Software Development Engineer II, Leo AI Foundations

Amazon; Redmond (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equal opportunity employer

Job summary

Amazon in Redmond is seeking a Software Development Engineer to design, implement, and operate globally distributed systems for Leo, Amazon's low Earth orbit connectivity project. You will build low-latency cloud services, APIs, and data pipelines that enable near real-time analytics and AI-enabled capabilities across satellite, ground, and customer terminals.

The role emphasizes scalable architectures, rigorous testing, and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software development experience.
• 3+ years of design or architecture experience for new/existing systems.
• Experience programming with at least one software language.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement scalable, cost-optimized S3-based data lakehouse.
• Architect and implement scalable OLAP-based analytics layer.
• Establish metadata management with automated data classification and lineage tracking.
• Design standardized data ingestion patterns with validation gates.
• Architect a centralized metrics repository for Leo metrics.
• Implement robust data quality frameworks with automated validation pipelines.
• Design extensible data schemas and AI-friendly retrieval patterns.
• Develop orchestration for metrics generation workflows with audit trails.
• Lead semantic data model design balancing performance and AI retrieval.
• Implement cross-domain federated query capabilities with optimization.
• Architect a globally distributed vector database for billions of embeddings with sub-100ms retrieval.
• Design hybrid search strategies for semantic retrieval.
• Establish automated compliance validation frameworks meeting Amazon's security standards.

Skills

Software development

System design

Programming languages

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

Job description

Description

Amazon Leo is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite network. Our mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet connectivity to customers beyond the reach of existing networks. From individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies, Amazon Leo will serve people and organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.

This role is for a Software Engineer who will design, implement, and operate globally distributed systems that enable Leo to achieve low single-digit-second query responses within a near real-time analytics layer or lakehouse, and to support agentic AI capabilities on top. You’ll build these systems using the latest AWS technologies and best-in-industry software engineering practices.

Export Control Requirement

Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Key job responsibilities

• Architect and implement a scalable, cost-optimized S3-based Data Lakehouse that unifies structured and unstructured data from disparate sources.
• Architect and implement a scalable, cost-performance-optimized OLAP-based analytics layer
• Establish metadata management with automated data classification and lineage tracking.
• Design and enforce standardized data ingestion patterns with built-in quality controls and validation gates.
• Architect a centralized metrics repository that becomes the source of truth for all Leo metrics.
• Implement robust data quality frameworks with staging-first policies and automated validation pipelines.
• Design extensible metrics schemas that support complex analytical queries while optimizing for AI retrieval patterns.
• Develop intelligent orchestration for metrics generation workflows with comprehensive audit trails.
• Lead the design of semantic data models that balance analytical performance with AI retrieval requirements.
• Implement cross-domain federated query capabilities with sophisticated query optimization techniques.
• Architect a globally distributed vector database infrastructure capable of managing billions of embeddings with consistent sub-100ms retrieval times.
• Design and implement hybrid search strategies combining dense vectors with sparse representations for optimal semantic retrieval.
• Establish automated compliance validation frameworks ensuring data handling meets Amazon's security standards.

A day in the life

This role is for a Software Development Engineer who will build new cloud services and APIs that facilitates and orchestrates simulation of software on Leo devices such as satellites, ground gateways, and customer terminals. You will be building low-latency, highly scalable architecture that are critical to getting high quality internet service to customers.

Basic Qualifications

• 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 3+ years of non-internship design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience programming with at least one software programming language

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.