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Principal Engineer | Multiple Locations, USA, Global Specialty Recruiting Team
Job Location:
Job Location:
Seattle, WA - USA
Yearly Salary:
USD 200100 - 270600
Yearly Salary:
Posted:
18 October 2026 (2 days ago)
Posted:
Application Deadline:
15 January 2027
Application Deadline:
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Vacancies:
Department:
Job Summary
At Amazon Principal Engineers are both organizational leaders and hands-on builders. As Amazons most senior individual contributors Principal Engineers work on our hardest problems help establish technical standards and drive the overall technical architecture engineering practices and engineering methodologies for products that delight our customers. While many companies this size take their foot-off the gas pedal at Amazon its still Day 1. This startup mentality does not admit the luxury of a conservative approach.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is one of the foundational services of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a cornerstone of modern cloud computing. Since launching in 2006 EC2 has provided secure resizable compute capacity in the cloud giving customers virtual servers (instances) with complete control over their computing resources and the broadest choice of processor storage networking and operating system configurations.
Today EC2 operates at extraordinary scale serving millions of customers worldwide from individual developers to the largest enterprises and public-sector organizations. It offers thousands of instance types optimized for virtually every workload spanning general-purpose compute- memory- storage- and accelerator-optimized use cases across multiple CPU architectures (including AWSs own Graviton processors) and GPU-powered instances for large-scale AI and machine learning.
What the EC2 Organization Builds
Engineers in the EC2 organization work on some of the most technically challenging and high-impact systems in the industry including:
Compute & virtualization the virtual server platform that powers a vast portion of the internet including the AWS Nitro System AWSs custom hardware and lightweight hypervisor technology that delivers performance security and isolation at hyperscale.
Networking high-performance networking infrastructure and services that move enormous volumes of traffic securely reliably and efficiently across the AWS cloud.
Custom silicon & hardware purpose-built chips and hardware (such as Graviton and Nitro cards) that advance performance efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
AI & accelerated computing next-generation instances engineered for training and serving large-scale AI models with cutting-edge networking and GPU/accelerator capabilities.
Scalability availability & operational excellence the systems and tooling that keep these services fault-tolerant highly available and continuously improving at global scale.
If you have a background in developing large-scale distributed systems or are a specialist in any of the following areas we would love to review your application: compute virtualization server provisioning and fleet management high-performance data plane engineering control plane and orchestration systems networking and cloud infrastructure at scale.
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 leader builder and an operator.
Balance technical leadership and savvy with strong business judgment to make the right decisions about technology choices.
About the team
EC2 is foundational infrastructure that a significant share of the digital world depends on. The organization combines the pace and ownership of a startup with the scale and reach of AWS giving engineers the rare opportunity to make decisions that impact customers globally. Its an environment built for people who want to solve hard ambiguous problems in distributed systems virtualization networking security performance and AI infrastructure and to see their work operate at a scale few other places can offer.
12 years of hands-on professional engineering development experience
Technical leadership and mentorship experience of engineering teams
Deep hands-on technical expertise in at least one major technical area: large scale full stack development building distributed systems designing massive global networks embedded systems or complex hardware
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status disability or other legally protected status.
Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees supervisors and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees supervisors and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal state and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct adverse and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies exercise sound judgment effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism and safeguard business operations and the Companys reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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 for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt listed please contact your Recruiting Partner.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is one of the foundational services of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a cornerstone of modern cloud computing. Since launching in 2006 EC2 has provided secure resizable compute capacity in the cloud giving customers virtual servers (instances) with complete control over their computing resources and the broadest choice of processor storage networking and operating system configurations.
Today EC2 operates at extraordinary scale serving millions of customers worldwide from individual developers to the largest enterprises and public-sector organizations. It offers thousands of instance types optimized for virtually every workload spanning general-purpose compute- memory- storage- and accelerator-optimized use cases across multiple CPU architectures (including AWSs own Graviton processors) and GPU-powered instances for large-scale AI and machine learning.
What the EC2 Organization Builds
Engineers in the EC2 organization work on some of the most technically challenging and high-impact systems in the industry including:
Compute & virtualization the virtual server platform that powers a vast portion of the internet including the AWS Nitro System AWSs custom hardware and lightweight hypervisor technology that delivers performance security and isolation at hyperscale.
Networking high-performance networking infrastructure and services that move enormous volumes of traffic securely reliably and efficiently across the AWS cloud.
Custom silicon & hardware purpose-built chips and hardware (such as Graviton and Nitro cards) that advance performance efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
AI & accelerated computing next-generation instances engineered for training and serving large-scale AI models with cutting-edge networking and GPU/accelerator capabilities.
Scalability availability & operational excellence the systems and tooling that keep these services fault-tolerant highly available and continuously improving at global scale.
If you have a background in developing large-scale distributed systems or are a specialist in any of the following areas we would love to review your application: compute virtualization server provisioning and fleet management high-performance data plane engineering control plane and orchestration systems networking and cloud infrastructure at scale.
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 leader builder and an operator.
Balance technical leadership and savvy with strong business judgment to make the right decisions about technology choices.
About the team
EC2 is foundational infrastructure that a significant share of the digital world depends on. The organization combines the pace and ownership of a startup with the scale and reach of AWS giving engineers the rare opportunity to make decisions that impact customers globally. Its an environment built for people who want to solve hard ambiguous problems in distributed systems virtualization networking security performance and AI infrastructure and to see their work operate at a scale few other places can offer.
12 years of hands-on professional engineering development experience
Technical leadership and mentorship experience of engineering teams
Deep hands-on technical expertise in at least one major technical area: large scale full stack development building distributed systems designing massive global networks embedded systems or complex hardware
Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status disability or other legally protected status.
Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees supervisors and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees supervisors and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal state and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct adverse and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies exercise sound judgment effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism and safeguard business operations and the Companys reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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 for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt 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 CA San Diego - 200100.00 - 270600.00 USD annually
USA CA Sunnyvale - 230100.00 - 311200.00 USD annually
USA NY New York - 220100.00 - 297700.00 USD annually
USA VA Herndon - 200100.00 - 270600.00 USD annually
USA WA Seattle - 200100.00 - 270600.00 USD annually
Required Experience:
Staff IC
About Company
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