Manager, Software Development, EC2 Core Compute

The EC2 Core Compute organization owns the software heart of every EC2 server: the Nitro Hypervisor for x86 and Graviton platforms, and the services that run across the Nitro cards. We build and operate the technology that launches, migrates and live-updates EC2 instances, enabling new instance families and platform capabilities while keeping customer workloads secure and performant.

We are looking for a seasoned software development manager to lead one of our Nitro Hypervisor teams in Berlin. The team owns security and compliance for the hypervisor, driving host kernel upgrades to current long-term-support versions, working upstream-first so changes land in Linux, building features that strengthen the security posture of the hypervisor, tracking and remediating CVEs across the hypervisor and host kernel, handling embargoed security reports from researchers and CPU vendors, and creating the automation and mechanisms that make all of it durable as the fleet grows.

In this position you will build a high-performance team by creating vision for it and defining the technical roadmap in partnership with Principal Engineers, Product Managers, and the engineering teams that own the hardware, firmware, and off-host software components, distributed across locations and time zones. You will wear many hats, requiring a technical background in operating systems and software development, strong product planning and program management, operational excellence, and excellent written and verbal communication skills that enable you to build trust with your leadership and your customers.

You will work at the intersection of low-level systems software and fleet-wide security operations. If you are energized by keeping the layer underneath every EC2 instance secure, driving kernel upgrades at scale, and building a team that raises the security bar for the cloud, this role offers that opportunity in one of the most technically challenging and innovative areas of EC2.

Utility Computing (UC) AWS Utility Computing (UC) provides product innovations, from foundational services such as Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), to consistently released new product innovations that continue to set AWS's services and features apart in the industry. As a member of the UC organization, you'll support the development and management of Compute, Database, Storage, Internet of Things (Iot), Platform, and Productivity Apps services in AWS. Within AWS UC, Amazon Dedicated Cloud (ADC) roles engage with AWS customers who require specialized security solutions for their cloud services.

Key job responsibilities

- Own host kernel upgrades to current long-term-support versions, ensuring compatibility and instance availability across the fleet.

- Own upstream-first development strategy, ensuring your team's changes land in the Linux kernel and the upstream community stays engaged.

- Own the security posture of the Nitro Hypervisor, driving new features that strengthen isolation and defense in depth.

- Own the response to embargoed security reports from researchers and CPU vendors, coordinating mitigation across teams and timelines.

- Own CVE tracking, prioritization, and remediation across the hypervisor and host kernel, ensuring SLA compliance at fleet scale.

- Own the automation and mechanisms that keep security and compliance work repeatable as the fleet grows.

- Create vision and roadmap for your team, and own its delivery, operations, and on-call rotation.

- Evaluate complex business and technical requirements, and communicate risks and trade-offs to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

- Hire, mentor, and grow a high-performing team, and own skill development and performance management.

- Influence teams and leaders outside your organization, working hand in hand with Principal Engineers and diving deep into technical areas as needed.

A day in the life

You invest time in hiring the appropriate talent to make your team more effective at delivering new functionality. You operate the software of your team in production, anticipating problems, learning from mistakes, and ensuring customer workloads run without disruption. You spend your day on decisions rather than status: whether a change belongs upstream or in our own stack, whether work ships this week or waits for another test cycle, how to get a mitigation ready before an embargo lifts, and where ownership sits for components you share with peer teams. You drive the roadmap of your team and create long-term vision. You work with other seasoned managers in the EC2 Core Compute organization joining efforts to strengthen engineering practice and make the organization more effective as a whole, and you contribute to and influence the overall roadmap of the organization.

About the team

EC2 Core Compute has a two-fold mission:

Leave no customer workload on-premises by engineering new EC2 instance families.

Build the most secure, feature-rich, and robust virtualization technology in the cloud.

Our scope spans the full instance lifecycle, from oversubscription and platform efficiency to device emulation, isolation boundaries and confidential computing. Every EC2 instance runs on the platforms this organization builds.

This team owns the security and compliance surface of the Nitro Hypervisor: host kernel upgrades, upstream-first Linux development, hypervisor security features, and embargoed vulnerability response. The work is high-impact and technically deep, and it directly shapes the security posture of every EC2 instance.

Diverse Experiences

AWS 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 AWS?

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.

Inclusive Team Culture

AWS values curiosity and connection. Our employee-led and company-sponsored affinity groups promote inclusion and empower our people to take pride in what makes us unique. Our inclusion events foster stronger, more collaborative teams. Our continual innovation is fueled by the bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and passionate voices our teams bring to everything we do.

Mentorship & Career Growth

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.

Work/Life Balance

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.

Basic qualifications

- Experience in software development

- Good understanding of operating systems and/ or computer hardware components

- Experience managing a software development team and applying agile development methodologies

- Experience developing and executing/delivering product and technical roadmaps

- Experience owning production operations, including on-call and incident response

Preferred qualifications

- Experience working with Linux and virtualization system

- Experience with security engineering

- Experience with coordinated disclosure or embargoed vulnerability handling

- Experience with compliance or audit regimes such as FedRAMP

Amazon is an equal opportunities employer. We believe passionately that employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. We value your passion to discover, invent, simplify and build. Protecting your privacy and the security of your data is a longstanding top priority for Amazon. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/privacy_page) to know more about how we collect, use and transfer the personal data of our candidates.

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