Full Job Description
Sr. Design Technologist, AWS Search, Security, Observability, Governance
Most design teams hand off static mockups and hope engineering builds them faithfully. Our team runs a design intelligence flywheel - Delight Lab, where we prototype and test new patterns in real code; DesignBrain, knowledge-backed design agents that learn from what we test and hold our evolving library of evidence-cited design guidelines; and the front-end experience layer that turns all of it into production-quality interfaces. We're looking for a Senior Design Technologist to live at the center of that loop.
This is a role for someone who thinks in both design and code and refuses to treat them as separate disciplines. You'll build high-fidelity, interactive prototypes that behave like the real thing - not clickable facades - so we can put genuine experiences in front of customers and learn fast. You'll help extend DesignBrain so that what we learn in Delight Lab becomes reusable intelligence rather than tribal knowledge. And you'll raise the quality of our front-end craft, building the components, patterns, and tooling that let designers and engineers move at the same speed without losing fidelity between intent and implementation.
You should be as comfortable in a design critique as in a pull request. You'll turn ambiguous design ambition into working systems, make our prototypes indistinguishable from product, and help our team prove that design is a competitive weapon - by shipping the evidence.
Key job responsibilities
1. Build high-fidelity, interactive prototypes in real code - experiences that behave like the product, not clickable facades - so the team can put genuine interactions in front of customers and learn fast in Delight Lab.
2. Partner with designers to turn ambiguous design ambition into working systems, closing the gap between design intent and front-end implementation so nothing is lost in handoff.
3. Extend DesignBrain so that what the team proves in Delight Lab becomes reusable, evidence-cited intelligence - codified patterns and components rather than tribal knowledge.
4. Raise the quality and velocity of the front-end experience layer: build the components, design-system primitives, and tooling that let designers and engineers move at the same speed without sacrificing fidelity.
5. Prototype net-new interaction patterns for agentic and AI-native surfaces, where the established pattern language doesn't yet exist and has to be invented and tested.
6. Collaborate daily with design, product, and engineering - translating between disciplines and making technical feasibility a first-class input to design decisions, early rather than late.
7. Instrument prototypes so the team learns from real usage, and feed those findings back into the flywheel.
8. Raise the bar for engineering craft across the team through code review, reusable patterns, and mentorship.
A day in the life
Your morning might start in a design critique, where a teammate's concept sparks a "let me just build that" - and by midday you have a working prototype in real code that answers a question no static mockup could. In the afternoon you pair with a designer to pressure-test an interaction, then commit the pattern into DesignBrain so the whole team inherits it. Later you're deep in the front-end layer, refactoring a component so it's production-quality and reusable, not a one-off. Across the week you move between zoomed-out questions (what should an agentic security surface even feel like?) and zoomed-in craft (is this transition, this default, this micro-interaction right?). You're trusted to decide what's worth building to learn versus building to ship - and you're surrounded by designers and engineers who treat prototyping as thinking, not decoration.
About the team
We're the design team behind AWS SSOG experiences, and we run a design intelligence flywheel: Delight Lab (where we prototype and test in real code), DesignBrain (a knowledge-backed design agent that learns from what we test and holds our evolving library of evidence-cited guidelines), and the front-end experience layer that turns it all into production-quality product. We treat design as a competitive weapon, not a line item - and we prove it by shipping the evidence, not just the mockups. We're a senior, tight-knit group that gives our people genuine ownership, invests in craft and tooling, and cares about raising each other's work. For a technologist who refuses to choose between design and code, there's no better place to do the work.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- 6+ years of front-end technologist, engineer, or UX prototyper experience
- Have coding samples in front end programming languages
- Have an available online portfolio
- Experience developing visually polished, engaging, and highly fluid UX prototypes
- Experience collaborating with UX, Product, and technical partners
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Knowledge of databases and AWS database services: ElasticSearch, Redshift, DynamoDB
- Experience with machine learning (ML) tools and methods
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, Santa Clara - 177,300.00 - 239,900.00 USD annually
USA, NY, New York - 169,600.00 - 229,500.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 154,200.00 - 208,600.00 USD annually