Software Development Engineer (L5), Perimeter Protection (Anti-DDoS), NFW
Amazon · Seattle, WA
$143,700–$194,400from the description
Jul 3, 2026
Seattle, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A software engineering role focused on building and maintaining AWS Network Firewall, a globally distributed network security service. Day-to-day work spans designing distributed systems, implementing deep packet inspection and traffic analysis features, owning the full development lifecycle including on-call support, and collaborating with security researchers and product teams. Suits engineers with a background in distributed systems who have an interest in network security.
Mid level · 3+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · 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 9,000 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 3,800–13,500
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.
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 Basic Qualifications are unusually thin: the only hard gates are 3+ years of professional software development experience, 2+ years of design/architecture experience, and experience with at least one programming language — no specific language, framework, or platform is named as required. No concrete named technology appears in the required section, so no named tool can be marked as a hard gate.
Distributed systems, deep packet inspection, AWS, and CI/CD appear only in the role narrative and responsibilities prose, not in any requirements section — they are contextual stack signals rather than stated gates.
The Preferred Qualifications list 3+ years of full SDLC experience and a Bachelor's degree in computer science 'or equivalent' — the degree is preferred only and the equivalent-experience clause means it does not meet the hard-require threshold.
The title 'Software Development Engineer' (SDE) carries no explicit level modifier; advertised seniority is Unspecified. The 3-year minimum and relatively light requirements support a Mid-level classification despite the senior-sounding responsibilities described in the narrative.
Compensation is quoted as a base salary range of $143,700–$194,400 annually for Seattle, WA, plus sign-on and RSUs per the posting.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): software development, system design.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.