Software Dev Engineer II, Programming Foundations at Amazon
Arlington, VA
$143,700–$194,400from the description
Jul 13, 2026
Arlington, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A software engineering role focused on the internal developer tooling that underpins software development across Amazon. Day-to-day work involves maintaining and improving build tools, compilers, package managers, and third-party software repository mirrors, as well as the programming language libraries relied upon by services company-wide. The role suits engineers with a background in foundational or broadly distributed software systems who want internal, platform-level impact rather than customer-facing product work.
Mid level · 3+ years · Seattle, WA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 3 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 12,400 people in the Seattle, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 9,300–16,100
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
What the occupation pays Median $170,959 (middle half $135,720–$216,519). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The posting lists three work locations (Boston MA, Arlington VA, Seattle WA) all at the same salary band ($143,700–$194,400/year); Seattle is used as the primary CBSA since it is Amazon's headquarters city and listed last, but the role may be filled at any of the three sites.
The title is a plain 'Software Development Engineer' with no level modifier (no 'Senior', 'II', etc.), so advertised seniority is Unspecified. The hard requirements gate on only 3 years of overall experience and 1-year minimums on specific skills, which aligns with a Mid-level band despite the 'deeply technical leader' framing in the narrative.
The degree requirement ('Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field') is listed as a Basic Qualification with no 'or equivalent experience' escape clause, so it is treated as a hard requirement.
The language requirement names C#, C++, Java, or Perl as interchangeable options for the 1-year gate; C# is used as the primary name with the others in alternatives.
The preferred qualifications section adds SDLC/code-review experience and a CS degree — neither introduces a new named technology, so no additional preferred skills are emitted.
Compensation figures are quoted per-location but are identical across all three sites; the range reported reflects that shared band.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): object-oriented design.
Read the full posting
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