Software Development Engineer, AWS Border Network Engineering

Are you passionate about building systems that keep one of the world's largest networks running? We're looking for a Software Development Engineer to join a team that builds traffic engineering and fast-reroute solutions for the AWS global backbone network - the infrastructure behind S3, EC2, Direct Connect, and every AWS service.

In this role, you'll design and build software that detects congestion and failures across 400+ global sites and automatically reroutes traffic to healthier paths. You'll work at the intersection of distributed systems and networking, solving problems that directly impact the reliability and performance of AWS for millions of customers.

You'll be part of a hybrid team of software, systems development, and network engineers across the US and Australia. This position is based in Seattle and sits at the heart of AWS global networking.

Key job responsibilities

- Design, build, and maintain software services that steer traffic across the AWS global backbone network

- Develop and extend traffic engineering controllers that detect congestion and failures in real time and automatically reroute traffic to healthier paths

- Write clean, well-tested code in a production environment where availability directly impacts AWS customers

- Contribute to system design discussions - from API design to data modelling to choosing the right trade-offs for scale and reliability

- Build and improve monitoring, alerting, and automation tooling to give the team better visibility into network health

- Collaborate with network engineers, systems engineers, and partner teams to translate operational needs into software solutions

- Participate in code reviews, providing thoughtful and constructive feedback to teammates

- Participate in on-call rotations (typically one week every two months), working with the team to resolve issues and fix root causes

- Identify opportunities to simplify, automate, or improve existing systems and processes

A day in the life

You'll spend most of your time building software that gives us visibility and control over traffic across the AWS backbone. On any given day you might be designing a new feature, reviewing a teammate's code, or debugging issues. You'll work closely with network engineers and partner teams - a lot of what you build is about detecting problems and mitigating them before customers notice. Beyond coding, you'll join design discussions and on-call rotations. The work mixes building new things with keeping existing systems reliable at massive scale.

About the team

We build the systems that keep traffic flowing across the AWS global backbone - connecting every region and edge location worldwide. Our network grows ~70% year-on-year, so the problems we solve constantly evolve. The team is distributed across the US, Canada and Australia, and this role is based in Sydney. We have a broad mix of experience levels and backgrounds, and we genuinely value mentorship and knowledge sharing. What matters most is curiosity and a willingness to solve hard problems.

Basic qualifications

- 3+ years of non-internship professional software development experience

- 2+ 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

Acknowledgement of country:

In the spirit of reconciliation Amazon acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

IDE statement:

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.