Software Development Engineer II, Efficiency & Performance, Alloy, Region Flex Efficiency

About the role

Amazon runs one of the world's most complex eCommerce platforms, where operational efficiency directly drives profitability and customer satisfaction. Efficiency is core to Amazon's DNA, reflected in the Leadership Principle of Frugality and the Flywheel strategy that lowers cost structures to fuel growth. With the cost of operating Amazon's global infrastructure measured in billions of dollars, achieving true economies of scale rather than allowing scale to increase costs is essential to our success.

The Alloy team serves as Amazon's central efficiency organization, leading company-wide cost optimization through intelligent and automated use of AWS resources. Our work spans thousands of internal services, enabling large-scale efficiency improvements with minimal engineering effort from partner teams.

We drive optimization across multiple layers of Amazon's stack, focusing on GPU efficiency infrastructure for AI/ML workloads through centralized scheduling, software performance profiling, and end-to-end storage optimizations through data lifecycle management. These cross-cutting initiatives transform isolated team optimizations into scalable, safe, and reusable systems that continuously improve efficiency across Amazon.

As a Software Development Engineer in Alloy, you will collaborate with service and infrastructure teams across Amazon to identify and eliminate performance bottlenecks in large-scale distributed systems. You will design and build mechanisms to measure, analyze, and automate performance improvements, using data to set and drive company-wide efficiency goals.

You will work closely with Principal and Distinguished Engineers, gaining exposure to Amazon's most advanced systems while developing deep technical expertise and leadership skills.

Your work will directly influence how Amazon's software and services operate at scale, delivering measurable cost savings in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each year and advancing Amazon's commitment to operational excellence and sustainability.

In this role, you will

• Solve performance and efficiency problems that manifest at scale.
• Design metrics and measure performance and cost efficiency of services in Amazon's ecosystem.
• Collaborate with service teams to identify inefficiencies, and design and implement solutions.
• Design and develop highly available components and profiling tools.

Key job responsibilities

• Design and implement software solutions across the full development lifecycle-from product definition and scoping through coding, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance-ensuring high-quality, maintainable, and well-documented code.
• Collaborate with customers, stakeholders, and cross-functional peers to understand business and customer needs, translating requirements into scalable system designs that account for performance, security, and extensibility tradeoffs.
• Identify and resolve operational issues at their root cause, driving improvements to team operations and reducing support costs through proactive problem-solving and process enhancements.
• Evaluate and integrate generative AI tools where appropriate to augment productivity and quality, applying responsible practices to refine outputs and accelerate development workflows.
• Mentor and coach fellow engineers through code reviews and knowledge sharing, actively training new team members on system architecture, construction, and operational best practices.

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
• 1+ years of software development engineer or related occupational experience
• 1+ years of designing and developing large-scale, multi-tiered, multi-threaded, embedded or distributed software applications, tools, systems, and services using: C#, C++, Java, or Perl experience
• 1+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience
• 1+ years of programming using a modern programming language such as Java, C++, or C#, including object-oriented design experience
• Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field

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
• Knowledge of system performance, memory management, and parallel computing principles

Additional information

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If the country/region you're applying in isn't listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

Pay and benefits

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.

USA, CA, Sunnyvale - 165,200.00 - 223,600.00 USD annually