Software Development Engineer, Security Software Development Operations (SSDO) at Amazon
Seattle, WA
$143,700–$194,400from the description
Jul 17, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A software engineering role on a small internal security team that builds automation platforms, AI-powered tooling, and compliance monitoring systems protecting Amazon's global infrastructure. Day-to-day work involves designing and owning features end-to-end — including RAG-based AI architectures and clean room implementations — reviewing code, mentoring junior engineers, and translating security requirements into scalable systems. Suits engineers with a background in system design who are comfortable working across cloud security and AI/ML domains.
Mid level · 3+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
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 1,500 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 440–2,200
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
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 (6)
The title 'Software Development Engineer II' maps to a Mid-level band (SDE II is Amazon's standard second-level IC title), even though the role's scope — mentoring junior engineers, reviewing senior engineers' code, engaging Director-level stakeholders, and driving architectural decisions — leans toward Senior. The requirements themselves gate only on 3+ years of professional software development and 2+ years of design/architecture experience, which is solidly Mid; seniority is set to Mid accordingly.
The degree requirement is a hard gate: 'Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field' appears in the Basic Qualifications section. Because no equivalent-experience substitution is offered, the degree requirement is set to Bachelors.
Most concrete technologies (RAG, AWS Control Tower, AI/ML, DevSecOps) appear only in the role narrative and 'day in the life' sections, not in the Basic or Preferred Qualifications blocks, so they are marked preferred. The Basic Qualifications name no specific technologies beyond general software development and design/architecture experience.
The Preferred Qualifications section adds only a general SDLC experience requirement (3+ years) with no named technologies, so no additional preferred skills were extracted from it.
The role sits at the intersection of security engineering and software development; 15-1212 (Information Security Analysts) is noted as a runner-up given the security automation and cloud security focus, but the primary day-to-day work is clearly building software platforms.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): software development, system design.
Read the full posting
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