AMS is looking for an experienced Senior Software Development Manager to lead the organization that builds, owns, and operates Amazon's attribute-based access control (ABAC) policy services. Your team defines how authorization policies are expressed, evaluated, and enforced across Amazon - making access decisions for every service and workflow that touches protected resources. You will own Tier-1 services foundational to Amazon's operations while driving a shift from manual, team-by-team policy configuration toward intelligent defaults and automated guardrails that reduce friction for builders without compromising the security bar. This is a hard problem - ABAC policy must be expressive enough to cover wildly diverse authorization use cases, reliable enough to bear deep operational dependencies, and performant enough to operate at a scale where even small design choices have outsized blast radius.
This team is in the middle of a fundamental acceleration. The rise of agentic AI across Amazon is reshaping how authorization works - and how we build it. We're applying generative AI to compress our own development cycles, transform how we operate Tier-1 services, and deliver new AI-native authorization capabilities that let Amazon's businesses safely adopt agentic workloads at speed. If you love transforming legacy processes, building high-performing teams, and operating at a pace that matches the moment, this role will fit. You'll have substantial visibility with senior executives and the mandate to move fast. You'll need strong instincts for security outcomes paired with a passion for customer experience - and the technical depth to guide and riase the bar on principal engineers, SDEs, and development managers on system design, incremental delivery, and operational excellence.
This role invents and delivers for internal customers and is inherently cross-functional and requires the ability to think big and collaborate with others as you work closely with teams across engineering, operations, finance, and security. We are looking for a critical thinker who thrives on solving challenges in partnership with teams across Amazon.
Key job responsibilities
You make high-judgment decisions at speed - seeking the right inputs without waiting for perfect information
You dig into hard, ambiguous problems and don't flinch at complex distributed systems
You lead through your people, not over them - challenging teams to find the answer while knowing exactly when to step in with structure and urgency
You expect effort, reward results, and hold yourself to the same bar
You follow the data, think strategically about where the world is going, and still dive deep to stay close to tactical execution
You have a healthy intolerance for the status quo - you'd rather redesign a system than patch around its limitations
You juggle competing priorities without dropping quality in a fast-moving environment
You build trust quickly with senior stakeholders and partner teams who depend on your services
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
- 10+ years of engineering experience
- 5+ years of engineering team management experience
- 10+ years of planning, designing, developing and delivering consumer software experience
- Experience partnering with product or program management teams
- Experience managing multiple concurrent programs, projects and development teams in an Agile environment
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience partnering with product and program management teams
- Experience designing and developing large scale, high-traffic applications
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, CA, San Diego - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually
USA, VA, Herndon - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 220,100.00 - 297,700.00 USD annually
