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The Air Science and Technology (AST) team is seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer (SDE-III) to own the technical direction of Caps Manager and Fly Forecaster - two interconnected systems at the heart of Amazon Air's capacity planning and allocation. Caps Manager governs how much volume can be assigned to each flight and integrates with downstream systems like ATROPS to influence real-time order-to-flight assignment. Fly Forecaster predicts future cargo demand across the network, enabling proactive capacity decisions that balance cost efficiency with delivery speed. Together, these systems support both 1P (AFN) and 3P cargo operations across North America and Europe.
The ideal candidate is a seasoned technical leader who can operate across ambiguous problem spaces, influence without authority, and deliver results through others. You'll set the technical bar for the team - defining best practices, mentoring engineers, and making high-judgment calls on architecture, scalability, and operational excellence. You balance long-term technical vision with the pragmatism needed to ship in a fast-paced environment where time to market is critical.
A day in the life
In this role, You'll
1) Own the end-to-end architecture for Caps Manager and Fly Forecaster - including the API layer, workflow engine, cap calculation logic, ULD allocation algorithms, forecasting pipelines, and data integrations that feed downstream capacity systems
2) Drive the evolution of the cap allocation model from volume-only to dimension-aware, enabling support for weight-based capping, non-stackable cargo, and 3P commingling use cases
3)Architect and scale the forecasting platform - ensuring demand predictions are accurate, timely, and actionable for capacity planning decisions across the network
4)Design the feedback loop between Forecaster and Caps Manager - where forecast outputs inform cap-setting, and actual utilization data feeds back to improve forecast accuracy
5)Architect the integration layer between Caps Manager and partner systems (ATROPS, AirTechCargoRouteService, Amazon Freight, KESSEL, TVP) - defining API contracts, data freshness SLAs, and fallback behavior
6) Lead the Cap & Release program's technical implementation - designing event-driven cap release mechanisms that optimize flight utilization while preventing overbooking
Identify and drive foundational improvements - reducing operational burden (noisy alarms, data validation gaps), improving system resilience, and eliminating tech debt across the existing allocation and forecasting logic
7) Partner with Air Science, product managers, and operations teams to translate complex business constraints (DG, load plan feasibility, seasonal demand patterns, pure vs. mixed containers) into well-scoped technical solutions
8)Own operational excellence for both domains - driving availability targets, reducing high-sev ticket volume, and building self-healing mechanisms that reduce oncall toil
9)Mentor and grow SDE-I and SDE-II engineers on the team, helping them develop technical depth, system design skills, and operational judgment
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
- Experience designing and building large-scale systems in a multi-tiered, distributed environment (Service Oriented Architecture)
- Experience with capacity management, forecasting systems, resource allocation, or optimization platforms (preferred but not required)
- Comfort working at the intersection of software engineering and data/science - you don't need to build ML models, but you should be able to architect the systems that serve and operationalize them
- Track record of delivering large, cross-team technical initiatives from design through production, particularly where multiple upstream/downstream dependencies exist
- Strong operational instincts - you've been on-call, debugged production incidents under pressure, and built systems that are easy to operate and reason about
- Ability to influence technical direction across organizational boundaries without direct authority
- Experience mentoring engineers and raising team-wide engineering standards
- Excellent written and verbal communication - you can write a crisp design doc, present trade-offs to senior leadership, and align cross-functional stakeholders
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, WA, Bellevue - 168,100.00 - 227,400.00 USD annually