System Development Engineer Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

This is an excellent opportunity to join Amazon's world-class technical team at HQ2 in Arlington, VA, working with some of the best and brightest engineers while developing your skills and furthering your career within one of the most innovative technology companies anywhere.
Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX) Astra ADC provides the foundational services that every Amazon builder depends on to develop, deploy, and operate software from continuous deployment orchestration to testing infrastructure and configuration management. Our team owns and operates critical ASBX services across Amazon's most secure and isolated environments, including Apollo (deployment), Pipelines (continuous delivery), Test on Demand/Hydra (integration testing), AppConfig (feature management), Multi-Region (resource replication), Builder MCP, and AIM (AI agent infrastructure). We ensure these services maintain parity, reliability, and security across all partitions.
A successful Engineer joining the team will do much more than write code and triage problems. They will operate services at scale in air-gapped environments where standard commercial tooling doesn't exist, drive cross-partition deployment parity, and build the automation that keeps Amazon's most sensitive workloads shipping safely. They will dive deep into complex distributed systems issues and work diligently to improve the builder experience.
The ideal candidate will:
- Be great fun to work with. Our company credo is "Work hard. Have fun. Make history." The right candidate will love what they do and instinctively know how to make work fun.
- Have strong Linux & Networking Fundamentals. The ideal candidate will have deep experience working with Linux, preferably in large-scale, distributed environments. You understand networking technology, how services communicate across isolated boundaries, and regularly take part in deep-dive troubleshooting and technical post-mortem discussions to identify root causes of complex issues.
- Love to code. Whether it's building deployment automation, creating AI-powered operational tooling, or solving complex cross-partition orchestration problems, the ideal candidate will love using technology to solve problems. You have a solid understanding of software development methodology and CI/CD practices.
- Think Big. The ideal candidate will build and deploy solutions that enable thousands of Amazon builders to ship software reliably across multiple isolated regions. You will strive to improve and streamline processes to allow delivery at massive scale.
This position requires that the candidate selected must currently possess and maintain an active TS/SCI security clearance. The position further requires that, after start, the selected candidate obtain and maintain an active TS/SCI security clearance with polygraph or commensurate clearance for each government agency for which they perform AWS work.
A day in the life
You start the morning reviewing deployment health across isolated regions, checking alarms and on-call handoffs. Mid-morning, you're deep in a code review for a cross-partition automation fix, then jump into a design discussion on how to bring a new ASBX service capability to air-gapped environments. After lunch, you troubleshoot a deployment pipeline issue, tracing it from orchestration logs to a configuration mismatch, and ship the fix before end of day. Between the technical depth and the autonomy to own problems end-to-end, no two days look the same.
About the team
AWS Infrastructure Services owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we’re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on. We work on the most challenging problems, with thousands of variables impacting the supply chain — and we’re looking for talented people who want to help.
You’ll join a diverse team of software, hardware, and network engineers, supply chain specialists, security experts, operations managers, and other vital roles. You’ll collaborate with people across AWS to help us deliver the highest standards for safety and security while providing seemingly infinite capacity at the lowest possible cost for our customers. And you’ll experience an inclusive culture that welcomes bold ideas and empowers you to own them to completion.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.
Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred 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.
We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.
Here at AWS, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Our employee-led affinity groups foster a culture of inclusion that empower us to be proud of our differences. Ongoing events and learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon conferences, inspire us to never stop embracing our uniqueness.
We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS- Bachelor's degree, or CSSLP (Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional)
- 2+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
- 1+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
- Experience programming with at least one modern language such as C++, C#, Java, Python, Golang, PowerShell, Ruby
- 4+ years of administrative experience in networking, storage systems, operating systems and hands-on systems engineering experience
- Knowledge of systems engineering fundamentals (networking, storage, operating systems)
- Current, active US Government Security Clearance of Top Secret with SCI eligibility or above
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS- Experience with PowerShell (preferred), Python, Ruby, or Java
- Experience working in an Agile environment using the Scrum methodology
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.

USA, VA, Arlington - 129,200.00 - 174,800.00 USD annually