platforms, with fast ship cycles and high ownership.

You will collaborate across teams, mentor junior engineers, and influence product features and system architecture while upholding Amazon's Leadership Principles in a security-first environment.

Responsibilities

• Broad scope with cross-team influence: Work across the stack, lead technical design discussions, and collaborate with partner teams to define and deliver solutions that span team boundaries.
• Enterprise scale with startup speed: Ship frequently to customers with high expectations for availability, performance, and security. Operate autonomously to deliver projects with team-level and cross-team scope.
• Leverage AI/ML technologies and agentic AI development practices to automate detection, analysis, and response across security domains at scale. Use AI tools and best practices to multiply velocity, quality, and creative output.
• Have significant influence on our overall strategy by helping define new product features, driving system architecture, and spearheading best practices that enable a quality product.
• Mentor and coach junior engineers on engineering excellence and Amazon's Leadership Principles. Raise the bar for the team through code reviews, design reviews, and technical guidance.

Job description

We're on the lookout for the curious, those who think big and want to define the world of tomorrow. At Amazon, you will grow into the high-impact builder. Every day will be filled with exciting new challenges, developing new skills, and achieving personal growth. How often can you say that your work changes the world? At Amazon, you'll say it often. Join us and define tomorrow.

At Amazon, we hire the best minds in technology to innovate and build on behalf of our customers. That focus on customers is why we are one of the world's most trusted brands and nowhere is that trust more on the line than in security. It is a role with real ownership from day one: every improvement we ship earns and protects the trust customers place in Amazon. And we do it like a startup: an owner's mentality in everyone, and real investment in turning new engineers into strong builders. We move fast, we ship fast, and we learn from everything we put in front of customers. Your work here is visible, it matters, and you will see its impact from day one.

Key job responsibilities

ASCOT Engineering is the engineering arm of the AWS Security Customer Outcomes Team (ASCOT), building the products, services, and automations that protect AWS customers across the supply chain. We are security builders, not security checkers, an engineering-first organization that designs and ships tooling at AWS scale to automate security outcomes across incident response, security escalation, and customer enablement. Our work spans AI-powered security automation, supply chain security, and secure delivery platforms, with a growing focus on securing AI and agentic workloads. You will build alongside a tight, high-ownership team that ships fast, operates what it builds, and collaborates closely partner teams across AWS Security.

Design, build, and own highly available, scalable, and secure distributed systems on AWS, driving architectural decisions and owning the full lifecycle from design through production deployment.

• Broad scope with cross-team influence: Work across the stack, lead technical design discussions, and collaborate with partner teams to define and deliver solutions that span team boundaries.
• Enterprise scale with startup speed: Ship frequently to customers with high expectations for availability, performance, and security. Operate autonomously to deliver projects with team-level and cross-team scope.
• Leverage AI/ML technologies and agentic AI development practices to automate detection, analysis, and response across security domains at scale. Use AI tools and best practices to multiply your velocity, quality, and creative output across greenfield and brownfield projects.
• Have significant influence on our overall strategy by helping define new product features, driving system architecture, and spearheading best practices that enable a quality product.
• Mentor and coach junior engineers on engineering excellence and Amazon's Leadership Principles. Raise the bar for the team through code reviews, design reviews, and technical guidance — helping turn new engineers into strong builders.

A day in the life

The challenges SDEs solve for at Amazon are big and influence millions of customers, sellers, and products around the world. On ASCOT Engineering, those challenges sit at the intersection of security, AI, and customer trust at AWS scale. You might start the morning building an automation that accelerates incident response, spend the afternoon shipping a feature on a secure delivery platform, and close the day prototyping agentic security tooling with your team. We are looking for builders who are passionate about creating security products from scratch, thrive in ambiguity, and want to ship at a pace where development cycles are measured in weeks, not years.

About the team

Diverse Experiences

Amazon Security values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the 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.

Why Amazon Security?

At Amazon, security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. Our organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a high bar for security across all of Amazon’s products and services. We offer talented security professionals the chance to accelerate their careers with opportunities to build experience in a wide variety of areas including cloud, devices, retail, entertainment, healthcare, operations, and physical stores.