Software Development Manager, Helianthus

Do you want to build the future of software security at AWS scale? AWS Security's Helianthus platform transforms how AWS Security builds and delivers to its customers. For AWS builders, Helianthus delivers intelligent security guidance directly into their daily workflows. Rather than waiting days for security review tickets, builders receive instant guidance as they write code, actionable CRs or prompts to fix issues, and automated responses to security findings-all while security teams gain continuous visibility into security posture without manual oversight. For Security Engineers evaluating service teams' architecture, code, and configuration, it provides contextualized evaluation and fixes that meet AWS' security bar.

As a Manager of Software Development for Helianthus, you'll lead the teams that build platform primitives under a single technical vision, transforming a set of working prototypes into production-grade services that operate at AWS scale. You'll drive the architecture that enables these primitives to compose seamlessly: Discovery finds vulnerabilities, Arbiter makes intelligent security evaluation, and Actions delivers fixes. This role blends deep experience in building high-scale distributed systems with security domain expertise and emerging AI capabilities, creating a unique opportunity to shape how AWS secures and protects is customers.

Key job responsibilities

Establish and drive a unified multi-year technical roadmap across the Helianthus primitives, ensuring architectural decisions enable clean composition and seamless integration across the end-to-end software lifecycle.

Lead the transition from prototyping to production by establishing engineering excellence standards, operational readiness practices, and reliability mechanisms required for production-grade services operating at AWS scale

Develop and coach tmanagers, providing strategic project assignments and growth opportunities that increase their leadership impact and prepare them for broader organizational responsibilities.

Own cross-organizational stakeholder engagement by representing Helianthus in leadership forums, driving adoption across AWS Security organizations, and managing technical dependencies with partner platform teams.

Establish scalable mechanisms to audit customer experience, operational performance, and cross-team collaboration, ensuring the primitives operated as a cohesive system rather than siloed components

A day in the life

You'll balance hands-on technical judgment with strategic planning, ensuring your organization delivers both immediate customer value and long-term platform sustainability. Throughout the day, you'll unblock technical dependencies across teams, facilitate roadmap alignment sessions with partner organizations, and maintain relationships with key stakeholders across AWS Security. You'll coach your managers through complex people situations and strategic decisions, review operational metrics to ensure predictable delivery, and identify systemic risks that could impact your teams over the next 1-3 years.

About the team

Diverse Experiences

Amazon Security 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 Amazon Security?

At Amazon, security is central to maintaining customer trust and delivering delightful customer experiences. Our organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a high bar for security across all of Amazon’s products and services. We offer talented security professionals the chance to accelerate their careers with opportunities to build experience in a wide variety of areas including cloud, devices, retail, entertainment, healthcare, operations, and physical stores.

Inclusive Team Culture

In Amazon Security, it’s in our nature to learn and be curious. Ongoing DEI events and learning experiences inspire us to continue learning and to embrace our uniqueness. Addressing the toughest security challenges requires that we seek out and celebrate a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and voices.

Training & 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, training, 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 flexible work hours and arrangements are part of our culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Basic qualifications

- 3+ years of engineering team management experience

- 7+ years of working directly within engineering teams experience

- 3+ years of designing or architecting (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience

- 8+ years of leading the definition and development of multi tier web services experience

- Knowledge of engineering practices and patterns for the full software/hardware/networks development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, certification, and livesite operations

- Experience partnering with product or program management teams

Preferred qualifications

- Experience in communicating with users, other technical teams, and senior leadership to collect requirements, describe software product features, technical designs, and product strategy

- Experience in recruiting, hiring, mentoring/coaching and managing teams of Software Engineers to improve their skills, and make them more effective, product software engineers

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, NY, New York - 203,400.00 - 275,200.00 USD annually

USA, VA, Herndon - 184,900.00 - 250,200.00 USD annually