Company Overview
[$COMPANY_OVERVIEW]
Role Overview
We are seeking a senior Amazon Engineer to design, build, and operate highly available, secure, and scalable cloud-native systems that power customer-facing commerce and operational platforms. You will lead architecture and implementation for services running on AWS, drive system-level performance and cost optimization, and collaborate with cross-functional product and operations teams to deliver measurable business outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Architect and implement distributed systems and microservices on AWS using services such as EC2, ECS/EKS, Lambda, API Gateway, S3, DynamoDB, RDS, ElastiCache, and Kinesis/Kafka to meet latency, throughput, and durability SLAs
- Design fault-tolerant, observable platforms: implement tracing, structured logging, and metrics (OpenTelemetry, AWS X-Ray, CloudWatch, DataDog) to reduce MTTR and improve operational readiness
- Own scalability and performance: conduct capacity planning, load testing, profiling, and tuning across the full stack (network, JVM/Go runtime, databases, caches)
- Lead infrastructure-as-code initiatives using Terraform, AWS CDK, or CloudFormation and integrate security and compliance checks into CI/CD pipelines
- Drive API design and contract stability: define gRPC/REST interfaces, versioning strategies, and backward compatibility guarantees
- Mentor engineers on system design, runbooks, incident response, and post-incident analysis; lead Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) and code review processes
- Collaborate with product managers and SRE/DevOps to translate product requirements into measurable engineering deliverables and success metrics
- Implement cost-optimization strategies including right-sizing, autoscaling policies, spot/ savings plan utilization, and efficient data lifecycle management
Required and Preferred Qualifications
Required:
- 5+ years designing and operating production services in cloud environments, with at least 3 years on AWS
- Deep expertise in at least one backend language (Java, Kotlin, Go, or Python) and strong track record of shipping high-quality, tested code
- Proven experience with microservices architecture, service discovery, load balancing, and distributed data consistency patterns
- Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or AWS CDK) and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
- Operational excellence: incident response ownership, SLO/SLI/SLA definition, and production debugging using distributed tracing and APM tools
- Strong understanding of security best practices: IAM, VPC, KMS, encryption at rest and in transit, and secure credential management
Preferred:
- Experience with event-driven architectures, Kafka/Kinesis, stream processing (Flink, Kinesis Data Analytics), and eventual consistency patterns
- Knowledge of serverless architectures and cold-start/scale challenges for Lambda-based systems
- Experience with data stores across the spectrum: DynamoDB, Aurora/Postgres, Redis, and columnar stores; schema design for OLTP and OLAP use cases
- Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, or equivalent
- Prior experience working on consumer-scale e-commerce or logistics platforms
Technical Skills and Relevant Technologies
- Programming: Java, Kotlin, Go, Python; strong unit/integration testing (JUnit, pytest, TestContainers)
- Cloud: AWS (EC2, EKS, Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, RDS, KMS, CloudWatch)
- Containers & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (EKS), Helm
- Messaging & Streaming: Kafka, Kinesis, SQS, SNS; gRPC and RESTful API design
- Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, AWS CDK, CloudFormation
- CI/CD & GitOps: GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Spinnaker, Argo CD
- Observability: OpenTelemetry, DataDog, CloudWatch, ELK/EFK stacks, AWS X-Ray
- Databases & Caching: DynamoDB, PostgreSQL/Aurora, Redis/ElastiCache
- Security & Compliance: IAM, VPC networking, KMS, Vault
Soft Skills and Cultural Fit
- Proven leadership in architecture decision-making and ability to communicate trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Track record of mentoring engineers, elevating engineering standards, and improving team delivery processes
- Data-driven mindset: define success metrics, instrument systems, and iterate based on telemetry
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for runbooks, ADRs, and post-incident reviews
- Comfort with ambiguity and rapid change; proactive ownership and a bias for action
Benefits and Perks
Salary range: [$SALARY_RANGE]
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) with company match or equivalent retirement plan
- Generous paid parental leave and flexible PTO
- Equity or long-term incentive compensation
- Annual professional development stipend and conference budget
- Wellness programs, commuter benefits, and family support resources
Equal Opportunity Statement
[$COMPANY_NAME] is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected characteristics.
Location
This role is remote within [$COMPANY_LOCATION]: candidates must be legally authorized to work and based in [$COMPANY_LOCATION]. Occasional travel to regional offices for onboarding, team offsites, and critical launch events may be required.
Application Instructions
We encourage applicants who feel they may be a partial match for the role to apply. Please submit a resume and a brief cover letter highlighting your most relevant systems design and AWS architecture experience. In your cover letter, include a one-paragraph summary of a production incident you led and the measurable outcome.