At Amazon, Principal Engineers are both visionary leaders and hands-on builders. As Amazon’s most senior individual contributors, Principal Engineers work on our hardest problems. While many companies this size take their foot-off the gas pedal, at Amazon, it’s still Day 1. This startup mentality, however, does not admit the luxury of a conservative approach. Principal Engineers are asked to venture beyond comfortable approaches to pioneer new spaces, and inspire others as to what’s possible.

We are looking for architects and hands-on builders, who are highly attuned to the technical realities of building and operating high-scale systems for services and data. A Principal Engineer should have strong technical judgment and influential skills to facilitate discussions for business-critical designs. The perfect candidate will be able to operate at the Director, VPs and SVP level as a key technical adviser. They should be able to provide both architectural guidance and detailed technical direction while nurturing a continuous delivery culture.

We are hiring across multiple businesses and in many locations across the US. Apply here to learn more about open roles that would be a fit for your background.



Key job responsibilities
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will:

Serve as a technical leader on our most demanding, cross-functional projects.
Functionally decompose complex problems into simple, straight-forward solutions.
Fully and completely understand system inter-dependencies and limitations.
Possess expert knowledge in performance, scalability, enterprise system architecture, and engineering best practices.
Assist in the career development of others, actively mentoring individuals and the community on advanced technical issues and helping managers guide the career growth of their team members
Exert technical influence over multiple teams, increasing their productivity and effectiveness by sharing your deep knowledge and experience. You are a visionary leader, builder and an operator.
Balance technical leadership and savvy with strong business judgment to make the right decisions about technology choices.